Sweet Yam and Marshmallow Casserole and Thanksgiving and Christmas meals, 2015

Before 2015 completely came to a close, ushering in 2016, I thought I'd sneak in a final post of the year, highlighting our recent holiday meals.

The family, as usual, picked the various eclectic dishes to create our Thanksgiving feast, some traditional, some not so much.  G picked a sweet potato casserole, and I hunted up a classic recipe with marshmallows that I veganized and slightly tweaked.  It came out deliciously well.  The recipe will be posted at the bottom of the page.

Here's the breakdown of our Thanksgiving celebration:

JK picked Soy Chicken and Steamed Rice
GR picked Hot and Sour Soup and Sushi
SR picked Takis and Cranberry Sauce
G picked the casserole and the Tofurky meal, which included the roast, gravy, wishbone, and brownies
I added roasted potatoes and veggies to the Tofurky and made my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll to go with the brownies
Sparkling apple cider to drink.

See below for some yummy close-ups.



Sweet Yam and Marshmallow Casserole

My Thanksgiving plate.

 



Thanksgiving Dessert plate

Christmas was a much simpler affair this year.  I only made one type of cookies, and our breakfast was modest.  Below I show you our morning meal and the dishes I brought to the larger family gathering at dinner.

Christmas breakfast: Tofu Scramble, Fried Potatoes, and Chorizo.

The cookies I made: Chocolate Tops

I brought three things for the evening gathering.

Number One: Gardein Beefless tips, to which I added Teriyaki sauce.



Number Two: A big, beautiful salad chock full of goodies.

Number Three: I also realized I've never made my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll, so I made that again and brought it to share.

How were your holidays?  Did you have wonderful food?  Any new dishes?

Sweet Yam and Marshmallow Casserole

Ingredients:

Five Yams (Purple skinned, with orange flesh)
Water to cover
1/4 cup vegan margarine
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
3 Tbs. orange juice
1 Tbs. Cinnamon
Non-stick spray
2 and 1/2 - 10oz. bags of Dandies large marshmallows

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Peel the yams, chop into large chunks and place in a large pot.  Cover with water and turn heat on high.  Bring to a boil, and boil for fifteen minutes.  Drain the water and leave yams in the pot.  Add the margarine, brown sugar, orange juice, and cinnamon.  Use an electric hand mixer to completely blend ingredients.  Spray a 9x13 inch dish with non-stick spray.  Spread the yam mixture evenly in the pan.  Top with the marshmallows.  Bake for 30 minutes. The marshmallows will brown and be super soft, and the yams are sweetly delicious.  This was definitely a hit.  The only challenge was when eating the leftovers, finding that several smaller hands had picked parts of the casserole bare of the marshmallows.  Feeds five hungry vegans for a few days.

Holiday Classics...Mostly - 2014

Hello, Everyone!  It is so good to be back on here.  I will not bore you all with what's been going on - it's been a lot, and I've been challenged in my personal life in more ways than I ever thought I would.  The challenges continue on, but it has been on my mind for so long to put up a post that I'm making a point now to do so.  This blog is a way for me to express myself with just the pleasures of my life, a bit of me that I get to share and to make friends in the process.  I will never abandon this blog without informing you first.  I don't know how many have or will stick around, but for those who are reading this, thank you.  I can't promise you timely posts in the new year, but it is my hope to be consistent.  I have posts that I still want to write from this year, so even though they will be out of date, I hope that I can still put them up.  Anyhoooowww, on with the food.

I am combining Thanksgiving and Christmas into one post, so this will have food galore.  I hope everyone's holidays have been good and that this new year brings you blessings.  I pray that 2015 brings peace and harmony into my life, as well.  And good eats!

Okay, I'm just going to show the pics, provide links, and tell you what we ate.  What did you guys eat this year for the holidays?

My Thanksgiving dinner plate.  The bowl is holding hot and sour soup, and on the plate clockwise is: roasted asparagus, soy chicken and tofu, tofurky and roasted veggies with gravy.  

Dessert: SR picked vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce, GR picked Black Tie Cheesecake, and JK picked chocolate chip cookies.  I'll get a recipe out for those cookies.

Christmas breakfast included: Breakfast Potato Skillet ...

 Tofu Scramble...

Loaded Cinnamon Rolls ...

  and this year's Christmas cookies and Happy Birthday, Jesus Cake, which was a Costco apple pie.  The cookies are Gingerbread Bears, Tiger Stripes, and Pecan Pie Cookie Cups.  Recipes for the first two cookies will be forthcoming, if you are interested.

JK delivered our annual Christmas cookies to the firemen.

