American Thanksgiving 2014...

The Dinner Table

I hope everyone had a nice American Thanksgiving. Since my husband had to work Thursday, we had our Thanksgiving Dinner Wednesday night. It was peaceful and quiet - more so then other years - which is impressive considering I cooked a lot, par usual. The food was excellent, and I think we both agreed that overall this was one of the best celebratory meals I’ve made.

Green Beans with Beurre Blanc

There were lots of mouth-watering side dishes, like Green Beans with Beurre Blanc from Mark Reinfeld’s “The 30 Minute Vegan’s Taste of Europe.” These were simply steamed green beans drenched in a vegan white wine and butter sauce, from the chapter on French cuisine. If I had a complaint about the dish it would be that I would have liked more garlic, but otherwise these were very tasty.

Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pecans

I also made the Caramelized Brussels Sprouts with Pecans from Bianca Phillips book “Cookin’ Crunk.” This is a really simple recipe that involved first steaming the Brussels, and then pan-frying them. The ingredients list is short, but the flavor is out of this world. Once again my husband ate these Brussels Sprouts up like they were going out of style so you know they have to be good! I love the sweetness from the hint of sugar she throws into the recipe, and the slight kick from the red pepper flakes. Seriously, these were the first things to go, and I wish I had more. I’ll definitely be making them again, and again.

Whisky Mashed Sweet Potatoes

Then no Thanksgiving celebration can be complete without a mashed tater, and so I picked the Whisky Mashed Sweet Potatoes from the book “500 Vegan Recipes” by Joni Marie Newman and Celine Steen. These were absolutely fantastic mashed sweets! Really, neither my husband nor I could get over how delicious they were. Unlike other mashed sweet tater recipes I’ve made these had vegan sour cream, and vegan butter in them, in addition to brown sugar, maple syrup and of course whisky. The whisky flavor was nice, and subtle, not the least overpowering. The butter and sour cream made them so soft and creamy. I did cut the sugar content down a bit though, but otherwise this was a perfect dish.

Broccoli Casserole

Then I did something crazy, I made a Broccoli Casserole! It might sound crazy - since I know how popular this dish is in the United States, or at least in the Midwest - but I had never had nor heard of Broccoli Casserole before moving to Chicago. This however has always been one of my husband’s favorite holiday dishes, and his mother makes a great broccoli casserole each year for the holidays. Obviously when we went vegan we couldn’t have it anymore, which definitely made my husband a little sad, and for some reason it never occurred to me to make a vegan version. Lucky for me Bianca’s book “Cookin’ Crunk” contains a Broccoli Casserole recipe, and it looked quite simple enough and so I thought, ‘why not?’ I felt inspired, and I knew my husband would really appreciate it. Her casserole - unlike the traditional one - is made using fresh broccoli and frying it till soft with onions in oil. Then you add it to a bowl of cooked rice, add in some home-made vegan cream of mushroom soup - which I also made using her recipe. Then you add in the final component which is a homemade cheese sauce - also from her book. Then you bake it. It doesn’t taste exactly like the Campbell’s and Cheeze-Whiz version but it tastes pretty darn close. My only complaint is that due to the fact that the cheese cause contains Nutritional Yeast the casserole does have a slight nooch taste. I think I’d make this again without the cheese sauce or maybe using a milder tasting vegan cheese sub. Either way I’ll definitely make it again because it was a big hit.

Walnut Apple Stuffing

Of course no Thanksgiving Feast is complete without stuffing and because I couldn’t decide which stuffing I wanted to make I simply made two! Crazy I know. The first stuffing I chose to make was of a more traditional nature. It was the Walnut Apple Stuffing from Nava Atlas’s book “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” this was a super delicious, super moist stuffing. The apples were sweet, and tart, and I loved the idea of adding in apple juice rather then vegetable broth. The walnuts were not overpowering and even my husband enjoyed the stuffing despite the nuts.

