Happy Thanksgiving 2011

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Thanksgiving is my very favourite holiday. Don’t get me wrong…I’m pretty obsessed about Halloween and Christmas too, but for some reason Thanksgiving holds a special place in my heart. As a kid, I remember spending time at my aunt’s cabin over thanksgiving every year. All the cousins would build huge forts with the leaves and then we’d all funnel into the cottage where a huge turkey dinner awaited us. All the kids would stuff their faces and then rush back outside to play in the cool autumn air. I remember the smells of the old fire stove and the musty leaves like it was yesterday. After dinner, my dad and I would always take a walk along the beach and talk about life. We’d talk about what we were thankful for. We’d talk about friends and family. We’d make wishes for the upcoming year. 


Eventually my parents bought their own cottage and we soon started hosting thanksgiving for my mom’s family. My mom would put together a huge spread of turkey, perogies, mashed sweet potatoes, corn casserole and homemade pumpkin pie. While mom cooked, the rest of the family spent time playing football in the yard and playing in the leaves. It was always so much fun. I’ll never forget the year we had a black bear visit us all during one of our thanksgiving dinners. It was a tad scary! The bear pulled the pipes off the back of the cabin in an attempt to get at the stove! I already knew that my mom’s cooking is the best. Apparently word had gotten out to the entire bear population in the area too. *hah*


After my parents sold the cabin in my early 20’s, we created new traditions of having thanksgiving at my grandparents’ place in the city. I also created an annual “Friendsgiving” where me and my friends all get together and have a huge thanksgiving potluck feast and play football in the park. This past weekend, we celebrated our 4th Annual Friendsgiving and it was a lot of fun. A great way to spend an afternoon with friends. And a good excuse to eat WAY too much food! 


As you can see, I love thanksgiving; mainly for all of the traditions that have been created over the years. And well, also because thanksgiving food is the best. I did not always feel that way though. After I became a vegetarian 15 years ago, I suddenly found no desire to attend thanksgiving dinner. I could no longer eat ham or turkey. And I was not a huge fan of vegetables back in the day. I even had a brief aversion to pumpkin pie after I became a vegetarian! Not too sure how that happened!


However, over the years, I’ve spent time finding delicious recipes that would be perfect for a fantastic, hearty, flavourful vegetarian thanksgiving dinner. Tonight I was lucky enough to make dinner for my family – a full vegetarian thanksgiving meal.


So, what did I make to feed my meat-eating family members on thanksgiving?

We were stuffed and fluffed and I don’t think anyone truly missed the meat during dinner tonight. Over the next few days, I’ll be posting the recipes for all of the above menu items. Hopefully you can incorporate some (or all) of them in your next holiday meal. 


Since I’m not ready to give up on all the thanksgiving foods JUST yet…I’ll continue testing out recipes up until the American thanksgiving in late November and celebrate all over again. :) 


And a question for you guys: what kind of family traditions do you have for thanksgiving? And what dishes do your families make year-after-year? I’d love to hear about your thanksgiving traditions :)

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Oriental Salad with Ginger-Miso Dressing

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Back in late August, I was fortunate enough to spend 3 fantastic days (hot & sunny days) in Las Vegas with a good group of friends. We had a great time exploring the strip over the three days. I took many photos, spent a lot of time people watching, shopped a bit, lounged by the pool and enjoyed some great food. Ah yes….the food :)

One restaurant that really impressed me was a small place in the Fashion Show Mall called Ra – a japanese restaurant. It had a really cool atmosphere and a great patio out front. Their drink menu was extremely unique and I wish I had had a bit more room to try a few cocktails! The Blushing Geisha sounded wonderful. I’ll have to have one next time I visit The Strip.
 The food itself could be characterized as Japanese Fusion. Ra offered excellent sushi options (vegetarian and not), as well as an eclectic mix of appetizers. I opted to to try the wontons with a roasted pineapple and cream cheese filing. The fried wontons were served with a sweet chili dipping sauce. They were fantastic! I definitely need to try and recreate those delicious wontons at home soon. For the main course, I ordered the Mandarin Chicken Noodle Salad (minus the chicken). It was a brilliant mix of salty roasted cashews, fresh greens, chunks of creamy avocado, sweet mandarin orange segments, fresh edamame and crunchy dried oriental noodles topped with a savoury ginger-miso dressing.

