Trader Joe's Turkey-Less Stuffed Roast to the Rescue!

So, a week ago I made a desperate Trader Joe's run in search of their vegan vanilla ice cream (which is amazing) and which they had been sold out of for the first two weeks of November (my poor husband was the victim on those runs).

THIS TIME I CALLED AHEAD.

Peter answered and emphatically encouraged me to put all three quarts of the remaining ice cream on hold, for pick up asap.

I can follow directions.

I like the new spelling of my name.

I secured the product in triplicate! 

And, previous, to this trip, while recently perusing Trader Joe's (super handy and fun) Vegan Product List, I noticed they offered a *new* *vegan* *Thanksgiving/Holiday* *roast.* OH YES THEY DO. I thought in all caps: THERE'S ABSOLUTELY NO WAY ON EARTH THEY WILL ALSO HAVE THE VEGAN STUFFED HOLIDAY ROAST IN STOCK THE WEEK BEFORE THANKSGIVING. 

(The ice cream debacle may have made me a little hypervigilant.)

BUT THEY DID.

 LOOK! THERE SHE IS! Note the cute "V" (lower left).

I also procured a jarred Cranberry Sauce so I wouldn't have to make one.

 And I needed a little more of the delicious and reasonably priced 10-year Balsamic Vinegar (of Modena). That's the only kind you should buy.

And I was buggered that my camera was behaving strangely during this shoot. I finally figured out (afterwards and much too late, of course) that it was still set to manual (I had been playing with it days before and left it in the manual setting). That explains the iso of 3200 in this shot. Big duh. Sorry guys!

Anyway, back to our story. So, yes, the ice cream and the holiday roast...

SO, I stayed back from Thanksgiving travel to work on my book, develop some recipes,and do some other things (more writing).

As other cookbook authors will tell you, when you're writing and developing recipes, you don't have the time or inclination to make a whole meal. It's one of those good problems.

On Wednesday, I was in pie development mode, and I made a pie. But that's all I made. So, yup. Nothing left over from that but pie. I didn't even eat the pie, a slice of the pie or even a bite of the pie. I thought I might bring it somewhere or something plus I didn't want pie on Wednesday (through no fault of the pie).

This is what I ate yesterday, on Thanksgiving:

A DINNER ROLL. 

Yes, it's a potential book recipe, but seriously!

OK, so today, I was really feeling like I HAD to eat some Thanksgiving type feast meal.

I remembered the Trader Joe's Turkey-less Stuffed Roasts in my freezer. And the Brussels sprouts and the cranberry sauce. And, the rolls (I know).

I thought you guys might like to know how the frozen, super convenient and VEGAN roasts tasted, right? Right?

Well, let's start by opening up the bag.

Here's the bag.

All the directions say to do is heat the frozen roasts at 450 for 25 to 30 minutes. SO EASY.

OK, so I was a *little* taken aback by how tiny they seemed. 

Those are the gravy packets that are wrapped.

So, I baked the roasts (both of them, since they seemed so tiny and I was really hungry) and I heated up the gravy on the stove top, and I made some Brussels sprouts (a book recipe, they are SO good) and I opened the jar of cranberry sauce and I stuck some of my rolls in the oven.

Here's what I ate tonight:

And, OH MY WORD was that roast ever delicious! It *really* tasted like chicken (in a good way), the texture was spot-on (juicy yet crisp-tender, perfect!) and the stuffing was flavorful. 

And one was plenty.

It did not, in *any* way at all, need the ferociously foul smelling gravy.

The gravy looks fine, but smelled atrocious. There was no way I was going to put that in my mouth.

I'm not sure what they did to the gravy, but I do not recommend you eat it (just chuck it, sorry, TJ's!). Next time, just do a mushroom gravy, OK, guys?

Since today was Black Friday, I also went to the library and bought two cookbooks from the library cart for $1.50:

I love dated cookbooks.

And here's a crazy cat video for you:

It's all upside down and stuff. I KNOW! Sorry. 

I'm not really having luck with the photos and the videos this weekend!

However, my friend Michael had me covered...

Thanksgiving Turkey and Pilgrim by my old collegue and artist friend,
Michael Wintering, LPC, ATR-BC (Board Certified Art Therapist).
Media: Electronic Wacom Intuos Digital Drawing Pad.

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday!

