Serenity in the Storm

Thanksgiving

2011_amelinda228x200 — Source: www.adoptaturkey.org

Thanksgiving can be stressful for vegans and nonvegans alike when the the question of what to eat comes up. For many people in the U.S., Thanksgiving has been tied, for generations, to the preparation and consumption of a turkey. Becoming vegan, particularly for ethical reasons, challenges this tradition and can result in a range of discomfort. Some family members may feel that you are rejecting deeply rooted family traditions (and by proxy, the family itself) by refusing to eat the turkey. Other family members may be more generally uncomfortable with your choice not to eat meat more generally. Some families may be accommodating to those eating a plant-based diet and make a mix of vegan and nonvegan dishes. Some families may agree to try a fully vegan Thanksgiving. And some families may not accommodate a vegan diet whatsoever.

I have found it to be, in some ways, exhausting and difficult to negotiate the Thanksgiving holiday. Two years ago, we hosted a vegan Thanksgiving at our house for 20 family and friends. When we invited people, we explicitly said that it would be a vegan meal–both so they would know to not expect a turkey, and so that the dishes they brought would be vegan. Eric’s cousin is a long-time vegan, so the notion of cooking vegan was not completely foreign to anyone in the group. Overall, it was a delicious meal and I think everyone left feeling satisfied. As it tends to be when hosting Thanksgiving yourself, it’s A LOT of work. In many ways, though, despite the enormous amount of work of hosting that many people for a meal, that setting was much easier to negotiate than the situation where you’re going to someone else’s house for dinner.

Last year, we ended up skipping Thanksgiving altogether. We were scheduled to go to Eric’s family’s house for Thanksgiving, but at the last minute we decided not to go. This decision was based on the fact that we did not want to take part in a meal that was centered around the dead bird in the middle of the table. Quite frankly, Thanksgiving is about celebrating what you’re thankful for and I am, honestly, not thankful at all for the slaughter of more than 45 million intelligent, social creatures for Thanksgiving tables alone. Nor do I have the energy for or the capacity to ignore what that dead turkey represents. And so, we ended up staying home, adopting a turkey from Farm Sanctuary, and having pasta and garlic bread and pie, which was, honestly, quite a low-stress and relaxing way to have Thanksgiving.

This year, we are going over to a friend’s house for dinner. She has been vegan since she was 13 and, in many ways, is my moral compass when it comes to animal ethics. If I am questioning the ethics of any animal-related scenario, Eric always reminds me– “WWKD?–What Would Karen Do?” She has a five-year old son, who I completely adore and we so rarely get to spend time all together. It will be a nice way to celebrate the day, I think.

Basically, I think it’s important to decide what you are comfortable with and what you’re not. For some, being at a Thanksgiving where the centerpiece of the meal is turkey does not bother them so long as there are some vegan options to eat. For others, the symbolism of celebrating the violence of humans’ relationship with farmed animals is too much.

THE FOOD

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been preparing lots of dishes that would be great vegan options for Thanksgiving dinner, whether you’re having a fully vegan meal, bringing some vegan dishes to a nonvegan meal, or whether you’re simply interested in making your Thanksgiving meal a bit more healthy by using plant-based ingredients. Below are the recipes I have posted that would be good for a Thanksgiving meal.

A note about main dishes first. I have not gotten around to posting about main dishes, but I’ve had some thoughts about them.

1. Acorn squash, halved and stuffed with a mixture of nuts, dried fruit and savory herbs.

2. Lentil pancakes with savory herbs.

3. A lentil or bean stew served in a whole roasted pumpkin.

4. Tofu, tempeh, or seitan flavored with savory herbs.

5. Any other ideas?

And now for the other dishes… Garlic Mashed Potatoes:

IMAG1745 — garlic mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy

Savory Stuffing:

Roasted Brussel Sprouts:

Mushroom Gravy:

Roasted Red Potatoes:

Cranberry Orange Relish:

Basic Pie Crust:

Pumpkin Pie:

Apple Pie and Apple Crisp:

Cranberry Bread:

For Karen’s Thanksgiving dinner, we’re responsible for bringing roasted potatoes, stuffing, brussel sprouts and pumpkin pie, as well as some spiced apple cider, I think. What are you planning on making for Thanksgiving dinner? What are your plans? How do you feel about negotiating the holiday?

