tofu en croûte

Longtime readers of this blog might remember my fast and easy puff pastry recipe. I have a confession: I've only made it a couple times since I published that recipe. It's faster and easier than most puff pastry, but it's still not that fast. Instead, if I find a recipe that calls for puff pastry, I often cheat and buy vegan crescent roll dough, then pinch the seams together. It doesn't have quite the rise of puff pastry, but it's a lot easier than making it myself... and the two companies whose crescent rolls I use are Annie's and Immaculate Baking Company, both of which have much better ingredients than the vegan puff pastry I could otherwise find.

I don't actually like crescent rolls, is the funny thing. But the dough is so versatile as cheater puff pastry! Just last week I used a tube to make this Tofu en croûte, inspired by a French salmon dish but much kinder to animals. This dish looks really fancy and complicated, but is very simple and comes together quickly. It's also filling! I'm still breastfeeding so I eat a lot, and a 1-inch slice was a big enough serving.

If you're looking for sides, this dish works well with a side of roasted squash, potatoes, or sweet potatoes in my case. I could also see this being great with asparagus or green beans. The Dill and Lemon Sauce (which follows the recipe) is optional but tasty.

Tofu en croûte
serves 4-6, depending on how filling your sides are

1 block of tofu (pressed or at least squished a few times over the sink to get extra water out)
2-3 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tbsp olive oil
2-3 cups cooking greens, chopped roughly (spinach, kale, collards, etc)
1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (optional, but recommended)
1 9x9 sheet puff pastry, or 1 package crescent rolls
1 Tbsp soy milk or aquafaba (optional)

Preheat your oven to 425.

Cut the tofu through the middle horizontally to make two layers. Coat all sides of the tofu with mustard, and let it sit for a bit to absorb some of the flavor.

In the meantime, put a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil and the greens, stir to coat, then sprinkle over the balsamic vinegar, if using. Cook until fully wilted (but not brown), 5-10 minutes depending on the green. The vinegar should have evaporated; if it hasn't, drain the greens as much as you can; we don't want extra liquid in this recipe!

Lay out your puff pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you are using crescent dough, pinch the seams together so that you have a large square, or as close to a square as you can get.

Place the first layer of mustard-coated tofu in the middle of the dough, then the wilted greens as a middle layer, and finally the top tofu layer.

Seal the puff pastry up over the top, pinching the edges together in a cute little seam if you can manage. You want the tofu wrapped tightly but not tight enough to rip the pastry. I did the ends up a little like wrapping a present, but however you can close it will be great, I know it. Brush the whole thing with the Tbsp of soy milk or aquafaba to help it turn a golden brown. (If you skip this step it will be pale but taste the same.)

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a deep golden brown. The bottom should also be browned; if the bottom is too pale, give it another 5-10 minutes to finish cooking. (This will vary based on how much water you were able to get out of your tofu; the wetter the tofu, the more likely you are to have a soggy bottom!)

Cut into slices and serve! Leftovers will only keep for a day or two in the fridge before the pastry starts to get waterlogged.

Dill and Lemon Sauce:
1/2 Cup vegan mayo
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2-3 Tbsp fresh dill or 1-2 tsp dried
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Stir all the ingredients together; taste to see if you want to add more lemon juice or dill to taste. (I used like a whole cup of fresh dill for the sauce above and it was delicious.) Let it sit for a little while to really let the dill flavor seep in. This is also really good on potatoes and/or as a salad dressing!

Okay, so now that the recipes are over... want to see two other times I've used crescent roll dough in place of puff pastry? This first one is a vegan version of baked brie--it's the Kite Hill Soft Ripened (almond cheese) wrapped in dough, sprinkled with herbs. Kevin hates fruit in his entrees so I didn't spread jam on the inside like I wanted to, but I served it with cranberry sauce. We each ate half (and a light salad) for a decadent dinner. Not picturesque but SO GOOD.

