Happy Thanksgiving!

Rob is on swing shift this week, so posts have been scarce. Not because I haven't had anything to say, or any food to share. There's been plenty. In fact, Rob even made cookies! Really!! The guy whose best meal is canned tomato soup with minute rice made homemade cookies from scratch! Something about swing shift just takes away my time and inspiration to post.

Until tonight!

I was totally prepared to go without a Thanksgiving post, and even a Thanksgiving. For months, he knew he was supposed to work that afternoon. So we decided to not make a big deal out of it. Why stress myself out all morning for an elaborate lunch that we have to quickly inhale so he makes it to work on time, and then I'm left spending the rest of the afternoon getting fat off of cleaning up the leftovers while dealing with the baby? What kind of holiday is that? Don't ask me, because that's not how it turned out!

Yesterday evening, I get a phone call. He got the day off! At the last second they decide to give half of his crew Thursday off, and the other half Friday off! WOOOO! WAIT! NO! Tomorrow off? We don't have ANY Thanksgiving food, it's 6pm on Wednesday night, and Rob has the car! Luckily, I was able to get ahold of his friend Dave, who was nice enough to drive me to two stores so I could get my Tofurky and all of the other little Thanksgiving must-haves. Whew!

We invited Dave to have dinner with us. It was the least we could do since he was nice enough to take me shopping! Holidays are more fun with company anyway. I knew the boys would be watching football, so I whipped up some dips for them: Pine Nut and Garlic Hummus and Black Bean Dip. They were just sort of thrown together at the last second so I don't have actual recipes. Here's the general idea of what I did though:

For the hummus, I toasted up a handful of pine nuts, a can of drained and rinsed chickpeas, and a few cloves of garlic in olive oil. I seasoned it up with some fresh rosemary and thyme, as well as dried basil, oregano, salt, black pepper, and red pepper flakes. After letting it cool a bit, I ground up everything in a food processor with tahini, more olive oil, and some vegetable broth. It turned out a little dry. It needed more tahini and olive oil. It tasted excellent though!

For the black bean dip, I drained and rinsed the beans and threw them in a pan with a few cloves of garlic and toasted them as well as black beans could be toasted. They were seasoned with cumin, chili powder, a little bit of oregano, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and salt. This was blended up with olive oil and veggie broth, and I managed to not make it too dry. It was a big hit!

Both dips were served with fresh veggies and chips for dipping (of course they ate the chips and left most of the veggies...boys...), and black olives. The hummus is on the left, and the black bean dip is on the right.


Dinner turned out great. The Tofurky turned out excellent. I used my usual recipe.


There was a massive bowl of mashed potatoes that required some serious muscle to mash. I might have gone a little overboard with those. Which, of course, is way better than not making enough!! Yay for leftovers!


Dave brought the cranberry sauce, which turned out awesome!


Not Pictured: Sweet baked yams, green beans (from a can...not worth a picture), homemade apple crisp (Mom's recipe), and sparkling cider (because we're wild like that). It was a great meal that I was very lucky to have. I definitely have something to be thankful for.

As Promised: Tofurky!!

Yummm...I just had an AWESOME early Thanksgiving dinner! The Tofurky was a hit at the meetup - it disappeared quick! It ended up slightly drier than usual since I accidentally arrived an hour earlier than the meetup actually started, and we didn't bring out the food until an hour after the meetup started. Oops! Two extra hours in the warmer might have been a bit much. It was still moist enough, but I've made better. I guess that means I'll just have to post more pictures of my next one!


The recipe:

Place Tofurky in refrigerator to thaw at least 24 hours before you intend to use it!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:
1 Thawed Tofurky
2 Tablespoons vegan margarine (I used Earth Balance)
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 Tablespoon soy sauce
2-3 Sprigs of fresh thyme
1/2 - 1 Sprig of fresh rosemary
3-5 Fresh sage leaves
2-3 Cloves of garlic
1-2 Carrots
2 Stalks of celery
2 Medium red potatoes
1 Small-medium onion
Vegetable broth, as needed (I prefer No-Chicken broth, but it was not available at my store. If you can find that, use it!! Otherwise, any veggie broth will do)
Salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Instructions:
Mix margarine, oil, soy sauce, a few grinds of pepper, and a pinch of salt (easy on the salt...you have soy sauce in there!) in a small dish

Remove leaves from thyme and rosemary and chop into fine pieces. Finely chop sage and garlic. Add to above mixture and whisk together with a fork. Set aside.

Remove Tofurky from plastic casing and avoid injuring yourself like I did.

Now for the REALLY fun part: Attack it! Take a small knife or fork, and stab several small holes around the Tofurky. This is an essential part of achieving a moist end result!

Place Tofurky in the center of a 8x11 baking dish

Apply entire margarine-oil-soy sauce-herb mixture to Tofurky, spreading it around as evenly as possible. If there is extra, just pile the rest right on top!

Peel, rinse, and chop carrot(s) and onion

Wash and chop celery and potatoes

Arrange vegetables around Tofurky

Add more salt and pepper over everything (optional, but recommended)

Add vegetable broth until vegetables are almost covered

Cover tightly with foil

Cook 1 hour 10 minutes covered, remove cover, and cook 10 more minutes (same as package instructions)

Avoid placing in warmer for 2 more hours afterward like I did (ha)

Thinly slice and enjoy!

Note: I would not recommend skimping on ANYTHING! The oil and margarine might sound like a lot, but c'mon. It's the holidays! Fresh herbs are absolutely essential. If you don't want to buy tons of fresh herbs that you don't plan on using anything else, take another look in the fresh herb section of your grocery store. Usually around the holidays (if not all year round) I am able to find a "poultry seasoning" mix containing those 3 herbs. This will cost you much less and leave you with much less waste. The vegetables are also important, even if you don't want to eat them. The flavors season the broth even more, and the broth steams and soaks into the Tofurky. I've had this thing prepared many ways, and trust me - This is the way to do it!

Ahh...Now if only I had recipes for all of the food that everyone else brought tonight...YUM!