For Christmas dinner, I brought Tofu, Brussels Sprouts and Peanut Stir-fry to share and

Buttermilk Chocolate Chips Chocolate Cupcakes for dessert.

A lot of my family provided vegan dishes for us this year.  On my plate clockwise is: fried cabbage, cold green bean salad, a Gardein roast with gravy that I bought for my family, my mom's rendition of Aunt Versey's baked beans (an annual offering), my stir-fry, fruit salad and olives.  This was the fullest plate we've ever had at a family gathering.

The fun carried through dessert.  My aunt made my grandma's recipe for boysenberry cobbler.  See the yellow triangle in the corner?  Read in the pic below what it says.

A vegan corner just for us.  The glaze had butter in it; other than that, the whole cobbler was vegan.

My dessert plate: the cupcakes I brought, my mom's pineapple dump cake and her fruitcake, and my aunt's/grandma's boysenberry cobbler.

It was an awesome food season.  I hope yours was just as tasty.  Hopefully, I'll put up a post by next week and start to catch up.  Until then, Happy New Year.

Sesame Asparagus and Thanksgiving, 2013

For this Thanksgiving, I was inspired to remake a recipe I cut out of the newspaper and made several years ago, modifying it to make it my own.  Sesame Asparagus has such a beautiful presentation, perfect for the holiday table.  As usual, my family each got to pick up to two dishes they wanted for Thanksgiving.  Since most of them turned out to be Asian dishes, the asparagus fit right in.  Below is this year's unconventional menu.

Dinner:
Tofurky - picked by me
Roasted Potatoes - picked by SR
Gravy - picked by me
Steamed rice - picked by JK
Plain, Lemon Grass and Mushroom Tofu - picked by JK
Pizza - picked by GR
Hot and Sour Soup - picked by SR
Soy Chi'k'n - picked by SR
Sesame Asparagus - G made sure we had a veggie, and I made this one
Cranberry Sauces - general consensus

Drinks:
Apple and Grape-Apple Ciders - all the Blessings

Dessert:
Pecan Pie - G's working on perfecting his own recipe!  All he asked of me was to make the crust.
Black Tie Cheesecake  - GR picked and made it because I was sick, so sweet!

My plate couldn't even fit everything on it, nor could I finish this feast!

Black Tie Cheesecake - GR did an awesome job!

G's Pecan Pie, a delight in the works

Sesame Asparagus

Sesame Asparagus

Ingredients:

2 bunches of asparagus
Non-stick spray
1 Tbs. and 1 tsp. sesame oil, divided
Salt and pepper to taste
3 Tbs. soy sauce or tamari sauce
1 and 1/2 Tbs. rice vinegar
1 tsp. vegan sugar
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1 tsp. sesame seeds

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400 degrees.  Trim or snap off the tough ends of the stems of the asparagus.  Spray a baking sheet with the non-stick spray.  Spread the asparagus in a single layer on the baking sheet.  Drizzle one tablespoon of the sesame oil over the asparagus.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Bake for fifteen minutes.  In the meantime in a small bowl, mix together the remaining teaspoon of sesame oil, soy sauce, rice vinegar and sugar.  When the asparagus are done, place on a serving platter. Drizzle the sauce over the top, and garnish with the almonds and sesame seeds.  Tasty and different!  Feeds five hungry vegans.

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.

Chocolate Chunk Cookies and Thanksgiving, 2011

We had another great Thanksgiving this year.  We filled our bellies and finished off the night playing Twister and the Five Little Monkeys board game.  As usual, everyone got to pick a dish that they wanted for the meal - dinner or dessert, their choice.  And, my job is always to fill in the blank (usually the vegetable).  This year, JK picked chocolate chip cookies.  When I went shopping, I saw a stash of chocolate chunks, which I haven't seen for about ten years!  I pointed them out to him, and thankfully, he agreed to the chunk version, yay!  Cookies are usually my sweet downfall, rather than cakes or pies.  They are so easy to pick up, and in a few bites they are gone.  I've got to figure out how to get control of that.  Anyhow, I simply veganized the recipe on the bag by Bakers and reworded the directions to suit my taste.  They were delicioso.  Between all of us, about half made it to the Thanksgiving table.  Serves me right for making them early in the day.