A Weekend Away

This weekend was quite busy with academic activities. On Saturday, the University of Washington Geography Department hosted the Cascadia Critical Geographies Mini-Conference. There were talks on a range of critical geography topics, including health, indigeneity, race, etc. And there was an interesting panel on critical pedagogy (teaching) and a large discussion on the role of geography/ers in the Occupy movement. Immediately following the conference, a group of about 25 of us headed off to participate in a workshop at Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. There were 6 faculty–2 each from UW, UBC, and SFU–and students from each school. The workshop was intended to help us work toward a dissertation proposal and get feedback from our peers and faculty to help with developing these proposals. We arrived at Friday Harbor when it was dark, so we couldn’t see much, but when we got up in the morning, we were all a little stunned by the beauty of the place:

The cabins we stayed in were very cute and cozy:

We saw a sea lion swimming in the harbor and some seagulls while we were standing and taking in the view before breakfast on Sunday:

We took a little post-lunch stroll again to get some fresh air. The clouds were moving in.

And there were deer everywhere–not afraid of us at all, and very focused on eating what greenery they could find:

In terms of food for our time at Friday Harbor, I definitely did not go hungry. I had oatmeal, a banana, cinnamon raisin toast, a glass of soymilk and some tea for breakfast. For lunch, I had a vegetable and hummus sandwich with a bowl of lentil soup, and a banana with peanut butter. And for dinner, there was a buffet of halibut and other things for the group, and planted in the middle of the buffet was this quite delicious meal for me:

Overall, the workshop was useful, and in addition to talking about our dissertations, there were plenary discussions covering topics of collaboration and publication–both of which I found very thought-provoking and informative. I got some productive feedback on my dissertation proposal, and, perhaps more importantly, I had some space to think about some other smaller projects I would like to do in the meantime. I realized that I hadn’t had the mental space with the general exams, my day-to-day responsibilities, the blog, and my crafting projects to really sit down and think about some of the other things that are important to me. It was time well-spent.

How was your weekend?

Week in Review: Thanksgiving Recipes

This last week has been filled with recipes for lovely food that would be great for Thanksgiving. I’ve been cooking a lot to experiment with creating vegan versions of some of the Thanksgiving favorites. In particular because I’d been cooking so much myself, it was a real treat to go over to my mother-in-law’s house for dinner last Sunday for a meal that she cooked! She and her husband have been trying to incorporate more plant-based meals into their eating routine and she’s been trying out lots of new recipes in order to discover new, plant-based favorites. She made so much good food for dinner–a pureed tomato and green chili soup, roasted brussel sprouts, kale salad, and a wonderful Indonesian dish with peanut sauce as the main dish. The main dish was red quinoa on on the bottom, then raw spinach on top, followed by roasted cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and red bell peppers. This was all topped with a delicious peanut sauce she made from scratch according to the Moosewood cookbook. On the table were toppings for the dish–raw purple cabbage, raisins, coconut flakes, carrots, and diced orange. Here it is, in all its glory–so delicious and satisfying and overall, a real treat:

The Week in Recipes:

Monday November 14, 2011: Garlic mashed potatoes–full of flavor and creamy as can be.

Tuesday November 15, 2011: Basic pie crust recipe and a recipe for a vegan, but not-made-of-tofu pumpkin pie.

Wednesday November 16, 2011: My favorite part of Thanksgiving–the stuffing.

Thursday November 17, 2011: Roasted brussel sprouts, plus instructions for how to clean them.

Friday November 18, 2011: A sweet and tangy Cranberry Orange Bread. The perfect thing to do with the leftover cranberries after you’ve made the Cranberry Orange Relish.

