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foxytina_69
Sep 7th, 2004, 08:14 PM
anybody excited for upcoming thanksgiving?

what do u normally have for thanksgiving dinners? this will be my first, being vegan. im very excited!

Artichoke47
Sep 7th, 2004, 11:27 PM
I'm going to cook Thanksgiving dinner for my family. I don't know what I'm making yet, probably a variety of things, like soup, salad, fruit, vegetables, maybe a bean or lentil dish or nut dish, dessert.

There is a recipe from Veggie Life that involves making rice into the shape of a turkey, but I find that quite distasteful and disrespectful to the turkeys.

foxytina_69
Sep 8th, 2004, 01:22 AM
im thinking about making a sort of nut/rice loaf, that tastes like stuffing, with a gravey. im making it tonight for a try out :)

Kiva Dancer
Sep 8th, 2004, 01:57 AM
I will be making all kinds of stuff for Thanksgiving. Some kind of winter squash (with the seeds roasted), mashed potatoes, veggie gravy, veg stuffing, cranberry sauce, fruit salad, green salad, WW rolls, green beans and corn mix, brussel sprouts, brown rice, roasted sweet potatoes, and a tofu pumpkin pie for dessert. I want to try making a crema for that pie this year but I don't know if I'll do that or not. I may just buy a carton of Soy Delicious for the topping and have done. :D

Roxy
Sep 8th, 2004, 05:10 AM
I'd really like to try that Tofurkey dinner that comes complete with a tofurkey, stuffing and gravy. Then we could bake some of our own vegetables and I could make a delicious wild rice and cranberry dish.

Tofu pumpking pie.....mmmmm. Do you have a recipe for that Kiva Dancer?

slinkyvagabond
Sep 8th, 2004, 05:18 AM
Great reviews on this simple recipe: http://vegweb.com/food/sweets/3510.shtml

I can't wait to be a mischievous little vegan and slip this in with the other desserts at my very non-veg family's Thanksgiving get-together. :D *rubs hands evilly*

Roxy
Sep 8th, 2004, 05:31 AM
Mmmmm that sounds like a nice recipe! I like that lady's idea of the maple baked pecans for garnish :p

slinkyvagabond
Sep 8th, 2004, 06:29 AM
One year my mom whipped up a Martha Stewart pumpkin pie recipe that included maple syrup and was garnished with pecans and little leaf shaped cut-outs of pastry dough. I imagine spiced pecans would be great as well.

Roxy
Sep 8th, 2004, 06:36 AM
little leaf shaped cut-outs of pastry dough.

Isn't that just soooo Martha!

foxytina_69
Sep 8th, 2004, 09:15 AM
mmm the loaf was good, not so much tomato paste next time tho! and no flavoured tofu because both made it too rich! the gravey i made was delicious tho! my boyfriend ate dinner with me. hes so cute. hes a meat eater so its cute when he says its really good and i know hes dreaming of real meatloaf LOL.

uww27225
Sep 8th, 2004, 01:28 PM
slinky, that recipe looks awesome. i think i may be a sneaky little vegan as well and bring it to my atkins-approved family's thanksgiving! :D

uww27225
Sep 8th, 2004, 07:21 PM
Since I've never purchased (or cooked with) tofu before, I have a newbie question. I want to make this pumpkin pie, but do you drain the tofu before blending it? I've only eaten tofu a couple of times and have no idea what it's like when you buy it, so I apologize if this is a stupid question.

Artichoke47
Sep 8th, 2004, 07:40 PM
I think it's always best to blanch the tofu (boil for 10 minutes), drain it, and then press it, which means basically putting the tofu on paper towels, putting another paper towel or two over it, and then laying like a soymilk container on top for a few minutes.

foxytina_69
Sep 8th, 2004, 08:48 PM
why would u boil the tofu?

Kiva Dancer
Sep 8th, 2004, 10:06 PM
Great reviews on this simple recipe: http://vegweb.com/food/sweets/3510.shtml

I can't wait to be a mischievous little vegan and slip this in with the other desserts at my very non-veg family's Thanksgiving get-together. :D *rubs hands evilly*

hee hee... that's the recipe I use and it's gotten rave reviews every year I make it. Great stuff, this.

I've never blanched my tofu. I always use it straight from the pack.

uww27225: I think you may be thinking of curd style. The type I use for this pie is silken style tofu. It will usually say that on the package. You don't usually have to drain it, but I've seen some silken tofus that you do have to drain so I guess you could say that if it's packed in water, drain it. If it's not packed in water, use it straight out of the carton.

