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thanksgiving and the tale of the pumpkin pie curse!

Published November 14, 2008 Uncategorized 4 Comments
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thanksgiving is right around the corner and i’m starting to get super excited! this will be our family’s 4th vegan thanksgiving and it gets better and better every year. i have been reallllly busy with school lately and i feel kind of bad because my dad has made a few attempts to plan the menu with me and i’ve had to sort of put all thoughts that aren’t related to interior design on the back burner (ha! i love cooking jokes). but i just turned in my project that was due today so now i’ve got thanksgiving on the brain!

last year’s thanksgiving meal was FANTASTIC, and it’s going to be pretty hard to top it but i think we just might! we love to stick with the traditional thanksgiving side dishes, like mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, etc..but josh and i have a couple ideas that we can add to our menu that will really make it spectacular. we made brown sugar glazed baby carrots a few weeks ago on a whim and they turned out super good, and i think that would be great for thanksgiving! the brown sugar glaze is sooo good…and perfect for thanksgiving. 

another idea i had is to make a winter squash casserole. my nanna always makes a sweet potato casserole that everyone loves, but i thought about adding some roasted butternut and acorn squash in there too! i think the flavors and textures are very similar and would give the dish a little special something. we’ll see how that goes over with the fam’…we’re kind of creatures of habits :)

for dessert, my cousin emilee has requested pumpkin cheesecake, which is something josh and i have been wanting to make FOREVER. i found this recipe over at fat free vegan kitchen that looks great, so i think we’ll be giving that a try this year. 

let me let you in on a little family secret: my mom is cursed…. cursed with the inability to make a successful pumpkin pie. it has plagued her for decades…every thanksgiving she tries it one more time, yet still comes out with what we lovingly call, “kathy’s pumpkin soup.” the flavor was always spot on, but she was never able to get that perfect pumpkin pie consistency, vegan or not vegan. last year i thought i would take over the responsibility of making the pumpkin pie..i thought maybe i would be able to pull it off. i should have known that i was cursed even before the pie was done baking. i had finished mixing all the ingredients and i asked my mom to help me spoon the filling into the pie crust. i was holding the huge mixing bowl while she spooned the filling into the crust, when all of a sudden the weight of the bowl combined with sore arms from baking and of course the inevitable stress of thanksgiving came down upon me..the bowl slipped from my hands and fell right into the half full pie crust, splashing pumpkin pie mix all over us and all over the kitchen wall. 

i started to laugh at myself for being clumsy, but my mom looked concerned. she knew at that point that she had passed on the curse. i told her not to worry, and we cleaned up the pumpkin splatter and tried to salvage what was left of our pie. we baked it, let it set in the refrigerator for a few hours, and crossed our fingers. when it came time for dessert after a wonderful thanksgiving dinner, my mom and i took the pumpkin pie out of the fridge and did the jiggle test: shaking it a bit to see if it was going to pumpkin pie or the dreaded pumpkin soup. it seemed to be ok, so we put it out on the table and tried not to let the family know our fears. i was the first to receive a piece of the pie, and sure enough…pumpkin soup.

luckily our family has been very understanding over the years of a pumpkin pie-less thanksgiving. our only hope is that the curse has not been passed to anyone else. in fact, josh has made an amazing pumpkin pie before, so we might pass on the pumpkin pie baking to him this year. what makes it worse is that pumpkin pie is my favorite thanksgiving dessert…i miss it dearly. 

but curse or no curse, we always have delicious thanksgiving dinners spent with our amazing family. i can’t wait to see how it turns out this year! 

does your family have any funny traditions? we’d love to hear about them!

vegan buffalo chicken pizza with ranch!

Published November 8, 2008 Uncategorized 4 Comments

my sister ally and her boyfriend william invited josh and i up to their house for halloween last weekend! they were both super excited about the food they wanted to make, including william’s crazy idea to make vegan buffalo chicken pizza! i got emails from him weeks before we came over telling me about how he made a vegetarian buffalo chicken pizza and he said it was delish, and he wanted to see if i could make a vegan ranch dressing so that we could make a vegan version for halloween weekend. i said i could TOTALLY make a vegan ranch! 