I hope some of these recipes might be useful in making a delicious plant-based Thanksgiving this year. Don’t forget to check out the new recipe page. You can search by occasion and enter “Thanksgiving” for more ideas. I’m still in the process of adding recipes from older posts, but there are at least some on the page.

I’m away at a workshop this weekend, which I will tell you about later. I hope you all are having a lovely weekend!

Cranberry Orange Bread

During the holidays when we were growing up in Pittsburgh, our neighbors and family friends would bake various sweet treats and deliver them around the neighborhood. My mom spent Christmas Eve morning baking cinnamon rolls and my sister and I would run around the neighborhood delivering them that afternoon so that everyone would be able to have cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Our next door neighbor made jars of candied walnuts, and the neighbor two doors down made gingerbread people. I had almost forgotten about the cranberry orange bread that one of our family friends used to make until my mom reminded me of it the other day. It’s been years since I’ve had it and I decided to make a vegan version. So, after scouring the Internet for recipes, which were all loaded with butter and eggs, I took the leap and veganized a combination of recipes!

The Recipe

Makes 1 9″ x 5″ loaf

2 cups flour (one all-purpose unbleached, one whole wheat pastry)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries

1/4 cup vegan shortening (I used Earth Balance)

1 cup vegan sugar

1/2 cup applesauce

3/4 cup orange juice

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease the loaf pan. Cream the shortening, sugar, and applesauce together. Add the orange juice and combine. In a separate bowl, mix the rest of the dry ingredients and the whole cranberries. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and combine. Pour into loaf pan and bake for 1 hour. When removed from the oven, let sit for 10 minutes before you turn the loaf out onto a cooling rack.

I found this bread to be delicious just as it is–sweet, but not too sweet with bursts of tart cranberry. If you want to make this loaf sweeter, you can top with a sugar glaze. For the glaze, you will need 1 cup of vegan powdered sugar and 2 Tbls or more of orange juice. In a bowl, stir to combine, adding orange juice a little at a time until you’ve achieved a glaze-like pourable consistency. Carefully pour over the loaf.

Variation: This version has a very subtle citrus flavor. If you want a more pronounced orange flavor, add 1-2 Tbls of orange zest when you mix together the wet ingredients.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

Today, being Thursday, is craft day with my dear friend, Tish. Our plan today is to make vanilla extract, among some other activities to be determined…maybe a trip to the craft store. But before I head out, a quick post. This week has been a bit of a marathon of recipes in preparation for Thanksgiving and here’s one more! I love brussel sprouts. They’re like mini cabbages. This preparation is so easy. The most labor-intensive part of it is cleaning the brussel sprouts. I find cleaning brussel sprouts to be a kind of meditative practice and I’ve gotten to where I really enjoy it.

The Recipe

Serves 2

2 cups brussel sprouts

1 1/2 T olive oil

1 1/2 T lemon juice

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Begin by cleaning the brussel sprouts. The sprouts should start out looking like this:

You’ll want to start by cutting a little bit of the end off. Peel any outer leaves off that don’t look so great. Using a paring knife, make an “x” in the bottom of the brussel sprout.

This will help the brussel sprouts cook evenly, as it lets heat into the core of the sprout. Wash the brussel sprouts well.

Toss in a covered baking dish with the olive oil and salt and pepper.

Bake at 350 F for 25 minutes, or until tender and roasted.

Add the lemon before serving. Enjoy!

Savory Stuffing

If I could only have one of the typical Thanksgiving dishes, I’m pretty sure I would choose stuffing. A pile of stuffing doused in mushroom gravy is just about as good as it gets, in my opinion. Each family seems to have their own special stuffing recipe–some with nuts, some with cornbread, some with dried fruit, etc. I like the stuffing my mom makes, which I think is a fairly traditional version. Very simple ingredients–bread, onions, celery, garlic and herbs–make this stuffing easy to make and the flavors are spot-on. As a rule, as you’re chopping the parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, it is appropriate to hum or sing “Scarborough Fair” by Simon and Garfunkel.

