Sweet Stuff

My youngest, Morgan, decided she wanted to make Pecan Pie Truffles from the Well's Vegetarian Thanksgiving site.  They did taste delicious, but the chocolate dipping was a little harder than she anticipated.  While our truffles did TASTE delicious, they didn't look nearly as perfect as the ones pictured on the web site.     We did omit the bourbon because I'm cheap and bourbon is expensive and we wouldn't use the rest of it anyway.  We just added a little water and vanilla extract.  They were still yummy.  

We also made the Pumpkin Molasses Cookie Dough Balls from the Peas and Thank You website.  Love Mama Pea's reci-peas!

Two Cranberries

I grew up with the canned cranberry jelly making its appearance at our Thanksgiving table, sliced in little rounds.  I had no idea what a real cranberry looked or tasted like until I was an adult.  Then my Mother made this recipe:

Cranberry Relish

1 package fresh cranberries (but stick them in the freezer at least the day before making this dish)
1 medium naval orange
1/2 - 2/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp brandy (optional - brandy is not something I have on hand and it's too expensive to buy for a tablespoon, so I leave it out or either add a little bit of brandy or rum extract)
1/2 cup chopped nuts (also optional - we don't like it with nuts - we're nutty enough)

Coarsely chop cranberries in a food processor. Remove to a bowl. Take ends off the orange, cut into eighths, remove seeds, and process until chopped fine. Add to cranberries. Stir in remaining ingredients. This tastes better if made at least one day before serving.

My daughters love this, especially Brooke (my middle child) - she will eat it with a spoon!  My mother-in-law also adores this one.

The second one is my favorite.  When my Mother first made it, I was a little put off.  Apples and ONIONS?  Raisins and CELERY?  Are you feeling well, Mother Dear?  But I decided to try it.  And it is SO good.  Very different, but in an awesome way.  So now we have TWO cranberry dishes on our Thanksgiving and Christmas table - and neither one is shaped like a can.

Cranberry Chutney

4 cups fresh or frozen cranberries
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups sugar (or less)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cloves
1 cup water
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1 large apple, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup finely chopped celery

Place cranberries, raisins, sugar, spices, and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce and simmer, 15 minutes or until berries pop. Add onion, apple, and celery; simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate. SO good and very different.

Cranberry Chutney on the left, Cranberry Relish on the right.  

Grilled Green Beans with Golden Almonds

I found this recipe online for Pan Roasted Green Beans with Golden Almonds.  It looked really good (and their picture is DEFINITELY better than mine), but I thought I could add more flavor to the recipe and I wanted to grill the green beans.  They also barely cooked their shallots and I caramelized and crisped mine.  Delicious!  

8 ounces green beans, trimmed

about 1 tbsp Pampered Chef Citrus Basil Rub or lemon pepper seasoning

1/4 cup blanched whole almonds, coarsely chopped

3 tbsp olive oil + more for marinating the green beans

1 large shallot, sliced thin

zest from 1 lemon

Add the cleaned, trimmed green beans to a shallow container (or even a Ziploc bag) with olive oil and Citrus Basil seasoning - I didn't measure the olive oil - it was probably somewhere around 1/2 cup.  Do this earlier in the day or even the day before.  When you are ready to grill the beans, drain them from the seasoned oil and grill until just cooked through with slight char marks.  You want them to still have a little crispness to them.  Place on a serving platter and keep warm.  

Meanwhile, toast the almonds in 3 tbsp olive oil until golden brown.  Remove from the oil and set aside.  Add shallots to the oil and cook, stirring frequently, until they are caramelized and slightly crispy.  Add almonds back to the pan and toss until heated through again.  Top green beans with the almond/shallot mixture.  Add lemon zest to the top.  

Vegan Apple and Sage "Sausage" Dressing

This is SOOO good!  I made it last year using Field Roast brand Italian sausage and my SIL (not vegan) immediately commented on how good it was, "...and I don't even usually LIKE Italian sausage!"  I knew I had a keeper on my hands!  I've adapted it to suit our tastes (as usual) and this is the result.

1 small loaf of fresh bread (this year I used a rustic Italian bread from Whole Foods), cubed and dried in the oven
1/2 tsp salt
freshly ground pepper
2 tsp poultry seasoning
1/4 cup Earth Balance margarine
1/4 cup diced celery
1 large onion, diced
2-3 links of Field Roast brand sausage (this year I used the sage variety), broken apart with your hands rather than in neat slices
1 large crisp apple, peeled, cored, and diced in larger chunks - you don't want it to be as small as the onions and celery
2/3 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts
2 cups vegetable broth

Preheat oven to 350°.

Spray a large casserole dish with nonstick cooking spray or use an empty wrapper from your Earth Balance margarine.

In a large bowl, melt margarine over medium heat.  Add celery and saute' for a minute or two.  Add the onions and saute' until soft.  Add the sausage, apple, and nuts.  Continue sauteing until the onions are translucent, the apples are barely cooked, and the hazelnuts are lightly toasted.

Remove from heat and pour over the bread mixture.  Toss together.

Add about half of the broth and stir.  Keep adding broth until the whole mixture is moistened to the consistency you like.  I prefer mine a little on the drier side as opposed to mushy.  Taste and adjust seasonings.

Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes, basting during the last 10 minutes with a little more broth to ensure a crispy top.

Serve with Mushroom Gravy.

