Double Creamy Fruit Salad and Christmas, 2012!

Yes, I know, I'm barely squeezing my Christmas post in before the end of the year!  But, I'm just glad to be doing it.  I have been disgustingly sick for three weeks, and am carving out a spot of energy to do this post.  Actually, without GR and G, Christmas wouldn't have been the same.  GR baked all of our cookies and the Happy Birthday, Jesus, cake, set up the tree and its lights, and decorated inside and out.  She is my Christmas-loving girl - remember her bedroom?  And, G somehow made our tired out carpets look new with his obsessive vacuuming.  Thank you, both!  As usual, my parents came over for breakfast, and we also had two extra guests this year, so it was really nice to get that extra help.

Also, as usual, we had a dinner potluck with the larger, extended family, and I decided to make a salad I veganized from a gathering a long time ago.  When I was in college, I belonged to an environmental club, and at one of our potlucks, a guy brought this simple unnamed fruit salad that had this amazing dressing on top.  It was such a great group, and he was such a cool guy.  He was actually the first person to give me an article on how animals raised for food are treated: it was a one-page article with a photo of a veal calf.  That was the first meat I gave up.  I tried once in high school to become veg but didn't stick with it.  Anyhow, I have saved that weathered article all these years because it was so life-changing for me.  So, that was the guy, and that was his salad dressing, but it was dairy-based.  He didn't seem to really measure anything, I was chatting with him as he  basically just plopped stuff in a bowl, but I've gone strict and offered measurements.  I know some of this fruit isn't in its proper season, but it still tasted great.  Maybe he'll see this and rub his chin with the memory.

The rest of our day's food went like this:

Breakfast:

Our first gingerbread house
Cookies by GR:  Tiger Balls, Chocolate Chip, Holiday Cookies
Happy Birthday, Jesus, cake by GR
Chocolate hearts by GR
Loaded Cinnamon Rolls
Breakfast Potato Skillet
Sausage and Cheese Muffins
Chips
Amazing fruit platter by my mom (unpictured)
Juices, Hot Cider and Coffee

Dinner:

I brought:
Double Creamy Fruit Salad
Tofurky

We also could eat:
Green salad
Rolls
Baked Beans - recipe passed down for generations
3 types of cookies and an apple pie
No complaints here!

On with the pics and recipe.  Have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!  My goal is to definitely amp up my postings.  Hopefully, all the craziness and sickness are behind us now.

Our first gingerbread house!  GR and I mainly did this with JK's little hands "helping" as he could.  GR was surprisingly bossy with this thing.  It was a blast to make it with her.

Our breakfast table.  The fruit platter didn't make the shot.  All was delicious, of course.  :-)

These didn't make the earlier shot either.  GR made these chocolate hearts for us.

Our annual trek to the fire station to deliver cookies.  I love our station and all it's crews!  GR's cookies are being held by the firefighter standing next to SR.  JK's in front with some new Christmas wrestlers, GR's wearing her new Big Bang Theory shirt, SR's wearing her new Christmas dress, and she'll be getting that cast off in a couple of weeks.

A serving of Double Creamy Fruit salad.  A white dressing, in a white bowl on my mom's white counter wasn't the greatest combination, but trust me, this is so good.

Double Creamy Fruit Salad

Ingredients:

Can be flexible here.  Use several cups of your favorite fruits.  I used:

1 pineapple, chopped
2 Fuji apples, cored and chopped
2 bananas, sliced
1 cup of blueberries

Dressing:
1 cup vegan sour cream
1 cup vegan vanilla ice cream

Directions:

Put all fruit in a large bowl.  Ten minutes before serving, take out the ice cream from the freezer and set on the counter.  After ten minutes, add the dressing ingredients to the bowl of fruit and gently fold in.  Do not stir with a hard hand.  You don't want the dressing to become liquidy.  Keep it creamy and billowy.  Serve immediately.  So good you won't believe it.  It's a nice twist on the standard fruit salad.  Feeds five hungry vegans and more!

Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Thanksgiving, 2012

I'm finally getting my Thanksgiving post up!  At least it's in the same month.  :-)  As usual, I let each member of my family pick out what they want for dinner and dessert and truly make it a meal for which we are thankful.  See below for our menu and for a new recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Cake.  This cake was super moist and delicious.  I veganized one of several recipes easily found on the web.  When I followed the directions, I found I had to make adjustments and corrections to the recipe along the way.  One thing I will probably adjust in the future is the amount of brown sugar used; I kept the original measurement in the recipe, but I will probably halve it next time I make the cake.  It was a huge hit with the fambly, though!