Thanksgiving Again

Thanksgiving is upon us once again.

We had an early vegan feast this year that included top-secret book-bound recipes! Shhhh!

It's also time to put the garden to bed and collect the last CSA boxes of the season.

Kholrabi from my final CSA box of the season! Farewell, Honey Brook Farm! See you next year!

The last of the hard-necked garlic, boo! Farewell garlic!

Mother Nature is busy preparing for the winter.

My milkweed went to seed. 

 But my Camellia is blooming!

Thank goodness for November blooming buds.

And I found a perfect one pound sweet potato in my last CSA box.

It doesn't get better than that.

Should you need some ideas for what to make this Thanksgiving, check out these posts:

Vegan Thanksgiving Ideas from 2011 + 2012: See the end of the post for lots of links!

Research & Development, Thanksgiving 2012: some great links for ideas at the end of this post, too.

Thanksgiving 2012: Here's what I made last year!

Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

Sweet Potato Gruyere Pizza and Pizza Makin' Tips

Here is my "Thanksgiving Pizza," originally conceived by Sweet Potato Man, but modernized and executed by moi.

Sweet Potato Gruyere Pizza

Organic, Spiced Sweet Potato Puree, Caramelized Fennel, Shaved Garlic, Homemade Cashew Gruyere (Hard and Soft varieties), Basil Chiffonade, Chopped Hazelnuts, Home Dried Sage on a Rosemary White Whole Wheat Crust.

To make your own Thanksgiving Pizza, make your favorite pizza dough recipe and add 1 tsp of dried Rosemary.  You can add other spices or herbs to your dough as well (oregano, sage, thyme, cinnamon, nutmeg) but I just wanted rosemary as some other spice elements were present in my other ingredients.  I also like using King Arthur's White Whole Wheat flour, it is a whole grain and tastes great as a pizza dough.  Turn your dough out into a well oiled bowl and let your dough rise (usually about 1.5 hours for me).

While your dough is rising, prepare your toppings.

Hard and Soft Gruyere Cashew Cheeses (lighter cheese is the soft gruyere, darker cheese is the hard), Sweet Potato Puree (with added Cinnamon--Penzeys Vietnamese, a very strong and spicy cinnamon, salt, pepper, olive oil and garlic powder), Caramelized Fennel, Shaved Garlic, Home Dried Sage, Basil Chiffonade, and Chopped Hazelnuts.

I like to have my toppings all ready to be placed on the dough.  There's a spoon already in the Sweet Potato Puree.  Each loose topping gets it's own  spice bowl.  The cheese has been sliced and set out ready to be placed.

Elements I chose not to add were nutmeg, thyme or oregano, hot pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, etc.  I didn't want the spice elements to overwhelm, but any of those flavors would be great depending on what type of pizza you are going for.

Get your pizza peel ready by dusting with cornmeal.  I just use a cookie sheet, this one has two raised sides (so you can pick it up off the counter and out of the oven) and is flat on the other two sides so you can slide the pizza onto the stone/griddle.

In the last forty minutes or so of your dough rising, turn your oven to 500 degrees F (take your dough out first if you were proofing it in the cold oven!!).  Put your pizza stone or your magical Double Burner Cast Iron Griddle in the oven, too.  Once you are preheated to 500, allow the stone/griddle to heat up for 30 full minutes.  

When your dough is done rising, punch it down in the bowl.  Then, instead of "rolling it out," and dealing with sticky dough everywhere, I use a trick to shape my dough into a pizza.  I actually just push it into a pizza crust right in the bowl it rose in.  I use my fingers to push the dough right into the bowl, making a rough oval with even thickness. Don't worry that it is curved like the bowl, just get it to be an even thickness and the shape that you want.  (I should have taken a picture of this, sorry guys.  I will add one the next time I do pizza.)  Then I take it out carefully (It looks like a concave dough oval) and lay it on my prepared cookie sheet, and just using my hands/fingers, I continue to press it out into the perfect oval (my griddle is rectangular, so I don't do circle pizzas!).  The concavity resolves itself immediately once you lay it flat.  So easy!

Add your toppings.  

Work fairly quickly since if the dough is thin, the wet toppings can start soaking through and your pizza will stick to the peel.

Make sure your pizza slides around on the pan when you shake it gently.  If it doesn't, carefully lift it around the edges and push more cornmeal underneath it (the cornmeal acts as ball bearings for the dough to roll off the pan when you slide it).  You may have a stuck spot somewhere, I had one today close to the center.

