Thanksgiving: Part 1

What is a food blog without a Thanksgiving entry? However, being vegan (kind of), this will not include a detailed account of our Turkey. In fact, this Thanksgiving my family did things a little differently and we did not even have a Turkey (yay!). But we did have chicken (ew!). My cousin was recently in a car accident. He is OK but cannot leave the house for a while. So we went over to my aunt's house to see him. Given all that she is doing to take case of my cousin, she didn't want to make a big dinner. She makes the best turkey (apparently, I don't eat it so I don't know), so no one wanted to make turkey if it was not going to be hers. So my mom and I cooked a couple of dishes and brought them over. Part one of the Thanksgiving post will detail our cooking adventures on Thanksgiving day while watching the parade.

Early in the morning, my mom got up and made two roast chickens to bring. Being that the chickens really gross me out, I did not chronicle their creation. I will say, my mom makes very good chicken and everyone always loves it. But it is not featured here because I think meat is gross.

I did watch the parade on TV. My favorite part was on CBS when Mayor Bloomberg went on about how NYC was great and how other cities are mosaics while we are a more of a mixture. And he didn't stop there, he then went on about how we tolerate people who are different and they tolerate us. Talk about putting your foot in your mouth. But after the parade it was hard core cooking time. So while my sister watched Dexter on TV, my mom and I cooked.


So I started to make the stuffing that we brought. I began cutting up carrots, celery, zucchini, onion, and mushrooms. Cutting the onions was brutal:
All the vegetables chopped up looked like, a mosaic.
But then, all together, it was more of a mixture...just like NYC.


Then it was time to add the bread. I had to take off all the crusts. In retrospect, a nice whole wheat bread, unsliced, probably would have been delicious. But I used a mix of sourdough and challah instead. I had to card the crust off the challah. I felt like the bakers on the Challenge on the food network when they carve the cake.


And here is the bottom of the challah. A little goupy from being in the sink, but I thought it looked kind of crazy. So I wanted to show you, too.


And, since we made A LOT of stuffing, I was back to using a pot as a big bowl, just like in New York. Sometimes a big soup pot is just the best mixing bowl.


So then, after mixing, I laid it out in the pan and poured the wine, vegetable stock and spices over it all.


I put it in the oven to bake but it became a little too soggy on the bottom and too crispy on the top. So we mixed it together and heated it in a big pot.


Then we put it back in the oven. It looked pretty good when it came out. I guess stuffing is supposed to be made in a turkey, but I thought it came out OK.



Next time I will sautee all the veggies and spices first then mix it with the bread. The veggies were a little crunchy, but it tasted OK.


Meanwhile...I was also making sweet potato mash. I boiled the sweet potatoes.


Then mashed away!


And added some cinnamon.


Mixed some more.


They came out very good.


Finally, all this time, my mom was working on a massive cold vegetable dish. She steamed broccoli, asparagus, and green beans. She had to cool them down really quickly in ice water.


Then she made a sauce with mushrooms, soy, ginger, garlic, etc. and poured it over top of the vegetables.


The it was topped with some toasted sesame seeds.


It looked very good. Then we packed our bags to head over to my aunts house.


We also brought dessert from our family bakery.


Stay tuned for Part 2: The Dinner...