Thanksgiving!

I didn't take photos of what I made for vegan Thanksgiving dinner because it wasn't very elegant looking (and we were hungry), so here's a visual representation of what I made over the last couple of days, in no particular order.

From left to right, top to bottom:
Cranberry sauce
Green beans
Butternut and pepper squash bisque with chives
Coconut mashed yams
Stuffing
Homemade stuffed "tofurkey"
Gravy
Pumpkin cheesecake
Raspberry coulis (to accompany another dessert that I didn't end up making because we were too full, so ate it with the cheesecake instead)
Roasted potatoes
Oatmeal raisin cookies (for neighbors)
Caesar-like salad

Leave a comment if you want any of the recipes!

Creamy tomato soup

Tonight for dinner I made a creamy tomato soup and BLT+cheese sandwiches using a trick we learned on our trip to Quebec last month.

To make the soup, I took one and a half large cans of organic diced tomatoes in their juices, put them in a pot, turned on the heat, and added some broth, a diced onion, silken tofu (the contents of one aseptic pack), a bunch of herbs, and let them cook until the soup became fragrant. I used the immersion blender to make everything smooth and creamy, then added the remaining half a can of diced tomatoes to give the soup a little bit of texture.

The BLTs were made using toasted coconut as a substitute for bacon. I need to figure out how to do it better, but I took toasted slices of coconut and sprayed them with a solution of water, liquid smoke, agave nectar, and a little soy sauce, while toasting them on the stove.

The shredded stuff you see on top of the soup is Sheese, one of my favorite vegan cheeses. This is the cheddar version, which I also put in the sandwiches. Yum!

Cat in a boot

Cat on a Christmas present (in digital paint)

Sorry! This feels like a bit of a cop-out, but I really did spent a lot more time on this version!

Cat on a present

Christmas best friend

Here's a painted Christmas version of my post from earlier this week.

Man with a book

Marion Leech with background and color

Marion Leech

This was drawn based on an image of Marion Leech that I found on Shorpy. Here's the description: Nov. 28, 1921. Washington, D.C. "Marion Leech." Daughter of sportsman and tennis impresario Abner Y. Leech Jr., and whose fans evidently could not contain themselves.

I think I'll work on the background a bit and post another version.

Shocked creature

Here's another image of my previously "ecstatic creature." This time, something has clearly surprised or horrified him. I wonder what it was?

Best Friends

Grumpy Gus

Santa Paws

RFD-style sandwiches

Today's post is a bit of a cheat, since it's not my own recipe, but it was enough work to warrant a post. I made the RFD burger recipe from Real Food Daily's cookbook. Since we're living thousands of miles from the restaurant now, this seemed like the easiest way to get a fix. I made it "with the works," with added tempeh bacon and avocado.

I served it on a ciabatta from Fred's Bread, a great local bakery.

Soup

I love making soup when it starts getting cold out (especially now that we have an immersion blender - thanks, YC!). I peeled, cubed, and roasted a large butternut squash and three yams, and cooked up an onion, six carrots, a parsnip, a few cloves of garlic, some Better than Boullion, and a couple of bay leaves, then let it all simmer together for awhile and then processed it (minus bay leaves) using the immersion blender. The yams made it a pretty sweet soup.

I also made a coconut cashew cream and cut up some sundried tomatoes to top it off. (Cashew cream = pre-soaked raw cashews, coconut milk, and a bit of lemon, pureed until very smooth.)

We had some roasted asparagus and garlic for a green accompaniment.

Clive Owen

I started this drawing awhile ago, meaning to finish it up at some point. Sean did a lot of stipple drawings when he was in high school and I've tried a few over the last few years. I never seem to have the patience to finish them up.

Clock Creatures: 12

Clock Creatures: 11

Clock Creatures: 10

Modest guy