Once your pizza is loaded with toppings and can slide left to right (towards the raised edges) and a bit back and forth (towards the open edge) you are ready to go.  Remove your hot stone/griddle from the oven.

Slide your pizza out the open edge and onto your (now very hot) stone/griddle.  Bake for 10-12 minutes in your (very well) preheated oven.  

When your pizza is done (it will be golden on the bottom, toppings will be cooked and starting to brown), remove it from the griddle using two heat proof spatulas.  

Or, at least, that's how I do it.

Put it back on your cookie sheet, and let it cool just a little bit.  

Lydia says now she's ready to serve!

Serve with Cranberry Sauce or Mushroom (or any other!) Gravy for dipping.

What kinds of pizza dreams do you have?

Food and Fun: Thanksgiving 2012

Here it is, Thanksgiving 2012: the food, the fun, the foils!

First, the food.

Baked Tofu with Mushroom Gravy, Steamed CSA Cauliflower & Romanesco (didn't make it into a gratin, but it was still good!), Isa's Roasted Fennel & Hazelnut Salad with Shallot Dressing (dressing not applied yet!), Mashed Yukon Golds and Maple Mashed Sweet Potatoes.

 Baked Tofu! So easy, so delicious.  

Susan's recipe reminded me that it could easily be served as a vegan main course for T-day, so bake it and serve it I did!  

Doesn't Romanesco look like little Christmas trees? 

Roasting Fennel, Shallots and Garlic for the Salad:

 

It was fun shaking the hazelnuts in a towel to get the skins off!

 Shallot Dressing for the Roasted Fennel and Hazelnut Salad 

(recipe was from Veganomicon).

 Cranberry Sauce! (Hubby's secret recipe)

Oh, and for appetizers, we had a vegan cheese plate!

Homemade, Soft "Gruyere" Style Cashew Cheese from Artisan Vegan Cheese, Castelvetrano Olives and Red Seedless Grapes.

Note: The cheese was sliceable after sitting in the fridge for about ten days.  It tasted incredible!  

And, the fun...

We got presents from Grandma Margie! 

 Grandma Margie loves to draw little cartoons.

I love that little turkey! 

Emory got those cool "magic" worms from the 70's now marketed as "Squirmels." 

They are really really fun.

Ollie enjoyed the presents, too.  

As any good cat should, she loved the wrapping paper and bags.

Is that one of those worms on a string from the 70's?

She also really loved the squirmels.  Emory is playing with it there in the background and she is just captivated.  She can't quite tell if it's real or not...

I got really pretty autumnal dinner napkins for my hostess gift.

 Here they are with Lydia, our Thanksgiving Turkey 

(She's named after Lydia Bastianich!)

The foil...

Pa brought a present for Emory, too:

 An awesome homemade Magic Sword, kinda He-Man in the style department.

Pa raked and Emory attacked!

What to do now?

Pie, of course!

Double Layer Pumpkin-Cheesecake from The Fat Free Vegan Blog w a Gingersnap Crust.

Use whatever crust you like or need to use, they all work.  I love Susan! 

Dawn's Gingersnap Crust Recipe:

Put all but six cookies from a 10 ounce bag of Mi-Del Swedish Style Gingersnaps (they are awesome and they are vegan!) into your food processor and pulse until fine crumbs are achieved.  With the machine on, add three tablespoons of melted butter (EB) or neutral oil (canola, etc.) and blend until combined.  Press into pie pan and blind bake at 350 for 10 minutes. 

Fill it with the cream cheese mixture first:

Then add the pumpkin mixture and bake!

Oh. My. Goodness.  This pie is so amazing.

We are already making leftovers, too:

 Mini Thanksgiving Pot Pies!

Hubby's Recipe: 

Layer and/or mix whatever you like for this pie! The bottom is best with something firm like packed stuffing, middle layer is your veggies and/or main course mixed with gravy + extra pepper, cover with mashed potatoes, sprinkle with smoked paprika and bake at 350 for 45 minutes. YUM-O.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  BTW, I didn't make the Thanksgiving Pizza yet, but it's on the to-do list, maybe tomorrow.

Right now, I should really check on this...

I haven't looked in on it since Wednesday, I think.

Onward!