Menu:

Tofurky with roasted potatoes - picked by me
Tofurky gravy - picked by me
Hot and Sour soup from one of our favorite Vietnamese restaurants - picked by SR
Steamed rice by same restaurant - picked by JK
Jerky in several flavors - picked by GR
Purple sweet potatoes fried with facon - picked by G
Sauteed kale - picked by me
Cranberry sauce, both kinds - picked by SR
Soy nog - picked by me

Pineapple Upside Down cake - picked by G
Black Tie Cheesecake  - picked by GR

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

My thanksgiving feast sans the rice.  I could not finish this meal!  So full.

Here are this year's Thanksgiving desserts.  Sorry the coloring is so orange in these pics.

I was going to put my slices on a fancy plate, but SR didn't want to wash any more dishes, so green paper plates it was!  Couldn't finish these either.  But, they were so yummy.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients:

1/2 cup vegan margarine (could probably use less)
1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar ( could probably use less)
1 - 20 oz. can of sliced pineapple rings in natural juice
Maraschino cherries (you can find naturally colored ones at Sprouts or Whole Foods)
1 box of Dr. Oetker Organics cake mix in vanilla
1 and 1/2 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. water
2/3 cup almond milk
1/2 cup canola oil

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Heat margarine over medium heat in a cast iron skillet.  When completely melted, remove from the heat.  Sprinkle the brown sugar over the margarine, patting down to cover it up to the edges of the pan.  Lay the pineapple rings in a circle around the edge of the pan and one in the center.  Add a cherry to center of each pineapple ring.  Set aside.  In a medium bowl,  add the remaining ingredients, and beat for two minutes or until completely mixed.  Pour over the pineapple slices,  making sure the batter goes to edges of the pan.  Bake for 45 minutes.  Let cool for ten minutes, then flip over onto a serving platter.  You can finish cooling on a rack.  Very moist and tasty.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

Calzones

Calzones, mmm. The last time I had one, I was definitely not vegan. Maybe I was vegetarian, but I just can't remember. Anyhow, ever since I've been vegan (15 years now), I haven't had a calzone, and that just had to change. So, since I'm such a whiz at making my own pizzas now :-), I decided to go head-first in trying my hand at calzones. Now, I have yet to actually look at any recipes for calzones. I thought, Pizzas, I can make pizzas, therefore, I can make calzones. So, that's what I did. I have no idea if my recipe is authentic or not, but it sure worked for me, and for my children, who've never had calzones, loved them, and that's good enough for me. I started with my pizza dough, added some fillings, and voila, five calzones! Yay for us! Easy as pizza pie - give it a try.

A hot, steamy calzone, cut in half, and ready to be consumed

A ball of soft dough on a floured surface

Dough rolled out just larger than a dinner plate

Filling up the calzone with goodies

Calzone ready for the oven

Just out of the oven, resting before being cut in half

Calzones

Ingredients:

Your favorite pizza dough, or you can use my recipe (link above) - If you use mine, it's large enough to divide into five balls of dough
Extra flour for rolling dough
Your favorite toppings - we used:
Organic pizza sauce
Follow Your Heart Vegan Cheese - cheddar style, finely grated
Gimme Lean Sausage, made into small meatballs and sauteed
Kale, torn into pieces
Fresh pineapple, diced small
Black olives, sliced into thirds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Divide dough into five sections. Shape a section into a ball. On a floured surface, roll out each section into a circle a little larger than a dinner plate. Do NOT toss the dough, as you would for an actual pizza. To ensure a round shape, start at the center of the dough, and roll to the edge, all around. Turn the dough as needed to keep it as uniform as possible. Spread your pizza sauce all over the rolled out dough, keeping the edges clear of sauce about one inch. Sprinkle your cheese on sauce. Add your other toppings on one half of the sauce and cheese. Fold the half of the dough over that doesn't have all the extra toppings on it. Pinch the edges together to seal it shut. Press fork all across the sealed edge to further crimp and seal it, and it gives it a nice look, too. Make four short slits on top to release some of the steam while baking. Bake each calzone for 20 minutes. Let rest for five minutes before eating or cutting in half. Makes huge calzones that you can eat alone for dinner, and maybe have some left over for lunch the next day. Feeds five hungry vegans.