Then this one is a little embarrassing but it was also delicious: a CHEESEBURGER RING. This is a real thing, you guys! But veganized. I cooked a bunch of Gimme Lean grounds with onions, parsley, Daiya cheese, and finely chopped pickles, wrapped it in dough, and topped with sesame seeds like a sesame-seed bun. This was really good warm but kind of gross cold out of the fridge the next day--the grounds and the cheese are both better warm than cold!

crispy sesame tofu

I'm not proud of the amount of time I have spent on Martha Stewart's website in my life. I always feel a little weird that I follow tips, tricks, and recipes from the quintessential preppy 70-year-old homemaker. But I can't quite bring myself to be ashamed, either. Her websites are a great resource for cooking (mostly baking, actually--she has such nice ideas for making pretty cakes and cookies! And I've had a lot of success veganizing things I've found there) as well as occasional home decorating advice.

So it is with only mild embarrassment that I present a quick and easy tofu recipe from Martha Stewart's website:

Crispy Sesame Tofu, here served with salad and fried brown rice. The recipe is simple: press tofu, coat it in sesame seeds, saute until golden, add soy sauce. I use gluten-free tamari in place of soy sauce in recipes, which made this entrée gluten free. (I also cut the tofu into smaller sections.) It was really quick, easy, and flavorful; I imagine this recipe will now become a weeknight staple at our place. The recipe includes serving it with broccoli, but as you can see I ignored that recommendation because I didn't have any at the time.

One note: the recipe calls for reduced-sodium soy sauce. If you don't have reduced-sodium soy sauce, I'd cut back on the amount you use (try 2 Tbsp instead of 3). I did use reduced-sodium tamari, and even then it was about as salty as I could want it.

a LOT of stuffed squash

For me, this has been the VeganMoFo of epic posts. I had an epic pizza post, an epic soup post, a long socca post, and each of my Sunday brunch posts have a bunch of one thing per day. I tend to stockpile pictures for future blog posts that never quite get written, and VeganMoFo is a great way to get all those pictures/posts out.

I really like squash, and one of my favorite ways to cook with it is to stuff it with other food and then roast it. Sometime's it's simple, like the above squash stuffed with greens, raisins, and pepitas. But mostly my stuffings consist of grains flavored with herbs and spices and mixed or topped with a protein like beans or nuts.

This one has chickpeas, spinach, and... some grain, it's hard to tell. I often also mix in nutritional yeast or miso to give it a cheesy flavor.

Lentils and bulgur!

Topped with Your Vegan Mom's Vegan Parmesan.

I don't remember what's in this one, but the picture is making me want artichokes.

I can see pecans and chard in there.

Lentils, peas, and spinach. Protein and greens, whoo!

Zucchini is a summer squash, so it still counts, right? I know there's quinoa in it, because I always make more filling than I have room for stuffing, so I always end up with a side serving of the filling as well.

I think that's all the stuffed squash pictures I have stockpiled...

BUT WAIT!

A stuffed onion! I made a "cheesy mushroom" mixture with a nutritional-yeast-based cheese sauce and mushrooms, and had my grain on the site this time. Not squash, but still fills my obsession with stuffed vegetables

burger time!

Did any of you ever play Burger Time?
It was an old arcade game I used to play as a kid that I recently rediscovered in an arcade. You are a chef who is trying to stack burgers, but certain ingredients--chili peppers and eggs!--keep trying to get you. It's a fun game, but, as with all those old arcade games, it is hard and unforgiving.

Unlike real burger-making! I don't find it so hard to avoid chili peppers or eggs in my burgers. We don't eat burgers that often, but I find I've been stockpiling pictures of them, so I figured I'd have one big burger post!

My favorite burger recipes come from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. While some of his recipes call for eggs, he always provides a vegan version. His recipes are simple, and very forgiving. For instance, he has a recipe for burgers made from corn, but I was out of corn, so I substituted frozen peas.

It still made adorable burgers!