Potato Sauerkraut Apple Stuffing

Our second stuffing was the Potato Sauerkraut Apple Stuffing from the same book. This Slavic style stuffing may sound strange to you, but trust me when I say it was delicious. A perfect mixture of potatoes, sauerkraut, apples, breadcrumbs, and Eastern European spices. Somehow it works, and my husband who si not normally a kraut fan, loved this one too.

Stone-Ground Mustard, Horseradish & Cornichons

Seitan Pot-Au-Feu

For our Pièce de résistance I made the Seitan Pot-Au-Feu from Robin Robertson’s book “Fresh From The Vegan Slow Cooker” This is a slow-cooked French-style stew that is probably traditionally made with beef, but in our case seitan is used. The stew also contains parsnips, carrots, potatoes, huge chunks of savoy cabbage, vegetable broth, red wine, and a bouquet garni of delicious spices. The seitan you form into little patties and place right on top of the vegetables where they steam to perfection while everything else is cooking away. The smell of this thing cooking is tremendous and mouth-watering and the flavor of the finished dish is wonderful. The seitan is magnificent, truly, I think slow-cooker seitan is probably some of the best seitan I’ve ever eaten, so succulent! And the vegetable choices made for a very nice compliment. You serve the Pot-Au-Feu somewhat communal style with bowls of Stone-Ground Mustard, Horseradish, and Cornichons, as well as bowls of the cooking liquid, which serves as a sort of Au Jus for dipping. I have to say that at first this struck me as a bit of an odd idea, but the seitan was particularly delectable when dipped in a bit of mustard and horseradish, so were the veggies.

Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie

Now, for dessert. We barley had room after all that and so we waited a good couple of hours before digging into this Chocolate Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie from Nava Atlas’s book “Vegan Holiday Kitchen” I have actually been wanting to make this pie for a long time but never seem to get around to it. Overall I thought it was pretty good, but it’s not my favorite pumpkin pie, nor is it my favorite pumpkin cheesecake. I think it was under sweet, and under spiced but I do really love the idea of it. I would definitely make it again but perhaps with my own spice mixture rather then the ‘pumpkin pie spice’ she recommends. Since pumpkin is hit or miss with my husband - and since this pie contains walnuts - he inevitably was not a fan. Bummer for me, I hate when I make a dessert he isn’t thrilled about.

Vanilla Spice Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream 

But, to make up for the pie I did make a batch of the Vanilla Spice Cupcakes with Pumpkin Buttercream from Bianca’s “Cookin’ Crunk” and these were delicious. Super easy to make, these came out super moist and flavorful. There is pumpkin puree in the frosting but the overall effect is somewhat understated and my husband wasn’t bothered with it. Somehow he shoved two of these delicious cakes into his mouth before we finally passed out in front of the television, and that as they say is that.

My ridiculously full plate!

I hope you all had an enjoyable holiday, I’ll be back tomorrow with a post about our epic Thanksgiving Brunch!

Impromptu Pre-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving Dinner...

My Plate!

Last night my husband and I enjoyed a pre-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving dinner. There are a few reasons for this. 1) My mother-in-law picked up two 1 pound Celebration Roasts by Field Roast for us to have on Thanksgiving. You see, we normally go to my aunt’s husband’s for the holiday and she wanted to make sure we had something to eat. Of course, I’m already way ahead of the game and I already have an American Thanksgiving Menu planned out. She gave them to us anyway and aid then we could eat them whenever. 2) The weather outside is frightful! It’s so cold, so windy. All I want to do is hibernate in my bed, and on days like that I inevitably end up craving either soup, or comfort food. What’s more comforting then a bowl of mashed potatoes? 3) My husband found out that this year he will in fact be working on Thanksgiving. Not black Friday, but actual Thanksgiving. Which means we won’t be spending the holiday with his family, and we won’t be spending it with one another either. Thank you Corporate American Greed. Thank you Capitalism My husband was pretty bummed out, and I was too.

However, I didn’t want to let morons, holiday madness, and corporate greed ruin our holiday and so I decided we should have a pre-Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving. I’m still going to make my originally planned Thanksgiving Menu - probably Wednesday, but in the meantime, we needed a litlte comfort.