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it came out great too! william was the test, since he’s had non-vegan ranch a lot more recent than any of us have, and he said it was spot on. he even said he likes it better than the non-vegan ranch! 

armed with a big batch of vegan ranch, william was let loose in the kitchen to make his vegan buffalo chicken pizza. he used morningstar chick strips and marinated them in some store bought buffalo wing sauce. he was able to score a hand-tossed pizza crust from pizza hut (he has hook ups), so he covered it in the vegan ranch, then the marinated veggie chicken strips, and topped it with some tofutti mozzarella cheese. he baked it for about 15 minutes, and holy crap look how it came out!

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before we all had a chance to eat it, william took a big slice and discreetly took it over to the dining table..took a bite, and then gave his stamp of approval. he said it was everything he expected it to be!! i love it when a non-vegan finds vegan food to be just as good, if not better, than the “real” thing! 

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here’s william cutting his masterpiece!

 

i have never had any kind of pizza that wasn’t the typical italian stuff, so i was a little leery at first. my mom and i are pretty boring when it comes to flavors..you know, choosing vanilla ice cream when there’s 30 different flavors..that type of thing. but i LOVED this pizza! totally a different pizza experience than i had ever had before, but super good! the ranch was cool and creamy and the buffalo sauce was spicy and zesty, yum!

roasted carrot soup and homemade veggie broth!

Published October 30, 2008 Uncategorized 5 Comments
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something inspired me to make carrot soup the other day. i’ve only had one experience with carrot soup, my nanna made it once a long time ago and i remember really liking it! the only time we ever really buy carrots is to make our veggie florentine pasta, but i bought a big bag of carrots last week to use for our pumpkin party but we didn’t end up using them because my dad already had some. i dont know about you guys but we never end up using all of the carrots that come in those big bags, and they always go rotten on us. so i figured i was going to put a stop to this and went about to make some carrot soup!

i went online and searched for basic carrot soup recipes, and then i came across one that used roasted carrots. we always think that roasting veggies is one of the best ways to bring out their best flavor, and i figured that logic must apply to carrots too…so i gave it a try!

i roasted the carrots in some olive oil and fresh thyme for about 20-25 minutes. then i sauteed some onion in a pot, and when they were soft i added the roasted carrots, 4 cups of vegetable broth, and some salt and pepper. after it came to a boil, i turned the heat off and used our handy dandy immersion blender to blend it all up really smooth. i tasted it, expecting to have to add tons more spices to make it taste good, but it was amazing!!!! so simple, and the roasted carrots gave the soup a nice depth in flavor and the thyme really brought everything together. perfect! i ended up eating all of it for lunch over the next couple of days, and when it was gone i started to feel sad…so i made another batch!

this time i switched things up a bit. i read this post on vegan yum yum about making your own vegetable broth, and boy was i inspired.

she talked about how some store bought vegetable broth is packed full of sodium, msg, high fructose corn syrup, and other additives that i certainly don’t want in any of my healthy, home-cooked meals! i thought this would be a great way to use up leftover veggies in the fridge as well as fresh cooking scraps, and all you really have to do is chop them up and throw them in a pot! i love easy, simple ways to use up leftover veggies, and unlike composting, this way you get to use the product in your cooking!

so when i went to make my second batch of roasted carrot soup, i decided to make my own vegetable broth too (partly because we ran out of our store bought broth :D) i basically did everything lolo says in her post, i used the basic combo of onion, celery, and carrots, then added whatever else i had lying in the fridge, which was some red pepper and a few mushrooms. i then added enough water to fill the pot i was using, some herbs, salt and pepper, and let it simmer for about an hour or so. once it was all done i strained the veggies out, and voila! homemade vegetable broth!

perfect for my second batch of roasted carrot soup! and this batch was even better than the first! i would totally recommend making your own veggie broth. it’s super simple and really a great way to use leftover veggies and it’s perfect for making homemade soups!

Pumpkin party extravaganza!

Published October 23, 2008 Uncategorized 14 Comments
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last sunday josh and i held our 2nd annual pumpkin party! a day full of pumpkin carving, fall welcoming, and most of all eating delicious food that celebrates the season, such as pumpkins!

for appetizers josh made this ridiculously good cheesy spread made with roasted butternut squash, roasted garlic, tofutti cream cheese, fresh thyme and rosemary, and topped with chopped pecans. holy crap was it good!!! slightly sweet, savory, cheesy…just the best fall dip imaginable. 

my nanna made a french onion dip using tofutti sour cream (if you didnt notice..hah!) and chopped up some fresh veggies to dip. perfect!