Here's our complete menu:

Tofurky - always picked by G
Gravy - Me
Cranberry sauce, smooth and chunky - SR
Waffle Fries - SR
Steamed Broccoli - Me

Chocolate Pumpkin Spice Cake - made completely by GR, no recipe for the cake or frosting, and she wrote Thanksgiving across the top
Pumpkin Pie - GR, who made this too, and we bought Rice Whip for the top
Roasted Chestnuts - Me
Chocolate Chunk Cookies - JK

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Our Thanksgiving Spread

My Thanksgiving Plate

Our Dessert Spread

My Dessert Plate

Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Ingredients:

1 and 3/4 cup flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup vegan margarine, softened
1/2 cup vegan or raw sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
2 Tbs. water
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 pkg. chocolate chunks

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda and salt.  In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and sugars.  Add the Egg Replacer, water and vanilla extract, and beat on low speed until well mixed.  Add the flour mixture in two halves to the sugar mix, and continue blending until well mixed.  Stir in the chocolate chunks.  Take a heaping tablespoon of the cookie dough - I found I had to mold it into balls in  my hands - and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Bake for twelve minutes.  Cool for a couple minutes on cookie sheet on cooling rack, then place cookies directly on cooling rack to finish cooling.  Makes about three dozen.  Feeds five hungry vegans.

White Cake with White Butter Cream Frosting

This cake first made its appearance on Thanksgiving a few days ago, with its friend my Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll. But, it seems, it developed a small fan base of its own, with a few commenters showing interest in it, and Robyn from Girl on Raw requested the recipe. So, the cake that four-year-old JK practically ate single-handedly now has her own show! On holidays and other special days, once a cake is sliced, or any dessert that we have has been "started," I let my family have a piece after every meal, so that's why some of our desserts don't make it past day two. I think the cake and frosting have just the right amount of sweetness, and I think I actually could have put a bit more between the layers than I did. I'm always wondering if I'll have enough to spread around, so I tend to skimp in the middle, but I'm not going to do that anymore!

White Cake with White Butter Cream Frosting

Oh, that pumpkin dessert thinks it has it going on, but it needs to watch out for...the caped crusading cake!!

White Cake with White Butter Cream Frosting
Ingredients:

Cake:

2 and 1/2 cups cake flour
1 and 1/2 cups vegan or raw sugar
1 Tbs. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup soy milk -- UPDATE:  I now add a total of two cups soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 Tbs. EnerG Egg Replacer
4 Tbs. water

Frosting:

1/2 cup vegan margarine, room temperature
1/8 tsp. salt
3 and 3/4 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3 Tbs. soy milk

Directions:

For the cake: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray two round cake pans with an oil spray, and lightly flour their bottoms. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. In a large bowl, cream the shortening to soften it completely. In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the Egg Replacer and water. Alternate the flour mixture and the milk into the shortening, beating with a mixer on medium speed. With the last addition of milk, add the Egg Replacer mixture and the vanilla extract. Beat for three minutes, until completely smooth. Divide between the two cake pans, and bake for 30 minutes, (UPDATE: I now bake for 35 minutes) or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for fifteen minutes in their pans on a cooling rack. Then carefully invert the cakes out onto the rack to finish cooling.

For the frosting: When the cakes have completely cooled, prepare the frosting. In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and salt. Starting on low speed and working up to medium, beat in the powdered sugar. Add the vanilla extract and the soy milk, and beat on medium speed for three to five minutes, until the mixture is creamy and smooth. Makes enough frosting for one double layer cake. Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll and Thanksgiving, 2010

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving again. It's the one holiday that my family spends at our home, instead of joining the extended family. It seems to be the least child-oriented, and we can have an entire feast that is vegan. A few years ago, I changed what I did and started letting my family pick their favorite dishes to be served at this meal. So, sometimes we get a mix of traditional and unorthodox menus. Last year's menu is under my Savory Bulgur Dressing recipe.

This is this year's menu:

Tofurky with Gravy: picked by both GR and SR

Cranberry Sauce: picked by SR

Homemade Fries: picked by SR

Tofu Rice Rolls: picked by GR

Slow Cooked Pinto Beans: picked by G

Squash: picked by G (I baked zucchini and crookneck along with potatoes, red onions, celery and carrots with the Tofurky Roast)

Sparkling Apple Cider: picked by Me

White Cake with White Frosting: picked by JK

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll: picked by Me

Besides JK not understanding why he couldn't have his cake now the day before Thanksgiving, at breakfast on Thanksgiving, for lunch on Thanksgiving, and on his dinner plate on Thanksgiving, things went very well. You can see the Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll below, along with my plate and the cake. What follows are pictures for the Roll and the recipe. It's something I've made before and is a hit every time.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll

My delicious plate, mm-mmm!


JK's White Cake with White Frosting. I mean our cake, right, JK?


