November 27, 2007thanksgiving and pear crispoh internet, did you think that i had forgotten about you, just because my last post was a week ago? no, i could never do that. i've just spent the last week cooking, keeping busy, getting out of the house as much as humanly possible, and putting all of my mental and emotional energy into then i decided to take a wee little internet break because i was haunting my parenting forums (what else do i have to do?) and reading about women who had been having one hour apart contractions for four solid days and still hadn't progressed, and i was getting a little freaked out. but i'm back! although i'm still not going to read those forums until the baby is here. shudder. here's what went on last week: we had a very low key thanksgiving day. i did end up spacing the cooking over a couple of days, so we had several smaller thanksgiving-ish meals. here was our lunch on the day of:  the key players here are the fat free vegan green bean casserole with slight modifications; my miso mashed (purple!) potatoes with gravy (both sort of standard recipes that i haven't bothered to ever write down but, who knows, might make the next cookbook); and the vegan family cookbook's vegan turkey, which i basted with earth balance, soy sauce, and liquid smoke. the vegan turkey was stellar and i strongly recommend it to replace your processed tofurkys and unturkeys! brian mccarthy really has a way with seitan recipes—there is no kneading, no fretting over water temperature, and it came out with the perfect texture and flavor. i loved it. i loved it so much that i made at least three leftover sandwiches with it this weekend:  (also pictured there are my roasted roots from the cookbook.) then yesterday evening, i made pear crisp. if you're like me, crisps are a dessert borne out of necessity rather than to fulfill a craving. i throw together a crisp whenever i'm in the: "what the hell am i going to do with all this damn fruit?" situation. i've made them with apples and cherries—even a pluot crisp once after a regrettable end-of-summer pluot madness sale. (that one was especially delicious.) well, i had two weeks' worth of CSA pears that we hadn't managed to eat, and my thoughts turned to crisps. i've never followed a recipe before, because crisps are basically just sugar and fruit and spices topped with oatmeal cookie dough. but last night, i decided to try the ppk recipe. i subbed pears for apples (bonus: you don't have to peel pears!) and dried cranberries for raisins. here are the pears after being sliced:  and the final crisp an hour later, after we had already taken out our portions:  yum. a thousand times yum. matt wants you to know at this point that he still would have preferred apple crisp. i guess that is because he is insane. (apples are my least favorite fruit by far and i see them only as vehicles for peanut butter or vegan nutella when they're raw, or to be turned into spiced applesauce.) but i also told him that if he wanted to peel and core the apples himself, i would make an apple crisp the next time we have a surplus. and that's what we call compromise. now i'm going to go eat some pear crisp for breakfast.
posted by joanna @ 8:02 AM
11 Comments:
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Oooh, that all looks so good. I adore post-Thanksgiving sandwiches.
And pear-cranberry crisp! I couldn't think of a better breakfast.
That turkey looks really good!! I have that cookbook, will have to check it out.
that pear crisp looks crazy good! now that unturkey is gone, i have nothing to hold me back from making that one! everything looks super yummy!!!
love,
michelle
mmm, i just finished the last of the apple crisp i made thursday. turns out will hates hot fruity desserts. more for me!
this vegan turkey you speak of... i wonder if it would be reasonably easy to make on christmas eve if we fly home with the dry ingredients in our luggage. which sounds like we're asking for a bag search, but there is seriously ONE place to buy gluten and nooch in oklahoma city. well, maybe two.
jen, it would be VERY easy to make. it's an hour of boiling followed by a half hour of baking.
Where can I get the vegan turkey and purple mashed potato recipes? I can't wait to impress my family at Christmas!
That 'turkey' looks reeeeeally good...I've had only one experience with seitan before, and it scarred me for life, so I've since avoided it, but that picture is making me willing to try again... :)
Some incredibly yummy looking food Joanna! Now I'm going to have to try Brian's roast recipe. So many recipes, so little time. But if it's anything like his corned seitan, then it must be delish.
Glad to see you're still cooking up a storm.
Hi! Found you through Flickr and love your blog. I was wondering if off the top of your head you know of any good soy-free vegan resources or books.
Oh! I thought you had your baby when you hadn't posted for a few days! The meals look great- Especially the Thanksgiving sandwich.
I love that vegan turkey recipe! I just made it today and I can't believe how flavorful, juicy and moist it is. The best seitan recipe so far. I can't wait to share it with my non vegan family.