Thursday, November 30, 2006

Thanksgiving...one week late

I just realized I better blog about our Thanksgiving before November is up! (Which, on the east coast, is less than 4 hours away). Daiku and I spent a lot of time designing the local menu that we entered into the TreeHugger 100-mile Thanksgiving contest. (You can read more about that here) However, the contest deadline was 2 weeks before Thanksgiving, and by the time the actual day came around, we had either used up the local ingredients we had procured (you can see some in this post) or had grown tired of the recipes that we had already eaten. So our actual Thanksgiving meal turned into a mix of the TreeHugger menu and more traditional fare. Most of our ingredients were still local, though.

But first, here is what Daiku and I are thankful for this year:
  • Whisper the turkey, who arrived just in the nick of time (read about her here)
  • The incredibly warm weather (it was in the 60's in Syracuse today! yesterday, I walked around the neighborhood in a t-shirt)
  • Our wonderful blogging community of friends who teach us so much and inspire us
  • The chance to participate in the TreeHugger contest - and the fact that the menu we designed won!
  • And, just the fact that the two of us were together, able to eat (out of the last 6 Thanksgivings, we have been apart for 3 and one or both of us had been too sick to eat for 2, so it was a treat to be together and feeling well enough to cook and eat!)
I will give you photos without too much description. Everything we ate was homemade except for the pie we had for dessert and the gravy. (There was just a limit to how much we could cook/bake with time, kitchen size, etc.) We deliberately made too much food to have leftovers, which were all happily gobbled up in the next 3-4 days.



Thanksgiving Day breakfast: banana chocolate chimp muffins from the October issue of VegNews magazine (p. 63) so easy, SO good!



Roasted pumpkin seeds with cocoa powder, sugar, Earth Balance margarine, and chilli powder



Homemade rolls, rise 1



Homemade rolls, rise 2



Homemade rolls fresh out of the oven (plain, poppy seed, sesame seed)



Stuffing for the main course: cornbread, Gimme Lean sausage, celery, carrots, onions, pecans, vegetable broth, sage, marjoram, rosemary



Main course: portabella mushroom caps with stuffing, about to go into the oven



Soup: Daiku's take on French onion soup, French leek soup (slow-cooked leeks, vegetable broth, red wine)



Sweet potato casserole, made from Jess's recipe on Let's Get Sconed



Mashed potatoes (organic heirloom corola potatoes, you can see a before picture of them here)



One of our 2 cranberry sauces: cranberries, local apples, chilli, orange juice



salad: the yellow tomatoes you see are survivors from our summer garden!!



Roasted brussels sprouts and leeks



the pie: perhaps those horrible cracks are our punishment for getting a store-bought pie?...



Dinner table (hard apple cider and sparkling water in background)



Dinner plate



One last thing to be thankful for: When we went out to clear our garden from the summer, we found that one of our pepper plants had kept producing, even though our garden had been neglected for over a month and the weather has been cold. You can see those peppers, along with some bell peppers from our container plants in the above picture.

I hope everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving, whether for the time with friends and family, the food, the time off of work or school, or any other reason!


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18 comments:

Unknown said...

I just found your blog and I must say !Wow! I love your Thanksgiving spread. I'm going to have to bookmark this and save it for next year...or even for the December holidays. It all looks fantastic. Thanks for sharing, I'm inspired.

aTxVegn said...

First of all, congratulations again, Bazu!! Outstanding job on the contest meal and on your special meal for two. I'm the only one in my family who likes portabellas, and I would have happily overeaten your caps with stuffing! Must admit the store bought pie looks quite out of place alongside all your homemade goodies...

Candi said...

Oh wow, Bazu! I'd vote for this meal too! Lol! I love how you had extras to have over the next days. Makes it really easy, and it extends the holiday! Lol! I'm happy you were both feeling well AND together. Thanks for sharing your "to be thankful for" list. :)

Your rolls are looking so good! I love the varieties and also the shape of them! :P

I've never made vegan stuffing, but I want yours. I love the mushroom caps with the stuffing!!! You two went wild with the excellent dishes! The cranberry sauce, and even the salad looks great!

I think you're only missing one thing here: a pineapple edamame cake! Lol!!

Glad you had a great Thanksgiving! !

Amey said...

Oh My gosh Bazu!
I'm so glad you posted all these... the rolls! The muffins! the cranberries! The stuffing!!! Oh man oh man! I'm glad that you and Daiku were able to be together and enjoy your wonderful feast, and think of sweet little whisper.
:) Amey

Kuntal Joisher said...

congrats on winning the treehugger contest..!!!! and these are some absolutely incredibly awesome pictures and super delicious food.. I'm running out of words.. I just ate my lunch and I'm hungry again.. hehehe.. yuummmmmm!!! hey hey and a super-welcome to whisper new addition to your family :-)

Susan Voisin said...

These dishes look fabulous! I'm especially craving those rolls right now. Congratulations on your very deserved win!

wheresmymind said...

Beautiful dishes...I might not even miss the turkay ;)

village mama said...

every single dish is beautiful and oh-so nutritious - but I must say, I'm a sucker for your gorgeous yellow tomato salad!

Nikk said...

Could I come to your house next Thanksgiving? I'll make the pie!

:)

Everything looks great, and the fact that you have Woodchuck to go along with it makes it even more wonderful. It's only my favorite cider!

Anonymous said...

Wow! I don't even know where to start. Everything looks so incredible. I'm glad that you and Daiku were able to spend this day together and eat such wonderful food.

Your comment about the store bought pie cracked me up! You know, some store bought pies are pretty darn good and vegan too. Although now with Urban Vegan's apple pie recipe, we should have no excuse. I'm actually going to make her apple pie tonight but I'm not going to make crust. I'm going to make the filling exactly and then make a little cobbler/crumble/crisp for the top.

laura k said...

Congratulations--it's so awesome that you guys won!!!

All your food looks fantastic. The mushroom caps with stuffing would be an excellent main course. Great idea! Those homemade rolls are so cute, too!

And that's so funny that your garden kept producing. What a nice surprise!

JENNA said...

when i was looking at the picture of all the food on the table i though it was weird that your chair looked just like the pumpkin pie. Then i realized it was the pumpkin pie!

JENNA

Kati said...

Wow - I would be thankful for that Thanksgiving Day spread, too! Everything looks incredible - I want to do my Thanksgiving over again so I can make it look more like yours!

Paulie said...

I so wish I had a garden... Everything looks fantastic!

madeinalaska said...

Mega Bravo!!! Can I come next year??

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

Mmmm amazing. Honestly, thanksgiving is best meal of the year, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

I'm sorry I didn't get to vote for you but I just got access to the internet. Your meal looks great. Hope you had a great holiday.

Anonymous said...

Your Thanksgiving meal looked wonderful :)