     

there was a lot of pumpkin carving going on, and we all sifted through the pumpkin insides to save the seeds for roasting! that’s one of the best parts of carving pumpkins, right? josh and i roasted the seeds for about 20 minutes, added salt, and mixed them in with dried sweetened cranberries. the combination of the sweet and salty was great!

for drinks, my sister ally and her boyfriend william brought 3 half-gallon growlers of their favorite pumpkin beer from sweetwater, and i made mulled apple cider too! we put cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, and allspice berries into a tea bag and submerged it in apple cider. then i heated it on low heat all afternoon, making a delicious hot cider!

thanks to everyone’s great suggestions i decided to make baked pumpkins for dinner! my dad had made this recipe a long time ago for thanksgiving, and i thought it would be perfect for the main course. it has sauteed onion, pumpkin, carrots, and zucchini, all in a tomato and vegetable broth based sauce, mixed together with pasta shells! to serve this yummified meal, you spoon everything into the baked pumpkin shells…which we learned not only makes a gorgeous centerpiece on the dinner table, but it also helps to keep the food really hot when you put the lid of the pumpkin on it..score! 

  

i made a double batch of our corn muffins to go with the meal and they were even better this time then the first time i made them! best, corn muffins, ever! seriously, go make them now..and bring me some because i’m starving. 

my dad made this awesome butternut squash soup too! lousy picture, excellent soup! it really complimented everything else on the table perfectly.  

when the time came to make dessert, i was burnt out from cooking all day…so josh and my super amazing cousin/baking-partner-ever-since-we-were-little, emilee, took over and made the pumpkin coffee cake with pecan streusel from veganomicon. it was soooo delicious. perfectly pumpkiny with all those great pumpkin pie flavors all wrapped up into a coffee cake with yummy pecans and brown sugar on top. ally and william brought the BEST pumpkin coffee to serve with dessert too. such a great way to finish a meal! 

this pumpkin party is a new tradition that josh and i started that i think is a really great way to celebrate the change of seasons. fall is by far josh and my favorite season too! here’s some shots of everyone enjoying the pumpkin party! 

ally with the yummy cider, william with his beloved pumpkin beer, and momma digging into the appetizers!
ally and william’s baby girl evie out on the porch enjoying the beautiful fall day!
emmy and daddy carving pumpkins
yet another one of daddy’s kickass pumpkin carvings!
ally and jack pooped out at around 7:30!

Corn muffins and chili!

Published October 17, 2008 Uncategorized 5 Comments

 

our yummy corn muffins served in the gorgeous new plate my aunt mar gave me for my birthday!

we haven’t made a batch of chili in close to a year, so last night we thought it was time to make some! i have to be in the mood for chili..meaning it has to be at least a bit nippy outside in order for me to want to eat a bowl of hot beans and such. but i will say that i am ALWAYS in the mood for cornbread! 

i told josh i wanted to make corn muffins instead of our usual corn bread..i thought cute little muffins would be easier to eat then having to cut out a piece of corn bread and all that..wow i sound lazy. anyway, i adapted our corn bread recipe a bit and made corn muffins! 

1 cup soy milk

1 teaspoon vinegar

1 cup flour

1 cup corn meal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup sugar

1/3 cup vegetable oil

1/2 cup canned corn

 

preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a muffin pan. whisk the soy milk and vinegar together and set aside to curdle, about 5 minutes. mix all dry ingredients in a large bowl. in a separate bowl, mix the soy milk mixture and oil. add the wet ingredients and corn to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. spoon into greased muffin pan and bake for about 15 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the muffins comes out clean. 

 

here’s olly eyeing my dinner!!

they came out super delicioso! perfectly moist, just a bit of sweetness, and so cute and easy to eat! the chili came out great as well. i had forgotten how good it is! i used our three bean chili recipe and let it simmer on the stove for about an hour and a half. i bet you could let it simmer all day if you had the time! chili is definitely one of those perfect fall weather meals!

 

i don’t think she can get any cuter!

