Bilardio's adventures in food

This will be my very first Thanksgiving since I started the vegan adventure, so I decided I’d better figure out what my stand will be on all the T-day food. I still go back and forth on whether I’ll cast aside my current eating habits in favor of tasty pork shoulder and turkey, but I have devised a plan to let myself experience some Thanksgiving staples — vegan-like.

My three MOST favorite dishes are white bread stuffing, green bean casserole, and pecan pie, so I’ve found or fudged vegan versions of all of these. Om nom nom nom.

First, the Pecan Pie. I’ll give the original recipes with vegan substitutions:

Ingredients —

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust (I made my own so I’d know it was vegan. That means flour, Earth Balance and water — recipe from the savvy vegetarian)

3 eggs (Egg substitute: 3/4 cups unsweetened apple sauce)

1 cup dark corn syrup

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup butter or margarine (Earth Balance for me)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup pecan pieces and about 20-30 pecan halves (for topping to make it pretty)

Preheat oven to 350 and prepare pie crust. In medium bowl, with hand beater or wire whisk, beat eggs well (of course you don’t need to do this with apple sauce). Beat in next four ingredients until well blended. Put the crushed pecans in the bottom of the crust so that they float through the liquid ingredients when you pour them in. Carefully pour the liquid mixture over them. Arrange the pecan halves in some cute decorative way on the top. Bake one hour or until knife inserted one inch from the edge comes out clean (since I used apple sauce instead of egg, I baked for an hour-and-a-half, and this never happened, but once it cooled, the pie set just fine).

Next, the White Bread Stuffing.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter or margarine (I actually used coconut oil for this)

2 cups diced celery

1 1/2 cups chopped yellow onions

1/2 cup finely chopped parsley

4 teaspoons poultry seasoning

1 teaspoon pepper

12 -ish cups lightly packed white bread cubes (I set them out on a cookie sheet and let them dry out for about an hour so that they soak up all the liquid)

1/2 cup vegetable broth (This makes up for the fact that you aren’t actually cooking it inside a turkey, and so won’t have the turkey juices mixing in)

3 eggs, slightly beaten (For this, I used a ground flax and water substitute, courtesy of Care2 green living)

In large sauce pot over medium heat, in hot butter or margarine (coconut oil), cook celery and onions until tender, about 10 minutes. Add parsley, salt, poultry seasoning and pepper; mix well. Stir in bread cubes and eggs (flax mixture); mix well. If you aren’t baking inside the turkey (and of course, I wasn’t), bake at 350 for about 45 minutes to an hour.

And last, Brooke’s Vegan Green Bean Casserole.

I snagged this recipe from my friend Brooke’s blog, Plating For One. It’s pretty awesome, but it’s the most labor-intensive of the recipes here. Definitely not as simple as the French’s recipe I used to use.

Ingredients:

1.5 lb fresh green beans

8-ish regular white mushrooms (chopped, not sliced)

5 cloves minced garlic

3/4 cup vegetable broth

3/4 cup full fat, unsweetened soy milk

1 tbsp dry Sherry (I had never bought Sherry before. It was an interesting experience)

1.5 tbsp Earth Balance, melted

Pepper

Salt

Cayenne Pepper

2 tbsp flour

French friend onions

3/4 – 1 cup bread crumbs (Brooke’s blog said plain bread crumbs, but I just toasted a slice of whole wheat bread and crumbled it up.)

Trim the green beans into bite-sized pieces, and boil covered with a tablespoon of salt for about 7 minutes. Drain and set aside. Remove stems from mushrooms and cut into pieces, then saute them in oil with three cloves of garlic, salt, pepper, some cayenne until mushrooms release their juices. The seasoning is to your particular taste. I, like Brooke, really like salt, so I used plenty.

Whisk the flour into the broth, and add that and the sherry to the mushrooms. Simmer on low until thickened. Add soy milk and cook for about 5-10 minutes until it thickens again. Season to taste.

Mix all that with the green beans. Combine the Earth Balance, remaining garlic, bread crumbs, more salt and pepper (again, to your particular taste) in a bowl. Mix that in. Add the french fried onions for topping (I mixed some in and then topped with a few). Bake in a 425 oven for 15 minutes.

Baking and bubbling away

Ingredients:

Real Food

7 Wheat flour tortillas

1 BIG can of enchilada sauce

5 green onions, chopped

6 mushrooms, chopped

1 small can pickled jalapeno

1/2 cup fresh arugula

Fake Food

1 package shredded pepperjack Daiya

1 cup Boca meatless crumbles

1/2 cup Better than sour cream

Procedure: Mix up the arugula, the “sour cream,” the mushrooms, the “meat,” 2/3 of the “cheese,” 3/4 of the green onions, and 1/2 of the jalapenos. Dunk the tortillas in the enchilada sauce and then fill them with the mixture. Roll up the tortillas and put them in a casserole dish. Top with the rest of the enchilada sauce, “cheese,” jalapenos, and onions.