What the beaten Egg Replacer will look like


Rolling up the cake part of the Roll


The Roll cooling inside its towel


The cream cheese filling


A slice of Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll


Okay, who am I kidding? This is what I really ate; I had to move it to a bigger plate to accomodate both pieces.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Roll
Ingredients:

Pumpkin Cake:

1 and 1/2 Tbs. of EnerG Egg Replacer
6 Tbs. of water
1 cup vegan sugar
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup walnuts, ground coarsely (I use the food processor)
1 cup or so of powdered sugar

Cream Cheese Filling:

8 oz. package of vegan cream cheese, room temperature
4 Tbs. vegan margarine room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

For the Pumpkin Cake: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spray a 10 by 15 inch jelly roll pan with an oil spray, or you can use a cookie sheet with a one inch lip all the way around. Cover the pan with a sheet of waxed paper and spray that as well. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat the Egg Replacer with the water for five minutes on medium or medium high speed, until it loses its watery consistency and slightly thickens. Continue beating and slowly pour in the sugar, and beat well. Stir in the pumpkin puree and lemon juice. In another bowl whisk the rest of the cake ingredients together, except for the walnuts and powdered sugar. Stir the dry ingredients in with the wet and pour over waxed paper. Make sure it is evenly spread and reaches all the edges and corners of the covered pan. Sprinkle the nuts over the batter. Bake for 15 minutes. While its baking, lay out a clean dish towel and sprinkle enough powdered sugar to cover the entire towel with a thin layer. Remove cake from oven and quickly flip the pan upside down over the towel. Carefully remove the waxed paper, and starting at the short end, slowly roll up the towel with the cake inside it. Let it cool completely on a cooling rack, with the towel's seam down.

For the Cream Cheese Filling: While the cake is baking and cooling, set your margarine and cream cheese on the counter to get room temperature. When the cake is completely cool, begin to make the filling. In a small bowl, beat all the filling ingredients together at medium speed, until smooth and creamy. Carefully unroll the cake, leaving it on the towel, and spread the filling evenly over the cake. Re-roll the cake, this time leaving the towel on the counter. Place on a serving dish and refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. You will have nuts and sugar left over on the towel, so fold it up and either sprinkle in a bowl for some future delight or shake it off in your sink. This is very good and looks decadent, perfect for a holiday meal. Feeds five hungry vegans for a couple of days.

Savory Bulgur Dressing

Tonight, I thought I'd show our menu and pics of our Thanksgiving dinner and feature the recipe of our Savory Bulgur Dressing. This was actually a recipe of my father's that I've tweaked over the years to make it mine. When my oldest daughter (now 12 years old) was a toddler, we decided to have Thanksgiving at our home and have one holiday where our child could eat whatever was on the table. The last few years, I've let each family member pick a dish that they would like to have on the table; sometimes it's been traditional, sometimes not. So this year's menu is:
Tofurky Feast (picked by my 9 year old daughter)
Potato Salad (picked by my 12 y.o. daughter-we almost always have this!)
Savory Bulgur Dressing (picked by me)
Cranberry Sauce (picked by 12 y.o.-she likes whole berry, but I also got jellied)
Black-eyed Peas (picked by my husband, who also prepared them)
Fried Cabbage (picked by my husband)
Strawberry Tart (picked by me)
Pumpkin Pie (picked by me)
My three year old son went along for the ride. I realized later that he didn't pick something, but next year I'll make sure he does. A note on the cabbage: my Arkansas-bred husband likes fried cabbage to slide down his throat. He thinks chewing it is over-rated and unnecessary, and to get this way, it has to be an unnatural brown. So, I was happy to still have recognizably green cabbage hit the table this year. Anyway, on with the pics and recipe. Hope you like it!

This is a picture of the Savory Bulgur Dressing.

This is a picture of our Thanksgiving table. The green cabbage is in the front right corner of the table. The object in the back right corner is a scarecrow we made last month. You can make out the legs of my nine-year old daughter in the back left corner.
These are our Thanksgiving desserts. The little white pumpkin is my nine-year old's pet pumpkin, Pumple, and she was very happy that Pumple was going to be famous by having its picture in my blog.

Savory Bulgur Dressing:
Ingredients:

1 Tbs. canola oil
1 large onion, diced
1 bunch of celery, sliced small
1 pound of white button mushrooms, coarsely chopped
1 cup of parsley leaves, chopped (we used flat parsley from our garden)
1 can of black olives, drained
2 cups of bulgur
2 and 1/2 cups of vegetable broth
1 tsp. of salt
1/4 tsp. of pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Heat the oil on medium heat in a large non-stick pan that has a lid. Saute' the onion and celery until tender, about ten minutes. Add the mushrooms and cook for five more minutes. Add the parsley and olives and stir. Add the bulgur right to the pan and the broth, with the salt and pepper, and stir thoroughly. Put on the lid and place in the oven. Bake for one hour. Feeds a whole bunch of hungry vegans!