Celebration Roast fresh out of the oven

So, since this was an ‘impromptu’ dinner we didn’t have any appetizers or salad or a fancy dessert. I kept things low-key and simple, and used what I had in the house already, and somehow it just worked out really well.

For sides I made the Braised Red Cabbage with Cranberries from Robin Asbell’s book “Big Vegan” this was a really tasty dish, kind of like a traditional German Red Cabbage. It had onions, apples, bay leaves, cinnamon, cloves, red wine, sugar, red wine vinegar and cranberries. It was super moist, and full of flavor, and looked so pretty on our plate. I’m a big fan of cabbage anyway, so I knew this was going to be a win.

Keeping with the cabbage theme I made the Maple Mustard Roasted Brussels Sprouts from Betsy DiJulio’s book “The Blooming Platter Cookbook” this is not so very different then other Maple Mustard Brussel’s I’ve made in the past, except this one adds a splash of balsamic vinegar to kick things up. I really loved these sprouts, and even my husband loved them. Which is amazing, since he’s never liked Brussel’s Sprouts and will typically only eat them if they’re shredded. He’s never filled his plate with whole roasted Brussels before, so that’s pretty impressive.

Then I made the Mustard Spinach Mashed Potatoes from Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman’s book “500 Vegan Recipes” this is mashed red skinned potatoes - skin on - with frozen spinach, earth balance, vegan sour cream, salt, pepper, and stone ground mustard. It’s a really simple recipe, but oh my is it delicious!

Lastly the main event, was our Celebration Roast by Field Roast. I have many Field Roast products in the past but never the Celebration Roast so I was excited to try it. I think it turned out really well, it was chewy and tasty, but I’ll save a full review on this product for a separate post. I will say though, that I baked it super simple, just stuck it in a pan with some vegetable broth and Tamari. I didn’t have any aluminum foil to cover it though, and I neglected to baste so the top got kind of crispy, but I actually really liked that effect.

To go with the roast I made a quick pan gravy. My own recipe, it was just something I threw together but it turned out so well that I made sure to jot down the recipe and I’ll post it tomorrow, just incase any of you find yourself in a pinch where you need a quick tasty gravy.

Quickie Pan Gravy

For dessert I made the Pumpkin Scones with Maple Glaze from Fernanda Capobianco’s book “The Vegan Divas Cookbook” these scones were super moist, and so tasty,. The glaze really brings them together, and they tasted especially amazing straight out of the oven.

Not bad for an impromptu dinner celebration right?

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal...

As I think I’ve mentioned before I pretty much love pumpkin flavored everything. I’ve also been on a real oatmeal kick lately, and so I’ve had the idea to combine these two things for weeks now, only I’ve just been to lazy to actually do it. Finally this morning as I was enjoying a piping mug of peppermint hot chocolate and watching the snowflakes fall I decided it was time to give creativity a whirl.

I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect when it was all said and done, but I figured adding traditional pumpkin pie flavors to a bowl of oatmeal couldn’t go too wrong. I was right. This is a really warming comforting bowl of morning oats, full of autumnal and winter flavor. Perfect for any cold morning or any day you’re craving a bit of a pumpkin fix. Even my husband who despises all things pumpkin loved this sweet soothing breakfast. If you like your pumpkin pie a bit on the spicy side you can increase the ginger to 1 tsp, and up the nutmeg as well. I’m pretty picky when it comes to nutmeg which is why I only used a 1/4 tsp. These oats are fantastic topped with maple syrup and dried cranberries but you could use dried cherries as well or another sweetener of your choosing, and if you’re interested in kicking up the pumpkin another notch serve this with one of the delicious non-dairy pumpkin spice milks instead of regular old almond, soy or rice milk. Trust me on this!

