Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Mmmm.... Tasty!

It always seems like when I come home from a trip, I head straight to the kitchen! It's all that pent up desire from seeing menu items that aren't vegan, or the total inability to find a place to make me vegan french toast...

So here are just a few of the many delicious things I've eaten this week...

First up, Thanksgiving Dinner! Here's my cousin Adam (in the background) and his gal Dana making some crazy delicious bruschetta for appetizers - they had roasted eggplant with fresh tomatoes & basil... and they were totally superb!

The plate! (Minus the cranberry sauce, and minus the wild rice stuffing which coyly escaped photo-documentation this time around!) mmmmm - much deliciousness. My bro's girlfriend made the garlic mashed potatoes, and they really stole my heart. I LOVE MASHED POTATOES. Oh dear, they were very good.

Here's a huge platter of my homemade tamales. I use the fresh masa recipe from Voluptuous Vegan and the delicious black bean filling from Veganomicon. I think this is the 3rd year now that I've made tamales for Thanksgiving, and they are really a great tradition. They are special and autumny - and they work well for soy-free and gluten-free diets, and appeal to pretty much all different palates. I mean, after all, who doesn't like mexican food?!

I also made dessert: A pumpkin pie with Gluten Free pie crust, which actually turned out pretty darned well for my first attempt at a GF pie crust...

... and a more traditional apple pie. Except I added tangerine zest and rum and nutmeg. And it was really really super good. It will not be the last time I make an apple pie with tangerine zest and rum and nutmeg. No sirree.

After a few meals of leftovers, I was right back in the kitchen. This is a (spicy!!!) Chickpea and Carrot Tagine recipe that I pulled out of the newspaper eons ago. It was quite good and packed a serious punch. On the right are some totally freak-crazy-good Nepalese Green Beans. I think these will be going in my annual Christmas cookbooklet. They are gooOOooOOd.

Last night, we had Lentil Stew with Winter Vegetables from an old issue of Sunset, and we loved it! I definitely recommend this recipe - packed full of veggies, greens, lentils and flavor - and pretty quick to prepare (maybe 40 minutes, start to finish?). Definitely a keeper.

Not pictured from this week: Pumpkin French Toast, Quinoa Pudding with Dried Mango, Coconut Tapioca Pudding, and 1000 sliced apples. Sometimes I'm just too busy eating to bother with photography!

p.s. tomorrow I pick a winner for my Hawaiian Giveaway!

9 comments:

  1. I'm kicking myself for not crashing your party. Lovely food!

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  2. oh yum! yum to everything! I have yet to try my hand at a tamale.
    it's funny- in this way we're total opposites. when I come back from traveling, it takes me a really long time to ease back into cooking. almost like a readjustment period.

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  3. Tamales are so good! I'm inspired to make some!

    What GF pie crust recipe did you use? I just did one for the first time and was pretty happy, too.

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  4. I am geeking over this lentil stew recipe. It's going on my Christmas Dinner list for sure. I'm having mostly omnis over so I have to do a turkey (actually my dad is doing it, because I don't want to touch it) -- but I think this will be the perfect main dish for ... well ... me. ;)

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  5. way to go. this is definitely the way to do thanksgiving. i've always wanted to make tamales, they seem simple enough. also, tangerine zest in your pie sounds AWESOME. you are a vegan thanksgiving vixen!

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  6. Tamales for Thanksgiving is an awesome tradition! It all looks so delicious! :-)

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  7. Bliss Doubt9:40 AM

    Those tamales are beautiful, a work of art.

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  8. Beautiful food! Question about the tamales. Does everyone enjoy eating them? I ask this because we have a tradition of having tamales each year and my son and I are the only vegans. If I make them I would be so for non-vegans as well. thanks oh what kind of filling did you use?

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