After I got home from the weekend get-a-way to Las Vegas, I set out to re-create the delicious salad I had at Ra. I opted to use the ginger-miso dressing from Michael Smith’s new cookbook. It’s definitely a winner! 

Ingredients

  • 2 cups of frozen edamame (raw soy beans)
  • 2 cups of fresh spinach leaves (or an assortment of your favourite greens)
  • 1/2 cup of cashew halves; toasted
  • 1 cup of dried oriental noodles; crushed
  • 1 cup of canned mandarin orange segments; drained
  • 1 avocado; peeled and diced
  • 1/4 cup of vegetable or canola oil
  • 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame oil
  • 2 tablespoons of fresh ginger; peeled and grated
  • 2 tablespoons of rice wine vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon of white miso paste
  • 1 teaspoon of soy sauce
  • 1 teaspoon of honey

Method


1. Bring a small pot of salted water to a boil. Add the frozen edamame beans and cook them for 5 minutes. Drain and set aside.


2. Prepare the dressing: In a small bowl, whisk together the vegetable oil, sesame oil, ginger, rice wine vinegar, miso paste, soy sauce and honey until smooth.


3. In a large salad bowl, combine the spinach leaves, edamame beans, cashews, pumpkin seeds, dried oriental noodles, mandarin orange segments, and avocado slices.


4. Dress the salad as desired with the ginger-miso dressing. 


Source: adapted from the mandarin chicken noodle salad at RA 
[a restaurant in Las Vegas, Nevada]; dressing from Michael Smith’s Kitchen (100 Favourite Recipes)


Blushing Geisha Cocktail

  • lemonade
  • Skyy Raspberry Vodka
  • Chambord (raspberry liqueur)
  • lemon-lime soda

Pumpkin Pie Bars

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And so continues my obsession with pumpkin…
After the Pumpkin Maple Macaroni & Cheese, the next item on my Fall baking to-do list was pumpkin bars with butterscotch chips. What sold me on this recipe was the crust: a pecan shortbread crust with brown sugar and oats. When topped with the whipped cream cheese, pumpkin topping these little bars are pretty irresistible. And butterscotch chips…how have I not tried these before? They are addictive! 

What do you have on your fall baking to-do list?


Crust & Topping Ingredients 
  • 1 and 1/3 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup of granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar; firmly packed
  • 12 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter; cut into pieces
  • 1 cup of old-fashioned oats
  • 1/2 cup of chopped pecans

Filling Ingredients
  • 8 ounces of cream cheese; softened
  • 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1-15 ounce can of pumpkin purée (not pumpkin pie filling)
  • 1 tablespoon of pumpkin pie spice
  • 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
  • Butterscotch chips; for topping

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350’F. Line a 9×13-inch baking pan with foil, extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Lightly grease the foil. Combine the flour, granulated sugar and brown sugar in a small mixing bowl and toss with a fork. Add the pieces of butter to the dry ingredients and cut it in with a pastry cutter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in the oats and chopped pecans.

2. Reserve 1 cup of the crust mixture and set aside. Add the remaining crust mixture to the prepared baking pan and press onto the bottom of the pan in an even layer. Bake the crust alone in the oven for 15 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the filling.

3. To make the filling, combine the cream cheese, sugar, eggs, pumpkin purée, pumpkin pie spice and vanilla in the bowl of a mixer. Mix on medium speed until smooth and well combined.

4. Once the crust has been removed from the oven, pour the filling into the pan and smooth over crust. Sprinkle with the reserved crumb mixture and butterscotch chips (as desired). Bake for 25 minutes, remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool. Slice and serve. Caution: may fill your home with delicious scents of cinnamon and nutmeg. Mmmm!

Source: Annie’s Eats, originally from Kraft