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal 

2/3 C Steel Cut Oats
1 15oz Can Coconut Milk
½ C Pumpkin Puree
½-1 Tbsp Blackstrap Molasses
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
½ tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Cardamom
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
Pinch of Cloves

To Serve 

Maple Syrup
Dried Cranberries
Chopped Pecans or Walnuts
So Delicious Pumpkin Spice Coconut Milk - or your favorite non-dairy pumpkin spice milk, or any regular non-dairy milk.

- Combine Oats, Coconut Milk, Pumpkin Puree and Molasses in a medium sized saucepan and bring to a boil.

- Once boiling reduce to a simmer and add in all of the spices.

- Let simmer gently on the stove top, stirring occasionally for 30-40 minutes until oats are tender and much of the liquid has been absorbed.

- Divide the oats into bowls and top with Maple Syrup, Dried Cranberries and Your Choice of Non-Dairy Milk.

Product Review - Almond Dream: Pumpkin Spice Almond Drink...

Fall is by far my favorite season. I love the weather; love the feel of the cool breeze on my face, love the smell of decaying leaves as they flutter from the trees. I love the howling nights, and the wet afternoons. I especially love fall food. Stews, one-pot meals, casseroles, scones, pies, lots and lots of coffee and tea. These things are comforting, warming, soul-soothing. I especially love pumpkin favored goodies, cinnamon spiked treats, and nutmeg spiked drinks. I love the culture of fall, I love dressing in layers, I love spending time in nature to witness the changing beauty, I love giant pumpkins, and I love Halloween. As October crosses into November many people get sick of the typical fall foods like Apple Pies and Pumpkin everything, they’re ready to move onto stuffing and cranberries, and spinach salads that have walnuts and pears. Not me, I’m quite happy that pumpkin is a fall-winter cross-over food.

You may recall my post about Califia Farms  new Pumpkin Spice Latte from a few weeks ago. Well, I discovered yet ANOTHER pumpkin flavored beverage This one is Almond Dreams, Pumpkin Spice with Cinnamon nondairy beverage. I was super excited to discover this because almond milk probably tops my list of favorite non-dairy milks, yet aside from the awesome Califia Farms line of almond based drinks, most almond milks lack inspiration. Don’t get me wrong, I love chocolate and vanilla almond milk, but where’s the flurry of holiday almond based beverages? Where’s the Chocolate Peppermint Almond Milk? Where’s the Gingerbread Almond Milk? Know what I’m saying?

Anyway, I very excitedly scooped up a carton of this the minute I saw it on the shelf and I couldn’t even wait to get home to try it. I cracked this baby open in the car and took a long hearty swig, much to my husband’s amusement. Unfortunately, Almond Dream’s Pumpkin Spice didn’t blow my socks off. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is a rather tasty drink, it’s just not what I was hoping for. It didn’t tickle my tastebuds the way other pumpkin flavored drinks do. It didn’t wow me. As much as I like nutmeg, I find it to be an acquired taste and for me the line between just enough and too much is a very fine one. In the end I just thought the spiciness of this drink was not to my liking, and this particular pumpkin spice was somewhat thinner then I would have liked. Thicker then rice milk mind you, but a little thinner then your average almond milk. I did like that it wasn’t overly sweet, and that it’s lower in calories then many other holiday beverages. Although I found that the spices kind of muted the pumpkin flavor in this drink, and that it ended up tasting more like an eggnog then a pumpkin spice beverage.

So in the end, my conclusion is that if you really love pumpkin this drink may be worth giving a try. Certainly if you have allergies to soy, or coconut, or simply don’t like coffee this is a good option for you to meet your pumpkin needs. If however you’re somewhat picky like me when it comes to fall spices this may not be the right drink for you. Though, you never know until you try and I urge you to test it yourself and make your own decision.

As far as the practicalities are concerned Almond Dream’s Pumpkin Spice is soy, gluten, and dairy free, and contains 50 calories per serving. It has 2% sodium, 1g Protein, 7g sugar, 10% Vitamin A and Calcium, 25% Vitamin D, 30% Vitamin E, and 50% Vitamin B12.

