thanksgiving, parts I and II

Thanksgiving, Part I: The Family Gathering Shindig

Overall it was a very tasty meal, with cranberry sauce, stuffing, rolls, mashed potatoes, Maple-Mustard-Glazed potatoes and beans (my contribution), roasted sweet potatoes, and green bean casserole. As I said in the previous post, I wasn't expecting a vegan dinner, but I was at least able to convince my mom to use almond milk and Earth Balance for the mashed potatoes! I wasn't able to bring my Tofurkey roast because I hadn't thawed it in advance (bah!), but I made a batch of gravy using the recipe on the box. Which I don't recommend. That recipe is kinda nasty. I should've stuck with the chickpea gravy from VwaV, but I wanted to try something new okay!?


Maple-Mustard-Glazed Potatoes and String Beans

Ingredients:
2 pounds small Yukon gold potatoes, halved (about 1-inch pieces)
1/2 pound string beans, halved, ends cut off and discarded
1 yellow onion, thickly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp olive oil

Preheat oven to 400. Place the vegetables in a casserole dish. Mix all of the other ingredients together until the mustard is dissolved, and then pour over the vegetables. Mix well until everything is coated. Cover with foil, and baked for 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and toss everything to re-coat with sauce. Turn the oven down to 350, and cook for 25 minutes uncovered. Remove from the oven, toss again, and cook for another 25 minutes uncovered.


As I've said before, this is my favorite recipe out of VwaV, and it went over really well.


Thanksgiving, Part II: The Tofurkey Experiment

The boy and I came home from Thanksgiving with a ton of leftover potatoes. Despite them going over really well, that didn't compensate for the fact that I'd made enough to feed an army. Thankfully that recipe tastes just as good when reheated as leftovers! Maybe even better, since it's been able to marinate in the sauce for a while.

The Tofurkey though? A total letdown. I really wanted to like it, and it had so much going for it: the stuffing looked delicious, the texture of the "meat" part was great, the basting sauce of soy sauce and orange juice was really tasty. Unfortunately it was also incredibly salty. Not just a little over-salty, but a LOT over-salty, like "when I eat this I want to gag a bit because it is so damn salty." I finished what I'd sliced for myself, but I was so disappointed. I guess I'll have to try something else for next year's Thanksgiving feast. Who knows, maybe by then I'll be adventurous enough to make my own seitan. Then again... maybe not.