Another pie - Dutch Apple Pie

It is a bit of a Thanksgiving tradition in my house that I bake a pie for Thanksgiving that I invariably hate, then bake another pie the next day. This year was no exception. I didn't like the pumpkin pie. It came out much too sweet for my tastes, so another pie was made. This pie is an Apple Streusel pie made from my grandmother's tried and true recipe. And from the pic you can see the I obviously made my own crust (I am the worst at pie crust shaping). I can't wait to eat this one!

Way too much Thanksgiving food

Here is a rundown of Thanksgiving. We had Seitan Turkey Roulade with herb stuffing, Cornbread stuffing, Leahey Foods Chicken Style gravy, Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Sweet Potato Casserole with marshmallows on top, Pumpkin rolls, and Pumpkin Pie.

Here are pics:


Seitan Turkey Roulade:




The seitan roulade is from this recipe (double the recipe at the bottom of her post). After cooking, brown on all sides in a non-stick skillet with some olive oil.

Green Bean Casserole from 1000 Vegan Recipes:


I added more thyme, added sage, lots of pepper and some soy sauce. Also deglazed mushrooms with white wine.

Sweet Potato Casserole with Dandies vegan marshmallows:

I think we were a bit heavy handed with the marshmallows. I knew I shouldn't have asked Mike whether there were enough marshmallows on top before baking! :)

Stuffing:


Pumpkin Pie:

Pie was meh and was a recipe of my own invention, so you don't really want that recipe.

Spicy Black Bean Stew with Masa Dumplings

This recipe is loosely based on Lazy Smurf's recipe which is based on a Saveur recipe. I saw the masa dumplings in Lazy's Smurfs post and I had to make this. I changed it up a bit because she mentioned that she was unsatisfied by the final result and also because I used my pressure cooker for the beans.



Here is my version:

Spicy Black Bean Stew with Masa Dumplings

2 cups dried black beans
water
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
1 tsp kosher salt

1 1⁄3 cups white masa harina
1⁄2 tsp. salt
1 cup of water

1 dried ancho
1 cup water

1 onion, diced
1 sm bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin

1 chipolte pepper in adobo sauce
1 tsp adobo sauce (if you like it very spicy)
salt

1 bunch collard greens, chopped
1 tsp+ sherry vinegar
salt and pepper

2 Tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 lime (juice)

cooked brown rice



Sort black beans and rinse. Soak overnight or add boiling water to them and soak for an hour. Rinse well. Put beans in pressure cooker and cover with an inch and a half of water. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to prevent foaming. Cook however long you normally pressure cook your black beans. This depends on age of the beans, type of pressure cooker, altitude, etc. I normally cook mine 15 min in my electric fagor (note that I am at high altitude). Then do a quick release, test the beans doneness and cook a few more minutes if necessary. My beans were old and actually required 21 min this time!! Add the kosher salt and allow them to sit for a minute or so. Drain the beans but reserve the cooking liquid.

Meanwhile, mix the masa and salt with water. Knead about 5 minutes. You should have a ball. If you don't you can add a little more water. Wrap in plastic wrap and set aside.

Also meanwhile, cover the dried ancho with boiling water and allow it to sit for about 10 minutes or until soft. Remove from the water and destem and remove seeds. Chop it and put it in the blender with a cup of water until smooth. Set aside.

When beans are done, heat olive oil in a large pot. Add onions and peppers and cook till soft and starting to brown. Add garlic and cumin and cook for another minute. Add the blended ancho/water and the chipolte and adobo sauce. Cook for about a minute. Add the beans and enough cooking water to cover them. Save any remaining cooking water as you may want to add it later. Add salt to taste. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Make 1/2 inch to 1 inch sized masa balls from the masa dough (we liked them on the smaller side). Add them to the stew. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a skillet, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil over med heat. Add collard greens and toss. Add a few tablespoons of water and cover. Steam the collards until tender. Check on them every few minutes and add more water as necessary. This will take about 5-10 min. When done, add sherry vinegar, salt and pepper, and cook for about 30 seconds. Add to the stew.

Add the juice of 1 lime and the cilantro.

Serve with brown rice.

Is that chicken??!!?? No, it's Gardein

I know that this totally looks like chicken, but its not.  It is a very hard to find product called Gardein.  I got it at my local Whole Foods prepared foods counter.  I had seen them selling some prepared vegan chicken there before so I asked them and learned that they have frozen Gardein chicken breasts in the back.  So, I asked them to give me 4 of them.  They had no problem with that but they didn't have a skew (?) because they aren't set up to sell them, so they rang them up as rosemary chicken.  I made sure to tell the cashier that I didn't really have chicken in my cart!

This is a Chicken Scallopini recipe in The Conscious Cook by Tal Ronnen.  He calls for it to be served over crispy udon noodle cakes with pea shoot salad.  I didn't feel like driving to Salt Lake to go to the Chinese store for fresh udon noodles and have never seen pea shoots at the grocery so I just made the parts that I wanted.  I decided that I'd rather have it over spaghetti anyway.  I also subbed white wine for the sake.  I already had a bottle of cooking wine in the fridge.

The chicken was scarily real and really tasty. The entire dinner discussion was about whether we could fool a meat-eater with this dish. I think yes, Mike was not so sure.

The pic above is of my husband Mike's plate.  Here is my plate - I am the mushroom hater in the family.  I don't mind cooking with them but I don't want to eat them.  The texture of mushrooms is just gross.