Mushroom Gravy

I first made this mushroom gravy last year for Thanksgiving and also served a traditional turkey gravy for the meat eaters at my table.  However, the mushroom gravy was the first to disappear so this year I only made the mushroom gravy.  No turkey gravy at all.  Even still, I needed to make another batch for the leftovers, as it was gobbled up yet again and I had tripled the recipe!

Vegan Mushroom Gravy (doubled, which I usually have to do for my family of five)

4 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped fine
20 mushrooms, sliced thin
4 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp unbleached all purpose flour
1/2 to 1 tsp poultry seasoning (or you could substitute whatever herbs you like - sage, thyme, etc)
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 cup plain, unsweetened soy milk
4 cups vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste - throw some cayenne in there, too, while you are at it!

Heat oil until shimmering.  Saute' onions until clear; add garlic and saute' one minute more; add mushrooms and saute' until soft, about 3-4 minutes.  Add flour and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes.  Add soy milk and cook, stirring, until it is thick.  Add vegetable broth and seasonings.  Cook, stirring, until gravy is thickened.  Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Butternut Squash Bisque

My middle child and oldest daughter is definitely a foodie and has been since she was tiny.  About six years ago when she was just 11 years old, Whole Foods opened up in a city near us.  We loved going, especially when they had samples.  One day we tasted a Butternut Squash and Crab bisque and Brooke instantly fell in love.  She decided that she wanted to make that for the family for Thanksgiving.  She had cooked before, but never something this "fancy" and with so many steps and definitely never for people outside our immediate family.  But she was excited.  We found this recipe online, which she followed to the letter, and the results turned out deliciously!  For many Thanksgivings, she has repeated this delicious soup.

This year, I asked if she'd make a vegan version for me.  She did and it was probably even better (to my memory) than the original.  So, here is (as much as we can figure) her adaptations.

1 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and diced
1 cup dry sherry
1 cup Silk soy creamer
2 tbsp vegan margarine
3 shallots, finely chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 clove garlic, minced
cayenne pepper to taste (we used about a heaping 1/4 tsp)
salt to taste

Add margarine to a large stock pot and melt over medium heat.  Add shallots and cook, stirring, until soft.  Add garlic and cook for another minute or so.  Do not let the shallots or garlic brown.  Add the sherry and cook on high until almost all of the liquid is reduced.  Add the butternut squash and cover with water.  Bring to a boil and cook on a fairly high heat until the butternut squash is soft, stirring often so it does not stick and adding more water if needed to keep the squash covered.

Puree in batches, being careful not to fill the blender too full or you will have a hot mess on your hands - literally.  Don't ask me how I know this.  Wash out the stock pot and return the puree to the now pristine pot. Add soy creamer, salt, and pepper and cook on low until heated through.  If your squash is not very sweet, you may need to add a little sugar, but we have never needed to do this.

Enjoy!

Apple-Cranberry-Ginger Pie

I absolutely love the flavor of ginger.  I could suppose it comes from that being my name and all, but for many years I really did not like ginger in anything - didn't like gingerbread or Chinese foods with ginger.  It tasted like soap to me.  But over the years, something happened.  My taste buds changed and I decided ginger wasn't so bad after all.  And now I adore it, as does my daughter Brooke.  My Mother regularly sends care packages (since she's on the Left Coast and we are in the Deep South) and they almost always include crystallized ginger for Brooke and ginger peach tea for me.  And you can usually find fresh ginger in my fridge and even in my freezer (frozen into little ice cube sized portions of minced ginger).  So when my Mother included this pie recipe in with a care package, I knew it would be making an appearance for Thanksgiving.  It was SO good.  And so ENORMOUS!!!  And I have not one picture of it!  I'm a terrible blogger.  :::sniff:::

You can use premade crust for this pie if you wish, but a homemade crust is just so easy and tastes so much better.  Here's my recipe for a two-crust pie:

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
6 tbsp cold Earth Balance Buttery Sticks, cut into small pieces
5-7 tbsp very cold water

I cheat and make mine in a food processor with a dough blade.  So easy.

Combine flour and salt in the food process with the dough blade in place and pulse once or twice to combine  (or in a large bowl and mix well).  Cut shortening and margarine into the flour by either pulsing the food processor blade or using a pastry blender or two forks.  Add water 1 tbsp at a time, pulsing just a time or two (or mixing with a fork) after each addition until the cough is just moist enough to form a ball.

Divide the dough into two equal portions; gather into two balls and flatten each to 1/2" thickness.  Cover; refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°.  Roll out dough on a lightly floured board or pastry cloth to about a 14" circle, about 1/8" thick, and carefully transfer to your pie dish.  Flute edges.  Place a round of waxed paper over dough and weight with beans or pie weights.  Par-bake the pie crust for about 5-7 minutes.  You don't want it to brown.  Remove from oven.

Filling:

10 apples, peeled, cored, and thinly sliced (Granny Smiths are perfect)
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
3/4 cup sugar (or less if you use a sweeter apple)
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Stir all the ingredients together and pour into your prepared pie crust.  Actually "pour" is not the proper word. Mound might be.  This pie will be HUGE!  It will be the biggest apple pie you have ever made!  And it will be delicious!  Anyway....Roll the remaining pie dough for your top crust.  Arrange over the mountain of apples.  Trim the edges, leaving a 1" overhang.  Flute edges.  Cut a few slits in the top crust.  Bake until crust is golden  and filling is bubbling, about 30-40 minutes.  You will definitely want to put a large cookie sheet on the rack below this because it more than likely will bubble over.  Trust me on this.