You can use any kind of bread in the recipe. And dried or fresh herbs would be fine–if you can get your hands on fresh, they’re great. We have rosemary, thyme, and parsley in the garden. I bought a bunch of parsley. If you’re using dried herbs, you may want to reduce the quantities slightly.

The Recipe

Serves 4

6 slices of whole wheat bread, cubed (I used Dave’s Killer Bread with lots of seeds in it)

1 medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

3 stalks celery, diced

2 Tbls fresh sage, minced

1 Tbls fresh thyme, minced

1 tsp fresh rosemary, minced + 1 sprig

1/2 cup parsley, chopped

1/2 cup vegetable stock

splash of olive oil

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 250 F. Cut the bread into smallish cubes. Spread on a baking sheet in a single layer and toast them in the oven, with the door cracked open for about 20-25 minutes. The bread should be dried out and toasted, like croutons. While the bread is toasting, chop finely the onions and celery, and mince the garlic. In a large skillet, saute the onions and garlic with a splash of olive oil for a 3-5 minutes. Add the celery. Add the sage, rosemary, thyme, and a few generous grinds of black pepper. Stir to combine herbs and vegetables. Add the parsley. Cook for about 10 minutes until slightly soft.

When slightly soft, turn off heat and set aside. When the bread is toasted, toss it into a large mixing bowl. Add the vegetables and toss together. Drizzle the 1/2 cup of vegetable stock over the top and toss well to combine. Taste and add some salt if needed. Transfer stuffing to a covered baking dish. Put the sprig of fresh rosemary on top of the stuffing.

Preheat oven to 350 F and bake stuffing, covered, for about 40 minutes. It should get a little soft and a little crispy. If you like extra crispy stuffing, remove the cover for the last 10 minutes of baking to allow it to crisp up. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pie

Last week, I announced a ‘Veganize Thanksgiving Recipe Challenge’ where I asked readers to comment with their requests for vegan versions of Thanksgiving favorites. Anne wrote in with a request for vegan mashed potatoes and so yesterday I posted the Garlic Mashed Potatoes recipe that will go wonderfully with the Mushroom Gravy. Holly wrote in with a request for pumpkin pie and so today’s recipe is for a vegan pumpkin pie. I’ve made vegan pumpkin pies before, but I have always tried the tofu route for the filling and, honestly, I’ve been less than impressed. When Holly requested pumpkin pie, I knew I did not want to make a tofu pumpkin pie again. So I scoured the internet, looked at dozens of vegan and non-vegan pumpkin pie recipes and settled on a recipe that combines bits from a number of recipes. The result, I think, was a success! The recipe is below. Any last minute requests for a vegan version of your favorite Thanksgiving dish?

The Recipe

Makes 1 9-inch pie

1 9-inch basic pie crust, unbaked

1 15-0z can pumpkin puree

1 cup vanilla coconut milk drink

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup vegan white sugar

1 Tbls molasses

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp powdered ginger

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp ground clove

1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 425 F. In a large mixing bowl, mix the pumpkin, coconut milk drink, molasses, and sugars. A note about coconut milk: This is not the coconut milk from a can, it’s the coconut milk from a carton in the soymilk section of the grocery store. It has almost no coconut flavor, but is creamy and low-calorie:

In a separate small bowl, combine the cornstarch, spices, and salt. Add the dry mixture to the wet and whisk well to combine.

IMAG1752 — whisk all ingredients together

Pour into the prepared pie crust shell. Smooth out the filling so it is even.

Bake at 425 F for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 F and bake for 50 minutes or more. I ended up baking this pie for well over an hour to achieve the done-ness of the filling I wanted. The top of the filling should get a cooked film on it and, when you touch it gently, should feel springy and not come off on your finger.

Basic Pie Crust

This basic pie crust is flaky, easy to make and complementary to just about any kind of pie you’re making. I’ve gone through phases where I have been intimidated by pie crusts and have opted to just buy pre-made crusts instead. The options for vegan pre-made pie crusts are a bit more limited than the non-vegan variety, which can pose a problem on occasion. Some vegan pie crust recipes have almost a dozen ingredients and are more complicated to make. But pie crust doesn’t have to be difficult! In fact, the funny thing is that every time I actually make a crust, I remember that it’s not that difficult at all and I have trouble recalling what all the fuss was about.