You can learn more here Almond Dream

Product Review - Califia Farms: Pumpkin Spiced Latte Flavored Cold Brewed Coffee with Almond Milk...

You know it’s fall, not only when the leaves begin to yellow and the weather grows chill, but when you can’t seem to throw a rock without hitting something that’s ‘pumpkin spice.’ The words Pumpkin Spice are now synonymous with fall;  it’s the kind of winning, warming, comforting combination that almost everyone loves. Pumpkin Spice Scones, Pumpkin Pie, Pumpkin Spice Cake, Pumpkin Spice tats, and perhaps most famous - and most beloved - pumpkin spice coffee. Of course, pumpkin spice is not always easy for us vegans to come by because so many of these delicious fall treats are loaded with dairy, but fret no more as the world of vegan holiday drinks has recently been expanded!

That’s right, Califia Farms - who I’ve posted about before, Here and Here - have tossed their hat into the ring once more and developed a Pumpkin Spiced Latte Flavored Cold Brewed Coffee with Almond Milk. As far as I know there’s two other vegan pumpkin spice beverage on the market, and they’re made by Silk, and So Delicious, of course these are both pumpkin flavored beverages sans Coffee. So Califia is unique in that respect since as far as I know it is the only Vegan Pumpkin Spiced Coffee Beverage on the market.

So lets get down to the nitty-gritty stats. For an 8oz serving this Pumpkin Spice Latte is 100 calories, 35 of which come from fat, 17g carbohydrates, 1g protein, 1g Fiber, 14g sugar, and 50% of your daily calcium. It’s gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, non-GMO, Kosher, and the bottle is BPA-Free. The only allergens are almonds, and coconut. It is a little high in sugar though which may be a turn off for some people.

How does it taste? Pretty decent. However in my opinion the spices are a little heavy, and the pumpkin is hard to distinguish. It gets a little drowned out by the nutmeg, and the nutmeg makes this taste a lot like eggnog. I respect the effort that Califia Farms put into making this product for all of us pumpkin spice lovers out there, but I think I’ll probably stick with their regular cold brewed coffee. Of course, who knows, you might love nutmeg, or you might not love an overwhelming pumpkin flavor and so this would be right up your alley. Or maybe you’ll just love it regardless. I actually think this would be great used as a creamer in a cup of strong coffee but I haven’t gotten around to trying that yet.

However you decided to use it, I hope you enjoy it, and regardless of my own feelings it’s always nice to have someone out there ‘vegan representing’ you know?

You can learn more about Califia and their products Here

Happy Fall!

An American Thanksgiving Brunch...

My full plate!

I hope that everyone had a lovely American Thanksgiving last week, I know I did. I feel that this year was more relaxed then years previous, which was a real bonus. The thing I love most about American Thanksgiving is that it’s kind of a special time for me - it ‘s my veganversary. That’s right, I went Vegan on Thanksgiving Day three years ago - which wasn’t as hard as you might think since I was already vegetarian at the time. It’s fun getting to celebrate your veganversary, though I feel like such a baby-vegan when I talk to people who’ve been vegan for 10+ years, what an inspiration! I can’t wait until I hit my ten-year mark!

Anyway - onto the food. As I’ve already said my husband and I didn’t really feel like doing dinner, and so we decided to change it up and do brunch instead. A super cool idea, and damn delicious too! Even though I’m not typically a breakfast eater, I do love breakfast food. Since I don’t get it often, this meal really was a treat. Though it did require some advanced planning. The Black Forest ‘Bacon’ for instance I made the day before. I also prepared the English Muffins and the Pumpkin Cinnamon Buns the day before so that they just needed to be baked on Thanksgiving morning. The pies too were baked on Wednesday since creamy pies and cheesecakes really do require a good few hours of refrigeration, though I typically like to let them set for 24 hours if I can.