He also has a recipe for autumn burgers that I thiiiink call for sweet potatoes instead of beets? But once I was out of sweet potatoes, so I made them with beets and they were tasty.

For me, it's not a burger if it's not on some sort of bread. Above you can see I used part of a baguette, but I really like making buns for the burgers!

I almost always make my own; my pizza crust recipe will give you sixish rolls, and the ones you don't use freeze well.

To get them big and puffy like the ones above (note that the first picture of rolls is slightly flatter), I toss in an extra Tbsp or so of gluten, and make sure I leave plenty of time for rising.

This batch was great; I used 1/4 chickpea flour, 1/4 whole wheat flour, and 1/2 all-purpose flour, with a couple tablespoons of gluten. That way it rose, but we got extra protein and fiber!

The texture and taste weren't any different from a wheat roll.

Anyway, back to the burgers. Mark Bittman also has a really simple nut burger recipe. In the cookbook he adds that to make a vegan version, use the miso and/or nut butter instead of the ketchup or tomato paste, and add a little extra liquid, and you don't miss the egg at all. True! I've tried that recipe with pecans for pecan burgers:

...and with walnuts for paler walnut burgers:

...and both were great. The best part is that each recipe makes at least 4 burgers, and one is quite filling, so I can freeze the leftovers.

DId you notice the roasted celeriac fries in the walnut burger picture above? I love having some sort of "fry" with my burger. I think fries and salad are the best burger accompaniments, so I try to have both every time I have a burger.

For example, this pecan burger got roasted zucchini fries, which were a little limp but quite tasty.

This portobello burger has white (Japanese) sweet potato fries, which I first coated in cornstarch to get them crispy. It worked really well!

FInally, that old processed standby: the boca burger! Because once in a while it's a great relief just to take dinner out of a box.

With sweet potato fries. At least I fried up some mushrooms and onions to go on top... that's not out of a box! Normally my toppings are just lettuce and avocado if I have it.

Do you like burgers? What toppings do you prefer? What sides do you eat with them?

food from around the world (ie, internet)

I eat my lunch at my desk at work. Everyone does on my team, but even at my last job, when people would eat their lunches in the little kitchen area, I preferred to eat at my desk. When I eat my lunch, I take a little "break" by reading blogs; mostly food blogs, some design blogs. My lunchtime blog cruising has led to a stockpile or recipes I've built up; vegan ones I want to try, non-vegan ones I want to veganize, etc. Often the recipes I read about during lunch become the recipes I make for dinner.

As with the following recipes! All came from various food blogs, with the exception of the cabbage and the cheesecake, which came from recipe sites. But all came from my lunchtime internet cruising.

For the record, if you like the kinds of recipes I link to here, and if you like what's on my blog in general, you should check out my links page, which I update with my favorite blogs/websites more often than I update my blogroll to the right.
First, Okonomiyaki, large savory Japanese pancakes! Trina of Your Vegan Mom posted a recipe for okonomiyaki and some tasty sauce to put on them, and it looked so delicious (and I love Japanese food so much) I had to try it all.

Because Trina recommended okonomiyaki as a snack, I figured they might be too light for a meal, so I served them with miso soup and roasted squash. Turns out they aren’t too light; even just having one each along with the sides, the boyfriend and I were overstuffed when we finished. But in a good way.

For the record, this recipe is pretty darn foolproof. Not only did I cut my vegetables much larger than I was apparently supposed to, but I’m also one of those people who always burns the first pancake to a crisp when making breakfast—and look! My first attempt was a little brown but looked totally passable.

You can see Trina’s "inauthentic" but addicting sauce in the background. I had to put a cover on it because I was “taste testing” it entirely too much while making the okonomiyaki.

In a similar vein, a couple months ago, I tried the Korean version of okonomiyaki: Savory Tofu Pancakes from Alien’s Day Out. I had to add a couple tablespoons of water to the recipe to get the batter into a workable texture, but I may have just drained my tofu more thoroughly beforehand.

