American Thanksgiving 2012

Last week, we had our third annual American Thanksgiving Dinner with our friend, Gwen. John helped me reign in my excitement and only plan a very large meal, instead of a crazy big one. Like previous years, we made a Thanksgiving dinner without meat, but in this case, a large amount of dairy, and somehow, no soy products.

We set the table for four, and unfortunately one of our guests got the stomach flu the day before. He kindly stayed home, instead of spreading his virus to us. 

Yes, I was that person who made the little pears with name tags on them, an idea I saw all over the internet this year. It was actually really easy and kinda fun, even though I felt silly making fake little name tags and tying them on to pears. 

Here are some links to the recipes we enjoyed. 

Basic Cranberry Sauce from MarthaStewart.com (the sauce in this photo is in progress, of course). John said he didn't like cranberry sauce, but that this recipe converted him. I had no idea it was so easy to make! Berries + sugar + lemon zest + water + heat. Done. 

Our sick friend was supposed to bring pie, so at the last minute, John and I decided to make a pumpkin pie from scratch (who are we?!). Actually, we practice "cutting in" all the time when we make biscuits, so John handled the crust recipe like a pro. 

Here's the pie before it baked: voluptuous vegan pumpkin pie, from Vegan Pie in the Sky, from the geniuses at the PPK.  

This pie turned out 50% awesome, 50% not quite right. First, I subbed tapioca flour for agar powder, which was probably an error. The consistency wasn't quite right for pumpkin pie. Also, we under baked it, so the crust on the bottom was a little chewy. Still, the spice balance in this is great, and it's not very sweet. To make the filling, you just combine all the ingredients and dump them in the pie shell, much easier than cooking them on the stove first. Making the crust was somewhat an epiphany for John, since he didn't realize it was so simple. I think this pie has him pretty excited, and that this will be the Christmas of Pies. 

We also made this Pear and Pecan Cornbread Stuffing, also from the PPK. 

This stuffing is delicious. It dries out easily, so be generous with the stock, especially when you reheat it. I think it needs about 2 cups of stock from the start, and we've added more with the leftovers. It's so flavorful and good, I can't wait to make it again at Christmas.

This picture of John maniacally stirring is the only one I got of the mashed potatoes. We didn't follow a real recipe here, just cubed and boiled potatoes, mashed them with chopped rosemary and a bunch of butter and cream. It's basically potatoes+fat. We use red potatoes and leave the skin on for a little color. 

I made brie en croute with the cranberry sauce pictured above. I loosely followed a similar recipe using apple compote from Annie's Eats, just to get the general idea of how to wrap it and how long to bake it.   This brie turned out beautifully, because, how could it not? Brie oozing out of puff pastry? If you don't like that, then I can't help you. Once it came out of the oven, we started eating it so fast that I didn't snap a picture, but take my word for it that the finished product was really pretty and presented well. We ate it with some cranberry-pumpkin seed pita chips from Costco, which I would highly recommend. You need a firm cracker to stand up to all that brie. We meant to also use green apple slices, but it completely slipped my mind when the time came.

You'll notice from the picture that I didn't really wrap it in any kind of systematic way. I just gathered the pastry up around the brie a bit at a time and kind of knotted it at the top. John and Gwen literally exclaimed "Oooh! Ahhh!" when I took it out of the oven. Can't wait for Christmas when I can make this again. 

Here is my plate. Clockwise, from 1 o'clock, you have the cornbread stuffing, then mashed potatoes, blanched green beans (just so we could say we had a veggie, and for something green on the plate), then the actual "main" course: Apple Walnut Lentil Loaf, from Oh She Glows. As predicted, the loaf was a big hit and we gave some to Gwen to take home. It would definitely please any vegetarians, vegans, or omnivores you serve over the holidays. Just make a little extra glaze for dipping.

No post-bake photos of the pie, since we covered it in whipped cream and stuffed it in our faces. I hope you had a Happy American Thanksgiving, or a regular Thursday, depending on where you are. Here's to a delicious holiday season!

Smells like Fall at our House

The squirrels are still enjoying the acorn buffet in our front yard. 

Besides squirrel watching, John and I have been up to a few other things around London.

We went to our first London Knights hockey game, and we sat  almost high enough to see the Northern Lights (j/k, it just felt scary while we were climbing to our seats). Before the elementary school kids sang the national anthem, they announced that Wayne Gretzky's dad, "THE FATHER OF THE GREAT ONE!" was in attendance. John and I watched the Knights beat the crap out of the Plymouth Whalers while we ate too much pop corn and cherry slushees. 

Our friend's daughter turned two, and we all celebrated with a potluck. John and I brought chocolate zucchini muffins (more on those in a minute), and a small collection of children's books we bought at Goodwill. The birthday girl is really into books - when they come over to our house, she always shows me her new books, and she looks at the two we happen to have (in French and German - we are nerds). 

The chocolate zucchini muffins are oil free, from Oh She Glows.

They are unbelievably moist and taste more like cupcakes than muffins. You can't even find a strand of zucchini in them! I love these muffins. They are a dream come true. Several people asked me for the recipe. 

All the leaves have peaked, I think. John and I stared at them from our bedroom window, since we both spent almost all of last week sick in bed. We watched about 6 seasons of the Office, and John watched Lawrence of Arabia on his own, while I graded assignments and midterms. 

Before we got sick, we had some squash! 

No recipe here, just roasted halves of acorn squash, filled with caramelized onions, lentils, and thyme with a little olive oil. I think adding goat cheese and/or mushrooms would crank these up a notch.