Tofu Benedict

After much thought and consideration as to what was going to be the focal point of our Thanksgiving Brunch I decided on a Tofu Benedict. In my pregan days - pre-vegan - I used to love a good eggs benny, and though I have made vegan versions it’s not something I do often, so it seemed like the perfect center piece. The only problem was which Benedict recipe to use? I debated between Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Benny in “Vegan Brunch” and Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s Benny in “The Vegan Table” until I finally settled on a compromise. I used Colleen’s Benny recipe and Isa’s Hollandaise Sauce recipe! I also made my own home-made English Muffins using Isa’s recipe from Vegan Brunch. It was delicious.

Colleen’s Benny itself was pretty straight forward. You make a tofu scramble, toast some English muffins, saute some spinach with garlic and assemble. It goes Muffin - tomato - vegan bacon - scramble - spinach - hollandaise sauce. Perfection!

Isa’s Hollandaise Sauce was pretty good too. It was thick and creamy like I remember, though more lemony and less rich then I recall dairy based Hollandaise to be. Still good, and it was super simple to make just shallots, white wine, vinegar, flour and a few other things.

Hollandaise Sauce

Isa’s English Muffins were spot on though, and so freaking delicious. I was a bit intimidated making these as I thought it was going to be a lot of trouble and a lot of effort but in reality these whipped together pretty quick, and man they’re better then any English Muffin I’ve ever eaten. Unfortunately I do not own cookie or biscuit cutters and so I used a drinking glass to cut the muffins. Which means they were way smaller then an actual English Muffin, but that was alright. We had many benedicts instead and it was great.

English Muffins 

Now when it comes to the ‘bacon’ or ‘ham’ that is used in a ‘traditional’ benny, Colleen uses tempeh bacon. She has a recipe in “The Vegan Table” for it, and I’ve made it several times but I wanted to try something a little different and ‘out-there.’ this time around. For more then a year I’ve been eying the Black Forest Bacon recipe in Celine Steen and Joni Marie Newman’s wonderful book “The Complete Guide to Vegan Food Substitutions.” I keep telling myself that I’m going to try it one day and then never do. It always seems like so much work but finally I found myself determined to give it a try. That’s the thing with me, when I’m already laboring over something I might as well jump in with both feet and do even more work you know? Anyway, it ended up being way easier then I thought it was going to be, and every second of effort was worth it. This is hands down one of the best damn bacon recipes I’ve ever made. The cool thing about it is that it’s a seitan bacon. It’s made with liquid smoke, garlic, paprika, maple syrup, black pepper and of course vital wheat gluten. Then you make a glaze out of maple syrup, salt, brown sugar, black pepper and liquid smoke. Whisk the glaze together pour it over the bacon and bake in the oven wrapped in aluminum foil. So easy! This is really a delicious blend of sweet, salty, smokey and peppery. Once it’s done you let it cool, and then slice thin and fry up as you would any other bacon. Amazing, and it was great on the benny’s!

Black Forest Bacon!

I also used this delicious bacon in the amazing Smokey Tempeh Bacon, Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche recipe from “Spork-Fed” by Jenny Engel and Heather Goldberg. Honestly I’ve never been the biggest fan of quiche, ‘traditional’ or ‘vegan.’ I’ve made several vegan quiches over the past few years and they’ve always either been gross or mediocre. I suppose quiche is just not one of my things, but this particular quiche looked so good, and I’ve had such great luck with this particular cook book in general that I thought I’d throw caution to the wind and just go with it. Turns out this is the best damn quiche I’ve ever eaten and I loved it. It was slightly sweet, very savory, a little salty, kinda smokey, and oh so creamy. Absolute perfection and the black forest bacon really knocked it out of this world. Plus who doesn't love the broccoli cheddar combo? I used Daiya Cheddar by the way. I also really liked that the crust used cornmeal, oregano, and Dijon mustard to liven things up, and I was happy that even though this quiche uses both nutritional yeast and tofu that neither of those flavors was overpowering.