We had them with some seaweed salad and stir-fried rice noodles.

They packed up adorably for lunch the next day, too; they would make for perfect bento lunches.

For those more in favor of continental cuisine, I’ve also been crushing on the "Mastering the Art of French Cooking: the Vegan Version" blog, where Affectioknit is veganizing Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking recipe by recipe. She has some ingenious versions of some very not-vegan food. The boyfriend really likes her omelette recipe and has made it for me twice. The results are tasty. The first time he tried it, he overcooked the first omelette a little, so it’s browner than intended, but I’m posting the picture because it really gives you an idea of how eggy the finished version can look:

After the first omelette, he hit his stride. Here’s mine with fillings (note that I’d already started eating it. I have very little willpower):

Omelette filled with pesto and mixed veggies. Oh and in related non-egg news, I just bought some black salt! Normally when recipes call for it, I improvise by adding a touch of asafetida, which does lend a light sulphury (and therefore eggy) flavor to things, but I’m looking forward to trying the black salt.

What’s that to the left of my omelette, you ask? Why, it is a PANCAKE BAR.

Pancake bars are like granola bars, but made out of pancakes. I encountered the idea for pancake bars on the Kitchn website, where in turn they’d adapted it from a Martha Stewart recipe. I didn’t actually follow that recipe, but I did steal the idea. I made a double batch of “perfect pancakes” from Vegan with a Vengeance. I doubled because the recipe on that site calls for almost twice the amount of flour, so I figured I was making the amount of batter about even this way. I didn’t want to make apple ones, so I opted for cranberries; I added a cup of dried cranberries to the batter. You can't opt out of the streusel, though! If you want to eat these pancake bars on the go, or serve them at a large gathering, you can’t top them with maple syrup; this gives them a sweet topping without the mess. I ended up pouring my batter into a 9x13 baking pan AND into a loaf pan, because the total amount of vegan batter was a little more than the called-for non-vegan batter. Maybe that was still too much, as my baking time was also 10-15 minutes longer than the Kitchn website recommends. Anyway, for a single batch of VwaV pancakes, maybe try a 7x11 pan, or a 9x13 but shorten the baking time a little.

Not only are pancake bars novel and cool, but they’re also tasty and practical. I made them for a large brunch the boyfriend and I hosted, because I wanted to have pancakes but couldn’t serve normal ones because 1.) I hate standing over the stove forever making pancakes, 2.) I didn’t have time to do so with all of the other things I was busy making, and 3.) I didn’t want to have to worry about keeping pancakes warm on our buffet table. They were a giant hit.

Another interesting recipe I found on the Kitchn was for "butter dip biscuits." You know how it can be annoying to make biscuits because you have to cut in all the butter/fat? Not so with these; you melt the butter in your baking pan first, then make a butter-free dough, cut it into strips, and lay them in the butter. As they cook, they soak up the butter. It’s a very straightforward recipe to make and to veganize; substitute butter with earth balance or other vegan margarine, and the liquid milk with water or nondairy milk. They’re cute, and they taste pretty much like normal biscuits. The bottoms were a little too firm, but maybe I overcooked them a bit? The boyfriend called them "biscuit cookies" because he thought they were closer to cookie texture.

I served them as part of a tasty German meal; I made the Veganomicon beanballs with seasonings that were more German than Italian (onions, garlic, caraway seed), and included some sweet-and-sour red cabbage over pasta.

Not to be too dramatic, but I have had a lot of cabbage in my time, and guys, THIS WAS THE BEST CABBAGE RECIPE I HAVE EVER HAD. It’s incredibly simple; the recipe calls only for butter, cabbage, sugar, and balsamic vinegar (with salt and pepper to taste). but the flavors work beautifully together.