The Recipe

Makes 1 9-inch pie crust

1 1/2 cups flour (I used 1 cup all purpose, 1/2 cup whole wheat pastry)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 cup vegetable shortening (I use Spectrum’s All-Vegetable Shortening)

4-6 Tablespoons ice water

Note: Pie crust dough should be handled as little as possible. The more you handle it, the tougher it will be. This recipe is for 1 9-inch pie crust. If you’re making a pie that requires a top, double the recipe.

Chill the 1/2 cup of vegetable shortening. While the shortening is chilling, measure the flour and the salt into a large mixing bowl. With a knife, cut the chilled shortening into small pieces. Add to the flour mixture and cut in with a knife, or your fingers. You want some small, pea-sized lumps of shortening to remain, but there should be no large lumps. These small lumps help to make the crust more flaky and light. Add the water a tablespoon at a time and combine with a fork. I usually end up using the larger quantity of water for this recipe, but the idea is that you want to add only enough so that the dough holds together when press together with your hands. Gently shape the dough into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap or parchment paper.

Place in the fridge for 1 hour or, if you’re in a rush–the freezer for about 10 minutes or so (of course, if you place it in the freezer, keep your eye on it! You don’t want it to actually start to freeze!). When the dough is chilled, lay out a piece of parchment or plastic wrap on a clean surface. Unwrap the dough ball and place it on the parchment. Cover with a second piece of parchment or plastic wrap and gently roll out the dough with a rolling pin. Start rolling out from the center of the dough and roll gently until the dough is even and rolled out to about 1/4 inch thick or less.

Remove one piece of the parchment or plastic wrap and lay the exposed side into a 9-inch pie dish.

Now you can peel the other piece of parchment or plastic wrap off of the top of the crust. [Note: if you have made a second crust for the top, add the pie filling at this point and then cover the filling with the second crust before continuing on with the instructions.] Cut excess crust from the edges and pinch the edges of the crust in as uniform a way as possible to finish the crust. Now the crust is ready for your pie filling:

Bake according to the recipe for the pie you are making. If you have excess pie crust, you can lay the extra bits in a pan, sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar, and bake for about 10 minutes alongside your pie:

Garlic Mashed Potatoes

When I was a little girl, my ‘second mother’ (Barb) who rented the third floor apartment of our house, watched Julia Child’s cooking shows religiously. She would tape them and then watch them when she had time to sit down and take notes. She filled many pads of paper with Julia Child’s recipes. Sitting on Barb’s couch watching Julia Child is a memory I don’t think I’ll ever forget. Julia Child’s operatic voice singing out from the TV, Barb imitating her voice when we stood in her kitchen cooking together–these are some of my happiest childhood memories. Barb died when I was 15, but every time I think of Julia Child, or read her recipes, I can hear Barb’s voice imitating her and laughing at the silliness of it all.

Before I became vegan, I delighted in Julia Child’s recipe for braised garlic–basically, garlic cooked over very low heat, swimming in butter. The garlic in this recipe is a variation on that. Though “now add 3 tablespoons of olive oil!” does not quite have the same charm as “now add a pound of butter!” in that familiar operatic voice, I still delight in pretending to be her while cooking–now, just a vegan Julia Child!

These mashed potatoes are light, fluffy and full of rich garlicky flavor. The braised garlic really does the trick and infuses these potatoes with lots of flavor.

The Recipe

Serves 2-3

1 lb of potatoes (your favorite variety–I used red because it’s what I had)

6-8 cloves of garlic, peeled

1/3-1/2 cup rice milk

3 Tablespoons olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Notes before beginning: I like mashed potatoes with the skins, so I left them on. If you prefer to peel them, by all means–go ahead. These potatoes can be made with a number of tools. I used our electric stand mixer, which works wonders. You can also use an electric hand mixer, or a good old-fashioned potato masher, which I also love.