Pumpkin Party

Published October 15, 2008 Uncategorized 9 Comments

so josh and i are throwing a fall pumpkin party this weekend at my parent’s house! we’re going to be carving pumpkins and eating fall/pumpkiny foods..and we need your help!

i have ideas for appetizers and snacks, my dad is going to make a butternut squash soup, and i think i’ll be making some pumpkin crumb cake from veganomicon, but i have NO idea what else to have for dinner! i want the soup to be like a side dish or maybe first course type of deal, but i’m completly drawing a blank as  far as what else could be served for the main course. i’m looking for fall ingredients and flavors and something that would go well along side some yummy soup!

any suggestions would be GREAT! thanks guys!!! <3

Veganmofo- scrambled tofu and homemade bagels!

Published October 15, 2008 Uncategorized 6 Comments
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josh and i LOVE us some scrambled tofu. it’s one of those things where you can really throw in whatever veggies you have in the fridge and it will always come out amazing. josh went camping a few months ago and he really wanted to bring scrambled tofu-makings to cook for breakfast, but realized that would be a pain in the ass to have to do all that chopping and stuff out in the woods. so instead we put all the chopped veggies, crumbled tofu, and spices into a plastic ziplock bag and shook it up really well to combine all the spices. we figured tofu is usually better after it’s marinated for a while, so letting it soak up all the veggie and spice flavors would probably make the scrambles taste that much better..and it did! josh says that it was the BEST scrambled tofu he has EVER had! so we’ve been making our tofu scrambles like that ever since!

just throw whatever it is you want in your scrambles in a bag and let it mingle for about 30 minutes, or even over night and all the flavors will get all yummy and delicious! try doing THAT with eggs!

i also spent an entire afternoon making homemade bagels! i took the recipe and cut it in half to make 1/2 plain bagels and 1/2 cinnamon raisin. let me just say i wish i wrote down what i did for the cinnamon raisin bagels because they were DELICIOUS! i’ll have to try and make them again. the one thing that was weird was the bagels came out a bit flat this time for some reason…but still yummy! 

by the way, the BEST way to eat this is to squirt some ketchup on the bagel and pile on the tofu scrambles. delish!


veganmofo survey!

Published October 11, 2008 Uncategorized 5 Comments

i saw this survey over at happyveganface who got it from food snobbery is my hobbery (<—great blog i just discovered!)

since it’s 12:15 on a saturday afternoon and i just rolled myself out of bed, i figured it would be a good post to write before i dive head first into a long weekend of slaving at my computer to finish my project that’s due tuesday. yeahhh dont you just love school?!

 

1. name a song that involves food in some way.
atom and his package- does anyone else in this room (”we’ll dine on the samples at the grocery store”)

2. what criteria do you use when choosing a new cookbook to buy?
i usually like there to be pictures for each recipe (food porn!) but i mostly look through to see if it has some different recipes from what i already know/have

3. what did you eat today? 
ooohhh…yeah…nothing yet.  but i think i might eat the leftover banana chocolate pancakes in the fridge before josh gets them!

4. name a vegan food that you know exists but you have never tried.
vegan philly cheese steaks!

5. the Food Network just called and needs you to start your new show tomorrow. what will the title of the show be?
no whey jose!

6. favorite hot sauce or other spicy condiment?
cock sauce! (sriracha)

7. how old were you when you became vegetarian/vegan?
4 when i became vegetarian and 19 when i went vegan

8. favorite vegan cheeze? 
tofutti cream cheese!

9. cutest baby animal?

baby panda!!!!!!!

10. favorite type of jam/jelly/marmalade/preserves?
strawberry jam for sho

11. do you take any vitamins/supplements?
nope.

12. what food/dish most embodies the Fall season?
any kind of yummy body-warming soup…mmmm

13. what food would you have a hard time living without?
sandwiches

14. coffee, tea, or hot chocolate?
iced coffee!

15. it’s 10PM and you’re starving. what do you eat?
i usually just complain about being hungry and then realize there’s no food in the house and go to bed. haha!

16. if you have an animal companion, what is his/her favorite food?
green beans!! we used to give her green beans along with some dog food to help her lose weight and she would go CRAZY for them! no weight loss though :D

17. worst injury you’ve gotten in the kitchen?
just a few burns, nothing major.

18. when you have a food-related question, who do you call?
my daddy!!! i usually text him with some crazy question like “is it dill weed or dill seed that goes in your salad dressing!?” 

19. summer is ending- what food will you miss most?
fresh local tomatoes and squash..you will be missed. 

20. what snacks do you keep in your purse/backpack/desk at work?
dry cereal

21. favorite soup to make on a rainy day?
cream of broccoli soup!