The last picture I have for you is of a recipe I made a while ago (I think last summer?), but it’s really relevant right now, since it would be a fantastic Valentine’s Day recipe:

Individual Raw Strawberry Cheesecakes from this recipe at the PPK. The recipe is for a whole cake, but you can divide it up into muffin cups. The components (cashews, coconut oil, strawberries [organic, guys! you should always stick with organic strawberries]) are a little expensive, but if ever there was a reason to splurge, this cheesecake is it. You can see I decided against the strawberry coulis, and no one missed it.

That brings me to the end of my cooking-around-the-internet post! I still owe you guys a "food from literature" post this month; I’ll do that early next week. I’ve read a book for it (Wide Sargasso Sea); now I’m deciding on the recipe. I was also thinking of posting a little house tour sometime this month, or at least a kitchen tour, so you can see where the vegetalion magic happens. What do you think?

what to do with 8 cups of pomegranate juice, brought to you by POM Wonderful

By the time I was in the third grade, I had read all of the fiction in my elementary school library. The librarian, eager to support a young nerd's love of reading, recommended me to the nonfiction sections of the library that closest resembled fiction: folklore, history, mythology. Of all the books I read from the school's dusty, not-updated-since-before-I-was-born nonfiction stacks, three have still stuck with me: a biography of Lady Jane Grey, a collection of pre-1900 American ghost stories, and most influential of all, Edith Hamilton's Mythology.

One of my favorite myths in Mythology was that of Persephone. (I assumed it was pronounced "Purse-i-fone," but hey, I was 8.) No matter how many times I read the tale, I still wanted to yell at her when she was about to leave Hades's kingdom: "Persephone, don't eat that pomegranate seed!" Having read the folklore section, I already knoew that you are never supposed to eat food otherwordly entities give you, because then you'll be under their spell. Not to mention the fact that Hades had a whole FEAST in front of her, and when she finally caved and ate something, all she chose was a seed? I found it frustrating. But then, I'd never had a pomegranate. I wouldn't eat my first pomegranate for 12 more years, and when I did, I understood right away why Persephone caved and ate some. They are delicious!

So back in November, when the nice people at POM Wonderful contacted me to ask if I was interested in trying a case of their 100% Pomegranate Juice, of course I said yes. Pomegranate juice gives you all the deliciousness of pomegranates without the work, mess, or chewing. When 8 lovely 8-oz bottles of POM Wonderful's awesome pomegranate juice arrived at my door, I was really excited to try some pomegranate recipes.

But first I had to line them up and photograph them, since I'm weird and obsessive like that.

So, what to do with 8 Bottles of pomegranate juice?

Bottle 1: I just drank it. I always water down juice (I don't really like sweet drinks), so I ended up mixing the pomegranate juice with seltzer to make a spritzer. It's good stright, though, if you're into juice. If you've never had pomegranate juice or pomegranates, for that matter, imagine a darker, richer-tasting, slightly sweeter version of cranberry juice. Also, if you haven't tried pomegranates or pomegranate juice, seriously, try some.

Bottle 2: Pomegranate Tofu with Walnuts.

I was inspired by this chicken recipe.

First, I dredged chunks of tofu in cornstarch, flour, salt and pepper, then sauteed it in a tiny but of oil until browned.

The goal was to give the tofu a crispy layer that would soften and resemble a skin as it cooked. For the record, It worked, but to be honest, next time I'd do without the coating and just brown the tofu. It's easier, and no one really needs their tofu to have a skin. So the instructions below are for skinless tofu.

1 16-oz block tofu
2 Tbsp olive oil, divided
1 large onion, finely chopped
1.5 Cups walnuts, roughly chopped
1 cup fresh pomegranate juice
2 Cups water
2 tsps lemon juice
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp pepper
optional: 1 tsp cornstarch, stirred into 1-2 Tbsp water

First, press the tofu if you have time, to get out excess moisture. Cut tofu into bite-sized (or larger) chunks. Heat 1 Tbsp of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat and saute the tofu, allowing to brown lightly on each side. Meanwhile, chop the onion and the walnuts. Remove the tofu from the pan; add the remaining 1 Tbsp of oil to the pan, then add the onions and walnuts. Cook until the onions are wilting and starting to brown, stirring as often as you need to not to let the walnuts burn (but they should brown, too).