Chop the potatoes into chunks.

Boil a large pot of water and add the potatoes. Boil the potatoes for 25-30 minutes, or until they are tender and easily pierced with a fork. While the potatoes are cooking, add the olive oil to a small saucepan. On the very lowest heat possible, add the whole garlic cloves and cover the pot.

Cook the garlic on low heat like this for 15 minutes or so, swirling the pot around occasionally to cook the garlic evenly. You want it to be a light golden color (mine got a little darker than I had been going for–too high of heat to start out). The cloves should be golden and very tender when cooked. Turn off the heat.

In a large mixing bowl (if using a stand mixer, use the stand mixer bowl), add the garlic and oil mixture and mix the garlic into the olive oil. It should mash easily. Add 1/4 cup of rice milk to the mixture and combine. When the potatoes are finished cooking, drain the water out of them and add the potatoes to the olive oil/garlic/milk mixture. Mix well, until the potatoes are creamy and fluffy. You can add more milk if you like (I ended up using the whole 1/2 cup in the end). Salt and pepper to taste.

Serve alone or with mushroom gravy on top. And of course…

Bon appetit!

Week in Review: Ch-ch-ch-changes

This week has been quite a lot of work behind the scenes on the site. I switched to self-hosting the blog in order to gain more flexibility and control over what the site has to offer. However, this was WAY more involved than I had anticipated. I am still working out a lot of the kinks (broken links, uploading recipes to the new recipe page, repopulating the email list, etc). If you were an email subscriber to the blog, the email subscriptions were lost in the move. I sent out an email to the email subscribers informing them, but if you’d like to subscribe to receive the posts by email, there is a link in the right hand column on the main page (also where you can find the RSS feed sign-up if you’re interested in that). Overall, hopefully the blog has remained more or less the same in appearance. The most exciting change for readers is that I signed up for a program called Recipage, which will organize my recipes so that they are easier to search. For instance, if you go to the recipe tab on the site, you can browse by ‘occasion’ and click ‘Thanksgiving’ for recipes specific to Thanksgiving, or you can browse by ‘key ingredient,’ etc. I am still in the process of uploading all of the recipes that are already on my site (each one needs to be uploaded individually to Recipage). Please bear with me and let me know if you run into any problems using any aspect of the site. Are there any features you would like to see incorporated into the site? Let me know!

The Week:

Monday November 7, 2011: A recipe for a super delicious mushroom gravy.

Tuesday November 8, 2011: Roasted red potatoes recipe, perfect with the mushroom gravy from Monday.

Wednesday November 9, 2011: A heads up about changes to the site, and a Veganize Thanksgiving Recipe Challenge. So far we’ve had a request from Anne for vegan mashed potatoes. Lucky for you, I made a trial run recipe of garlic mashed potatoes last night, which were spot on (if I do say so myself) and I will be posting the recipe this week. I also received a request from Holly for a vegan pumpkin pie. That is my project for today, and assuming the recipe I’ve developed turns out like I’m hoping, I will post that this week as well. What other Thanksgiving recipes would you like to see veganized?

Friday November 11, 2011: No post on Thursday because I spent the whole day (I mean from 9am-9pm with my dear friend Tish making vegan lip balm and vegan candles). Admittedly, the active craft time was more like 4 hours–we did eat breakfast, lunch and dinner and run all over town acquiring the necessary supplies. A successful day, resulting in a fabulous recipe for vegan lip balm–pieced together from a bunch of different recipes online.

Saturday November 12, 2011: A recipe for a fresh cranberry, orange, ginger relish. Yum!!

This coming week will most likely be heavy on the Thanksgiving recipes. I’ve been cooking like crazy, trying out new recipes and photographing the food with my trusty little phone. You can expect mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, cranberry orange bread, stuffing, and any last minute requests you might have for vegan versions of old favorites. By the time Thanksgiving rolls around, I think I will have eaten my fill of Thanksgiving foods! Happy Sunday and I hope this has been a good week for you all.