Artichoke47
Sep 9th, 2004, 12:37 AM
I don't know what the purpose is of boiling it. I just follow the directions. LOL :)

amritab@yahoo.com
Sep 9th, 2004, 05:05 PM
There are some good vegetarian ideas in this link from epicurious, recipes can be veganized.

http://www.epicurious.com/gourmet/menus/thanks2003/harvest

nonemorebrown
Sep 9th, 2004, 05:28 PM
About draining tofu, I rarely drain the tofu. I might press down on it a bit, but that's about it.

My wife and I made Thanksgiving dinner for our whole family last Thanksgiving. It turned out to be a huge success! We served the usual suspects (mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, etc.), but we also threw in a few oddball choices, like nutritional yeast covered tofu "chicken-like strips". Everyone really liked them. People were going back for seconds and thirds. We were very happy! I think the key to really clinching Thanksgiving is having knockout desserts. We had pumpkin pie, apple pie, and chocolate cake. My mom, unfortunately, doesn't like tofu (more so, the idea of tofu), so, of course, the first thing I did was give her a piece of pumpkin pie, which was made out of tofu. She hurriedly ate it down and said it was some of the best pumpkin pie she'd ever eaten. We plan on making Thanksgiving dinner again this year.

Kiva Dancer
Sep 9th, 2004, 10:52 PM
I don't know what the purpose is of boiling it. I just follow the directions. LOL :) What brand do you use?

Roxy
Sep 10th, 2004, 05:25 AM
Foxy - do you have a recipe for that loaf? Is it relatively simple?

Roxy.

foxytina_69
Sep 10th, 2004, 09:14 AM
yes i have a recipe. its pretty simple, but i revised the recipe so its not so strong this time :)

"meatloaf" :

1/2 cup walnuts
half small tin tomato paste
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 medium onion, chopped
celery, sliced
3 carrots, sliced
1 roasted red pepper, chopped (optional, it just adds sum flavour)
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1 cup brown rice (cooked) (half wild rice would give it a better texture ive heard but havnt tried it)
1/2 cup extra firm tofu
egg replacer (equivlalent to 3 eggs)
dash sherry or red wine
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp sage (or more, this really gives it the meaty flavour of a meatloaf)
sea salt and pepper

preset oven to 350 degrees

ground up walnuts, with tomato paste and liquid smoke. set aside.

cook onions and garlic in oil, in frying pan over medium heat until onions are translucent. add rest of veggies and tofu. add spices and sherry. cook until liquid is gone.

in large bowl, add walnut mixture, veggie mixture, bread crumbs, rice and egg replacer all together. place in greased baking pan (loaf size) and bake for thirty minutes.

u can put any topping on, such as a tomato sauce while it cooks. this recipe can obviously be altered anyway, but its delicious, with cranberry sauce or the onion gravey i posted a recipe for.

Roxy
Sep 11th, 2004, 05:44 AM
Thank you foxy :)

uww27225
Sep 22nd, 2004, 01:41 PM
Great reviews on this simple recipe: http://vegweb.com/food/sweets/3510.shtml

I can't wait to be a mischievous little vegan and slip this in with the other desserts at my very non-veg family's Thanksgiving get-together. :D *rubs hands evilly*

I made this last night. It was my first time making a pie and my first time buying/using tofu. I thought it turned out really good. My s.o. didn't really like it, but she's not much of a pumpkin pie person.

Any suggestions for vegan whipped cream? I thought the pie was good, but I really like my pumpkin pie with whipped cream!

Roxy
Sep 23rd, 2004, 06:38 AM
Thanks for the feedback uww. I want to make this one too, so I'm glad to hear that yours turned out.

Sorry, I don't have any suggestions for the whipped cream, but I'd be interested to hear what other people use.

Andie
Oct 3rd, 2004, 10:42 PM
This will be my first Thanksgiving/Christmas season as a vegan. I have two main concerns. Hubby and I will eat Thanksgiving dinner at his grandmother's house. She is elderly and is a "food pusher." ONe of her other grandchildren is a vegetarian however she cannot understand why she wouldn't eat "just a little ground beef" in the spaghetti sauce once. This is what I'm up against. I don't want to hurt her feelings. Should I offer to help cook and make some of the stuff vegan like the mashed potatoes? I'm also afraid that she really won't want my help. Maybe I should just bring a "side" dishes I can eat.

We will eat a Christmas season meal at my older brother's house. I'm really stressed as he tends to like to pick on me. It's not the affectionate kind of teasing. I'm also afraid his children who are my age, don't ask, will also harras me.

What do others do at family and holiday dinners? Also, I realize lots of folks don't celebrate the above holidays as this is a forum reaching around the world (though some other countries do have thanksgiving though not in NOvember) and not all Americans are Christian in tradition.