Add the remaining ingredients, and cook until the mixture boils. It will not look very pretty, but that's okay--it is delicious.

After the mixture comes to a boil, add the tofu. Now your goal is to cook it until the sauce reduces enough to glaze the tofu and thicken a bit; 10-20 minutes, depending on how high your definition of "medium heat" is. You do want some liquid at the bottom of the pan throughout cooking so nothing burns or browns. If you have a lot of walnut meal, it may thicken as it cooks, so you may need to add more water (up to a cup)--and if you want it to thicken more than it's doing, you can add the optional cornstarch mixture, then stir another 3 minutes. This serves 3-4.

If you read my edible gift post, you already know what I did with Bottles 3-6: Homemade Grenadine.

Grenadine is a great mixer for alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, as well as a useful, beautifully colored addition to baked goods. Most grenadine you find in stores is far removed from its pomegranate roots, containing little more than high fructose corn syrup and food coloring. As I said, I got the original recipe from The Cupcake Project, but I deviated a little, so I'll give you my version here.

3 Cups pomegranate juice
1 1/2 Cup sugar
1 more Cup pomegranate juice

Put the first 3 Cups of pomegranate juice in a saucepan over high heat. Bring it to a hearty boil.

Reduce the heat to medium, and let simmer until reduced by half. Remove from heat, stir in the sugar until dissolved.

Here's where I differ from The Cupcake Project: once all the sugar has dissolved, whisk in the remaining 1 Cup Pomegranate juice. Why, you ask? Well, boiling and reducing pomegranate juice takes away much of its characteristic tartness, and gives it a mellow, thicker, cooked taste. Adding the extra cup of fresh juice gives it back the kick it lost while making it taste a little lighter, all without detracting from the new grenadiney taste.

Store in a tightly-sealed container in the refrigerator. It will keep for a long time; at least 4-6 weeks.

I like to mix grenadine with seltzer for an Italian soda, but it is most commonly used in cocktails (including non-alcoholic Shirly Temples).

Bottle 7: Pomegranate Granita

Granita is basically Italian ice. It's a chunkier, icier sorbet, and it goes GREAT as a light dessert or as a complement to cookies. It is very easy to make granita, but it's one of those things people assume you spent a lot of time on. I like pomegranate's tartness, so I didn't sweeten it very much, but if you don't want it very tart, increase the sugar to 1 Cup. If you want it tarter and with more intense flavor, add another cup of pomegranate juice.

1 Cup pomegranate juice
1 Cup water
1/2 Cup sugar

Pour the pomegranate juice into a glass baking dish. Set aside.

Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan and stir them over high heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat, pour into the glass dish. Put the glass dish in the freezer. Every 20-30 minutes, remove from the freezer, use a fork to break up all the ice that forms on the top, sides, and bottom of the dish, stir, return to the freezer. In 2-3 hours, you will have an Italian-ice-like dessert!

This serves 2-3 if you give each person a bowl of it; 4-6 if you have dainty little cups of it to accompany a richer dessert.

Bottle 8: Maple-Pomegranate Sauce.

The boyfriend made this, because he is a champion. He combined equal parts pomegranate juice and maple syrup, the seeds of one pomegranate, and 1-2 Tbsp cornstarch (I wasn't paying attention) to make the most delicious pancake topping I've had in quite a while.

And that brings us to the end of the case of pomegranate juice.

So empty, so sad.

I am a big fan of pomegranates, so I already liked POM Wonderful before they sent me anything, but I am an even bigger fan now that they gave me the opportunity to spread my love of pomegranate to you readers. I've noticed that POM now sells containers of pomegranate arils (the seeds), which saves you the work and mess of having to dig them out of the fruit yourself. So you can feel like Persephone by daintily sampling one seed any time you want!*

*-And then, if you're like me, you can feel like a nerd for remembering and being excited about emulating a Greek myth.

give thanks! it's the last day of Vegan MoFo!