Smokey Bacon, Broccoli and Cheddar Quiche

To go along with all of that I also made a half-batch of the Tempeh and White Bean Sausage patties from Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s book “Vegan with a Vengeance!” these were really tasty, though they crumbled easily. I think I also put a tad too much tomato paste in them because they were kind of orange-pink looking In the end, but they were still great. I paired them with a half batch of Isa’s Navy Bean Gravy from her book “Vegan Brunch” which was also fantastic - although In the haste of eating I neglected to take a picture of that, sorry! Take my word for it when I say this was a super easy gravy recipe. It was thick, creamy, and delicious, the perfect breakfast gravy and I love that it used beans!

Tempeh and White Bean Sausage Patties 

Also from Isa’s “Vegan Brunch” I made the home-style potatoes, because what’s a lavish brunch without potatoes? These were seriosuly some of the best breakfast potatoes I’ve ever had. Oh my, where they amazing! I could have eaten the whole pan, and they were so simple. Just potatoes, onion, green bell pepper, salt, pepper and oil. Perfection.

Home-Style Potatoes 

Last but not least we capped our mid-day meal off with something sweet and decadent. The Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze from Chloe Coscarelli’s beautiful and fantastic book “Chloe’s Vegan Desserts” these were a dream, simply amazing, and so flavorful. Right off the bat my husband and I ate 2 each! We ate another one when we got home that night. By Saturday morning the whole dozen were gone! The glaze is simple, powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla. The buns themself are a typical cinnamon roll pastry with the addition of pumpkin. The filling a delicious blend of brown sugar, cinnamon and earth balance studded with raisins. Holy carrots guys! These were incredible! There is not a doubt in my mind that I’ll be making these again.

Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls with Maple Glaze 

Now, after brunch we were stuffed and so we happily relaxed. Then later in the afternoon we went to my husband’s aunts house to visit family. We did not eat there, as the whole idea of brunch was so that we wouldn’t have to eat dinner. I did however make three pies to bring along. I mean, I didn’t want us to look like total outcasts as the only vegans! I figured as long as I brought pies then we could enjoy dessert with them and ‘fit in.’

I chose to make the pumpkin cheesecake from Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero’s joint effort “Vegan Pie in the Sky.” and it was delicious. You can’t have Thanksgiving without a pumpkin dessert of some kind and this fit the bill. I like that the base was made using cashews and tofu - though it didn’t taste like either. This was a very rich, and decadent tasting cheesecake, and I loved the pecan topping. Sorry for the blurry photo, I don’t know what happened!

Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Topping

I also wanted to make some totally off the wall stuff to enjoy and so I made the Banana Tapioca Pudding Pie from Hannah Kaminsky’s wonderful book “Easy as Vegan Pie” I loved the sound of it, and I was not disappointed. It’s like a banana cream pie but with tapioca. Except the tapioca isn’t so noticeable and kind of blends into the pudding you make. My favorite part of this pie though is the home-made coconut whip cream. This was amazing, I am literally blown away by the ease and genius of this particular vegan alchemy. All it is is chilled coconut cream whipped with sugar and vanilla extract and it tasted better then any whip cream I’ve ever eaten, and way better then any commercial vegan whip cream too. Now that I know it’s so easy I’ll be making my own from here on.

Banana Tapioca Pudding Pie 

Next I was completely captivated by Hannah’s recipe for Cannoli Pie - which is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a Cannoli filling inside of a pie crust, delicious! In my pregan days I loved Italian Cannoli. My dad used to take me to this great Italian Bakery in Vancouver and we’d get a whole box of them! It’s been years since I’ve had an actual cannoli so when I saw this pie I knew I’d have to try it out. It’s actually quite easy, mostly it’s made with tofu and cashews though it also uses vegan yogurt - I used my own home-made yogurt - lemon juice, sugar, vinegar, nutritional yeast, and Agar. You top the finished pie with shaved chocolate and chopped pistachio’s and it’s incredible. It’s extremely rich, and very creamy. I loved all the pies I made but this just might have been my favorite - you know, for old times sake. However as far as the rest of the guests were concerned I think the pumpkin cheesecake was the overall winner.

Cannoli Pie

And that about wraps up American Thanksgiving this year. I hope you all had as lovely time as I did.