Thanksgiving menu: an exercise in fancypantsery

As promised, I am going to post my Thanksgiving menu here tonight. I'm sorry that I didn't have a chance to blog about it any earlier, but Daiku and I are both procrastinators when it comes to menu planning, and we didn't want to make any final decisions until we saw what looked good at the market today, so this is the best I could do.

I have to admit, before I go any further, that much of this menu is a shameless rip-off an homage to Millenium restaurant. Daiku and I have always wanted to eat there, we've even walked right by, but we've never actually done it. However, when I saw their Thanksgiving menu for this year, I was inspired by it, and I'm sure you'll see the echoes between the two.

Another thing about this menu is that Daiku and I had a great deal of fun "fancypantsing" the menu. Fancypants is a game we play, where we mockingly try and see who can come up with the best "gourmet" version of a regular dish's name. We started playing this many years ago, when we noticed that things like "balsamic reduction" and "molten lava cake" suddenly started showing up everywhere. In this game, simple breakfast oatmeal can become multi-grain porridge with seasonal dried fruit and maple-date glaze. This is our reaction to snooty and played-out food descriptions, but it's also a really fun way to organize a menu- how fancypants can you make your humble food sound? So here, I've given you our Thanksgiving menu, both the normal and fancypants versions. See which ones you like better!

Vegan Thanksgiving Menu 2007

With help from:

Millenium Restaurant
Veganomicon
Silk-Road Cooking: A Vegetarian Journey
Papa Tofu 'zine
And countless blogs and websites, especially B36 Kitchen, because Jenna convinced me to finally try Jerusalem Artichokes, already!

Starter:

Sunchoke soup / Jerusalem Artichoke and Roasted Garlic Bisque with caramelized shallots, heavy cream, and an Amontillado Sherry reduction

Salad:

Veganomicon Caesar Salad, with a few substitutions, since there was no good romaine lettuce in the market today / Medley of Organic Baby Greens with an Almond-Caesar dressing

Entrée:

baked acorn squash stuffed with rice (from the Silk-Road Cooking book) / Roasted Golden Acorn Squash filled with a Middle-Eastern fruited wild rice pilaf

ETA 11/23: I can't believe I totally forgot to include one of my favorite parts of the menu- a Sicilian-style lima bean-dill crostata from the "Silk Road Cooking" book!

Sides:

cranberry sauce / spiced cranberry quince compote

Ethiopian Collard Greens, from Papa Tofu / Gomen with Nitter Kibbeh

Smashed potatoes, parsnips, and sweet potatoes / Seasonal root vegetable mash with black truffle oil

Sourdough bread / Artisanal Sourdough Batard

Dessert:

Pecan Pie / Toasted Pecan Caramel Tart with a whole wheat-oatmeal crust

Some fruit that we don't usually treat ourselves to, like pomegranates and persimmons, with Soyatoo / Assorted Seasonal Fruits with a light soy whipped cream

Drinks:

Water / still and sparking mineral waters
Vegan Red Wine / Organic Sulfite-free Red Wine
Wild Turkey / Oak Barrel Aged Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey (more for sprinkling on some of the food we'll be making than drinking!)

puttin' the Turkey back into Thanksgiving!
(image thanks to http://www.wildturkeybourbon.com/)

So that's what we hope to eat tomorrow. It seems like quite a bit of food for two people, but both Daiku and I will make sure that none of it goes to waste- we love leftovers! We don't feast like this very often, but that's the fun of the holiday, right? I hope you got a giggle or two out of the fancypants names for these dishes- I know we did!

Thanksgiving menu: an exercise in fancypantsery