22. what’s your favorite combination of fresh vegetable and/or fruit juices?
carrot, apple, pear

23. favorite brand of root beer?
richbrau (they microbrew their rootbeer!) 

24. make your own question: who’s your favorite person to cook with in the whole wide world?

josh <3 because, as my dad says, we don’t fight when we’re both in the kitchen together, and my dad because i’ve always cooked with him ever since i was a wee girl

veganmofo- composting!

Published October 9, 2008 Uncategorized 8 Comments
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there hasn’t been many super exciting things happening in our kitchen the past few days so i thought i’d write about composting! (isn’t that picture amazing?!?)

my parents have been composting for several years now, and it’s such a great way to reduce waste and to get awesome organic matter to mix into soil for planting. they’ve always wanted to buy or make a compost bin but instead they just have a huge pile of compost at the edge of the yard. since josh and i live in a tiny apartment with no yard to speak of, composting has been a bit of a struggle. i HATE having to throw away food wastes..not only does it make the garbage smell bad but it’s also a constant reminder that we don’t have the yard with an organic garden and compost bin that we dream of. sigh. anyway, i came across an article about vermicomposting, or composting with worms, and what peaked my interest was that they say you can easily do it inside!

i’ve always loved worms, and i’ve known for a long time how composting with worms is a great way to compost, but never really got around to doing it. i wish i could say “but alas! we’ve got worms!”…but i can’t. the intentions are there, but we haven’t bought a bin yet and yada yada yada we rarely do the things we say we’re going to do. hah. 

we have, however, started to save our food scraps in preparation for our soon to be indoor worm composting bin! the article mentioned that if you freeze your food scraps it will cut down on any odors and also won’t attract fruit flies, so we have 2 big freezer bags full of scraps just waiting to be eaten by adorable little wormies. 

so do any of you guys compost? or have intentions to compost? we’d love to hear about your composting adventures!

panic! veganmofo!

Published October 6, 2008 Uncategorized 5 Comments
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is anyone else having anxiety about being taken off of the veganmofo list if you don’t post 5 times a week?! i am!!! EDIT!! thank you paula for pointing out that you’ll be taken off the list after not posting in 5 days, not 5 times a week…phew!! school makes it difficult to make time for posting every day but we’re trying! we just got back from my parent’s house this weekend and i feel so out of touch…they don’t have high speed internet out there in the boonies so i haven’t been able to get online all weekend *gasp* 

this weekend was a celebration of my birthday that was last weekend as well as my sister’s boyfriend (william)’s birthday that was a few weeks ago… this was the first weekend we could all get together and celebrate both birthdays. i’ve been taking tons of pictures with my new camera but i’m not used to not being able to hook it up to my computer and dump all the images to look through and post on here. and of course my dad’s camera wasn’t working, and i took some pictures on my sister’s camera but then she left without me being able to take the pictures off of it. blast! i did however take some video which i will post on here after i have josh show me how to upload it. until then let me tell you the yummy food my parents made over the weekend for us!

for dinner on saturday my dad made a big batch of chickenless noodle soup  and a huge bowl of tempeh salad (or faux chicken salad) to have on sandwiches. it was amazing! my sister ally brought over some bread from panera and we made delicious sammies with tofurkey slices and tempeh salad. it was a perfect meal for a crisp fall day! then for dessert josh and ally made william and i (the birthday kids!) chocolate raspberry cupcakes. ally is notorious for messing up when she bakes (when she was little she made muffins from a muffin mix, and baked the whole thing without realizing that she forgot THE MIX!), and she almost messed up the icing but she caught herself just in time and it came out great! 

sunday morning my mom and ally made us all belgian waffles which were delicious..and then for dinner we made our yummy white pizza and a pizza with onions, red peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, and tofurky sausage. mmm! and josh was in total cooking/baking mode that he made a big batch of chocolate chip cookies!

i’m so mad that i don’t have photos to post but i promise we’ll get that video up here later on. but hopefully this post will keep us from getting kicked off the veganmofo list.. i swear i have anxiety from that!

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Welcome!


Welcome to No Whey, José!…a vegan cooking and baking blog from the minds and bellies of Josh Maines and Chelsea Kirk. Using the blog as a way to compile their favorite recipes, Josh and Chelsea hope to someday write a cookbook, and their ultimate dream is to open the “No Whey, José! Vegan Bakery.”

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