Goodbye, Vegan Month of Food!

I have posted for all 30 days of VeganMoFo! It was great, but I am so glad it's over; no more "Wait, did I post today?!" feelings of panic before I go to sleep, no more forced entries on days I don't feel like talking about food. But I'm definitely glad I did it, and I'll definitely do it next year.

I finally have Thanksgiving pictures to post, and with them, a note on Thanksgiving. I touched on my thoughts on the day a couple years ago, but I want to reiterate them. Thanksgiving is about celebrating the blessings in your life, appreciating what you're thankful for. I think that it's important to take time to recognize the good things in your life. If you do that every day, maybe you don't need Thanksgiving, but is it really so bad that the government has reserved a day for us to spend time over a meal with our loved ones? People who claim Thanksgiving is about genocide and racism are unfamiliar with the history of the holiday, and I suggest to them that they read about our nation's history and that of the holiday, even if only the Wikipedia pages. Thanksgiving was always a harvest celebration. A feast or festival where we, humans, give thanks for the bounty of the earth, of our ability to survive, to be sustained by our environment--both in terms of food, and in terms of support from the people around us.

I appreciate my family. In the past few years, so many of my family members have gone vegetarian and vegan that our meal was almost entirely vegan. There was some token meat, but only for one person! And it's not in any of the pictures. All of the things below are vegan!

I got the idea for this delicious Cashew Goat Cheese recipe from C'est La Vegan. My family was so impressed with how much it looked--and even tasted--like goat cheese! It takes a lot time to make, but it's pretty easy. And I kept worrying at every step that I was doing it wrong, but it came out perfect.

I rolled it in a mixture of normal black pepper and freshly-ground cubeb, pink, and green peppercorns, just for effect.

One family member thought it was actual goat cheese, and tried to warn us vegans away from it!

Appetizers eaten, we then had THE MEAL:

Clockwise, from the bottom left: mashed sweet potatoes, rolls, earth balance, brussel sprouts with garlic, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (with miso instead of mushrooms, to make it cheesy. I totally recommend adding a couple Tbsps to YOUR next green bean casserole), corn, cranberry sauce, my mother's awesome stuffing, herbed gravy that came with the tofu turkey.

You will note the central part of the meal, the tofu turkey, is missing; we hadn't yet brought it to the table. My family's favorite, so-simple entree for holiday meals is Fresh Tofu Inc's Tofu Turkey:

The Tofu Turkey is lightly seasoned tofu, with a crispy skin. It's tasty, but not overpowering, and, unlike most other vegan holiday roasts, it isn't especially salty. We had two for 9 people, and had a bunch of leftovers, so it serves plenty. Plus it's cute! I tried to get a better picture of its little smile, but it was too blurry:

It comes with an herby, rice-flour-and-nutritional-yeast-based gravy.

We paced ourselves pretty well with eating, which is good, because there was PIE:

I'm cheating, actually--this is last year's pie, because I forgot to take a picture of this year's. But we had the same options this year! Pumpkin pie (from Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe), and Maple-Pecan Pie (also from Bryanna Clark Grogan). This year, we ran out of pecans, so my mother tried it with half pecans and toasted walnuts. It was so delicious that she's planning to make it like that every time.

Finally, though this didn't make it into this year's Thanksgiving dinner, Sunchoke Salad with olive oil, scallions, and balsamic vinegar is a go-to dish for most of our holiday meals, and WAS present last Thanksgiving.

And with that, my friends, we have come to the end of VeganMoFo! I'm glad to be done with daily entries. I'll still try to post at least once a week. And next week, look for another food-from-literature post! I read Great Expectations this weekend. You can also look forward to some posts that aren't about food.

Thanks for reading this month, and for those of you who just started reading, I hope you stick around!