We also made this loaf, which may be the main dish at our American Thanksgiving dinner this year:

Glazed Lentil Walnut Apple Loaf, also from Oh She Glows. We made a loaf once before, but this one was hands down better. It held together so well that we could take it out of the pan and slice it for left overs. Even better, the glaze is amazing. We made a second batch of it to add to the left over pieces and I wanted to lick the leftover spots off my plate. It would be a great vegan entree for any holiday meal (or any other fall dinner).

These are the final harvest from my tomato plant:

It produced about 1 tomato per month for June and July, and then it went crazy near the end of August. Unfortunately (for the plant), we've had a very wet and cold September and October, so these toms didn't get enough sunlight and warmth to ripen on the vine. When I told my mom, she offered two suggestions: 

1) Cellar them in newspaper and they will very slowly ripen. Apparently my Grandma Madge does this. My priest seconded this recommendation and said she does the same thing with a paper bag for her tomatoes. I feel like my mom is full of random gardening advice that I didn't know she had. I need to get some more advice from her next year, as I plan to expand the tomato plant to 2-3 tomato plants, including one cherry or grape tomato plant. 

2) She also told me to just slice the green ones and fry them, and have fried green tomatoes. I'm not from a big city, and I often feel like a country mouse compared to my friends and relatives in places like Chicago and Toronto, but seriously - I did not know that unripe tomatoes and "green" tomatoes were the same thing. I thought it was some special variety of tomato that never got red! Color me ignorant. 

So we've fried a few and cellared the rest.

These were part of a recreation of the Amazing BLT from the FARM cookbook we made earlier in the summer. We used almost all the same ingredients, except the basil, and made BLTs with these fried dudes and some fake bacon (fakon). Their batter is simple - flour, egg, cornmeal with seasonings. They're best with some chicken seasoning. and a pretty fun fried appetizer all on their own. 

Other upcoming highlights this fall: the Halloween Haunting 10k/5k, then we're off to NOLA for the AMS/SEM/SMT Triumvirate.  It's hard to believe we're already at the end of October!

Transition Foods

This week, John and I had some meals that I think qualify as transition foods - bridging the gap between summer and fall. For some reason, I took very up-close shots of all of them.

The Eggplant and Mozzerella Orzo Bake from Smitten Kitchen probably does the best job.

It was pretty easy to put together, and extremely flavorful. I would definitely make this again soon. This is the first time John and I have ever made something with orzo in it - what took us so long? It seems like it works especially well in a baked dish like this one. I think I would add mushrooms to this next time around.



Then we made the Lentil Pitas from Kira's blog, Cook Pray Love.

The original recipe calls for you to shape the lentils into balls and fry them, not unlike a falafel. But we kind of ran out of patience and decided to just eat it like a Greek-flavored taco. John also upped the cumin and black pepper, since I think we ended up with a little more than the lentils it calls for. The second night, we cut the pita into strips and baked it, then brushed it with oil, and ate the whole thing more like nachos. Just like the recipe for ancho lentil tacos, this lentil preparation is a tasty way to fill a pita, and super easy. It'd be a great weeknight meal. 


Last and most summery, I made a caprese salad for myself one night when John wasn't home for dinner. I sliced up about four heirloom tomatoes (fairly small ones), along with half a ball of mozzerella, and a bunch of lemon basil and thyme from our plants. I also drizzled it with a little olive oil and balsamic. It was pretty flavorful! And a good way to say good bye to caprese for the summer.

 

Though our tomato plant still has about 7 tomatoes on it that are not quite ready to eat. I hope they ripen up before we get a real frost, since the nights have started to get pretty chilly. I think they may actually become ripe at the same time, in which case, I think a good tomato sauce is what's going to happen. 

And that's all the exciting news from our house this week! Next weekend, our dear friend Jess is getting married, so we're headed to Toronto to celebrate with her. Our second Canadian wedding! Can't wait! 

Curried Lentils with Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Remember, you know, one post ago when I showed you a soup with lentils and sweet potatoes?




















I present to you: the same ingredients, but separately, and with different spices. The soup has cumin it it. The lentils on their own are curry-style.




















I would describe this recipe, along with the Indian-style cabbage, chana masala, and curried quinoa salad, as your basic Indian food. Only a couple of spices, not too many ingredients, and it's an easy meal to put together on any given week night.

John had to bat my hand away a few times from just eating the sweet potatoes off of the baking sheet, then off of the serving plate, then out of the tupperware. I love them! And it's this time of year that I always remember. When we were planning this meal I said to John, "You know what sounds good with that lentil recipe? Sweet potatoes!" And he said, "Didn't we just eat that same exact thing?"
Well we did. And it turns out, these are two foods that bear repeating...together.


Curried Lentils with Roasted Sweet Potatoes
Adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen.

2 big sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped to your liking, as uniform as possible.

2 tbs olive oil
1 large onion, diced in 1/4 inch pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp curry powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup dried brown lentils, rinsed (we used red, which may have affected the cooking time)
2 cups homemade chicken or vegetable stock (or 1 can chicken broth and 1/4 cup water)
3/4 cup chopped cilantro (or more)
salt/pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread chopped potatoes on a foil-lined baking sheet. Toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper (or brown sugar, if you'd like them to be more like dessert). When the oven is hot, add the potatoes and bake for 40 minutes, turning once.

While potatoes are roasting, heat oil in medium sized heavy pan, add onions, and saute 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute 1-2 minutes. Add curry powder to onion-garlic mixture and sautee about 2 minutes more.

Add lentils and stock, bring to a low simmer, then cover pan and cook until lentils are tender and liquid is absorbed. Cooking time will depend on how old the lentils are, ours probably took 10-15 minutes max. You may need to add a little water towards the end if your stove doesn't keep the simmer low enough.

When lentils are done (soft but still slightly chewy), remove from heat, and let sit covered for 5 minutes while you chop the parsley. Stir in parsley, season with salt and pepper and serve hot.