There are plenty of good things to be thankful for this time of year- an awesome husband, good fur kids (even if we do mostly refer to them as “the jerks), a great new job, my health- but what I truly appreciate and am humbled by my husband’s family.
I know that the holidays can bring out the worst in families when it comes to being veg. Jokes about turkey and ham, constant harassment about what you eat, what you don’t eat and open judgment are things that many people have to contend with on top of whatever other family baggage you may carry around. Oy.
I am thankful that my husband’s family was happy to eat a vegan Thanksgiving dinner and was fine letting me take charge and cook a large majority of it- as I was happy doing so and hauling it the 3 hours north to Seattle.
Our centerpiece this year was a chickpea/white wine/ herb/ caramelized onion tart.
Jim gets mad at me because I have this bad tendency of making things up as I go along, which was the case with this. I had an idea of what I wanted, but no recipe, and just kind of threw it all together and hoped for the best. I know it will catch up with me some day, but for now as long as the outcome is tasty, I will dismiss the potential fears and keep playing.
My sister-in-law’s awesome cranberries. If you think “Meh, a cranberry is a cranberry” you haven’t had these babies.
Cremini mushroom gravy.
Roasted yam/onion/bell pepper dish courtesy of my S-i-L. Nom.
Stuffing. Made from a mix because I’m lazy like that and honestly like it better that way. Jazzed up with onions and celery. Can’t remember what brand… one of the organic ones.
Browned “butter”, sage and butternut squash quinoa.
“Better-than Breadsticks” from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes.
Mashed ‘taters.
Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheezecake. My ganache cracked, which made me sad, but it was really good.
“Cinn-ful Apple Cake” from The 100 Best Vegan Baking Recipes, served with leftover cranberries for OMG goodness.
“No pumpkin pie?” you ask? Hey, don’t be such a skeptic! For as much as I love every other incarnation of pumpkin, we’re not big pumpkin pie people in our family, so I decided to forgo it for other yummy delights. I assure you, despite this suspect expression, there were no complaints.
14 Responses to thanksgiving wrap-up
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It’s here!
Wow- did not miss the pumpkin pie!
Your chickpea tart sounds absolutely delicious! When an idea is that good, how could the outcome not be tasty?
Any chances of you sharing some of the details about it? (general guidelines would be totally fine)
Everything else looks yummy – you had quite the feast!
If that doesn’t give people a good impression of veganism, I don’t know what would!
Oh, wow! I would love the recipe for that browned “butter squash quinoa dish! And I’m so jealous you had a PB pie for thanksgiving!
That looks great! And it’s great that your in-laws didn’t mind you bringing the vegan food. That would make me feel so much more at ease!
That all looks delicious!
That cheesecake looks AMAZING! Your whole meal sounds delicious, I am sure no one in your husband’s family missed the meat.
OMG…that gravy looks AH-mazing! YUM!
Heck–I say your winging it non-recipe recipes look and probably taste fantastic, so you might as well go with it! It is even better when you share your results
Happy Thanksgiving!
Courtney
How awesome! My family makes all the sides vegan, and I bake a Field Roast … but they certainly wouldn’t forgo a turkey for me! You’re super-lucky!
And the onion tart looks amazing, especially for something created on the fly.
Wow! That is one awesome Thanksgiving feast! That chickpea tart looks amazing (and so does that chocolate peanut butter cheezecake but I suspect that went without saying).
I’m glad we aren’t the only fur parents who call our cats jerks. Actually, only Miles gets called “jerk”. Moe gets called “the best cat in the world”. Good thing they don’t speak english.
We always joke about how much money we’d need to spend on therapy for our cats if they could understand what we say sometimes. But our latest kitty has made it very apparent that two of our “original” cats are serious assholes. So they hear about it, when deserving. 😛
I must thank you profusely for your Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Cheesecake recipe. At Thanksgiving I was a lone vegan amidst a sea of friends and family who aren’t. I got some crazy eyebrow lifts from my toting along a Tofurky but come dessert time, I had my secret weapon: Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl Cheesecake. I was no longer the weird Tofurky girl. No, I was transformed into genius girl with the cool and delicious dessert. Despite the presence of a “real” pumpkin cheesecake, your recipe seemed to lure the most accolades. It was delicious, seriously. I have and will continue to incur a wrath of Tofurky jokes, but am thankful that I have Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl as a retort.
A Hanukkah party is around the corner. I’m hauling the Pumpkin Cinnamon Swirl there and look forward to eating it again. Yum!
Would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE a rough sketch of the tart. Looks yummy.
Thanks for your wonderful recipes!
Yayyayayay! I’m so glad you liked it and that you were able to wow those omni’s and make them eat their words!