P.S. Don’t fret, Haley, I did some with no mushrooms.

I looked up a few recipes, got a basic idea, purchased some rice noodles and went for it.  There are a couple of essential bits that aren’t in there (tamarind paste, fish sauce, eggs) but there’s peanut sauce, hot sauce, noodles, and veggies.  And it’s very very tasty.

Bed of veggies

Noodles, tofu, green onion, garlic in a wok

The end result. Pretty, isn't it?

Greenling is the coolest

Cook up some black and red lentils until they’re mostly soft-ish and combine them with oatmeal, about two teaspoons of wasabi powder, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce.  Bake in the oven at 375 for ten minutes on each side.

Spicy and Sweet

So this will be mostly a picture post.

Here are some images  you can drool over.  Above, peaches, asparagus, avocado, and peppers for sushi.  Below, pickling book club, roasted veggies from Greenling, and grits with zucchini, okra, and peppers.

Pickles!

Greenling is so good to me

Veggies and Grits

A little bit of family background:  Beach week is spent with my mother’s side of the family.  My Dad and I are known as “the Italians” since we, you know, are Italian, and they, you know, aren’t.  Every year, my dad and I exercise our culinary prowess for one evening and spend hours and hours (I include myself in this despite the fact that my dad really does all the work) making an Italian meal for everyone.  It’s always a really beautiful experience hearing all the yummy noises from the rest of the family for the five hours that my dad’s awesome primavera sauce is simmering and driving everyone crazy as they wait with extreme eagerness to nom nom nom…

This year, my cousin Alanna wanted to learn how to make the sauce, so my dad passed along his considerable sauce making knowledge.

Saucy

My Daddy’s Primavera Sauce

Red and green bell pepper

Olive Oil

Yellow Onion

Diced Tomatoes

Bay Leaf, Fresh Basil, Fresh Oregano, Garlic

Italian Sausage and Ground Beef

Red Wine (to deglaze the pan)

He starts out by browning the meat in olive oil, then he adds the bell pepper and onion.  Those things cook together until the peppers and onions become transparent-ish.  Then he deglazes the pan with some red wine, letting all of that simmer for about thirty minutes.  After that, the garlic and other spices are added.  Another thirty minutes of simmering.  Then the tomatoes go in.  Simmer for two to three hours and drive family crazy with yummy smells.

A pasta Lesson

Of course, my Daddy, kind Italian that he is, made a vegan version for me, and I did a pesto with some rice pasta for my gluten-free momma.  We (and by we, I mean my dad) also made our famous garlic bread, which is artfully created by sauteing garlic in olive oil, dipping crusty bread in it, topping it with fresh basil (from my garden, thank you), and baking it for 20 minutes or so.

Oh yes, we also went to the beach today.  Here’s a picture of a cute bird.

Things that have come with me on this trip:

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

2. Sunscreen, SPF 30, in a spray bottle

3. Two swim suits, two pairs of shorts, two dresses, two t-shirts, two towels, and one pair of jeans

4. My lap top, my cell phone, and their respective chargers

5. A plastic grocery bag FULL of basil from the garden that barely made a dent in the forest of basil still IN the garden.

6.  Podcasts — including three episodes of Savage Love, five episodes of Planet Money, and three episodes of The Moth — which will I will run out of in, oh, about 30 minutes.

This year will be the first “beach week” my family spends together at a beach OTHER THAN PENSACOLA.  I won’t lie, it’s been difficult to accept the fact that the family members who live in Pensacola might actually want to experience a beach other than the one five minutes from their doors.

And so, I’ve set off on the journey to beautiful Destin.  My impression of this place in the past has been that it is, unlike my beloved Pensacola Beach, unforgivably tourist-y.  I have, however, resolved within myself to open my little judgy mind and give it the chance it deserves.

At the moment, I sit in the first eastbound I-10 welcome center in Louisiana.  Hooray!  I consider myself a sincere appreciator of state welcome centers, and I know the great state of Louisiana to be particularly welcoming.  On the way here, a few things occured to me

1.  It takes, like, a really long time to get out of Texas.

2. It’s hurricane season.  I know this because as soon as I got to Houston, every other sign on the highway warned me to be careful, as it is hurricane season.

3. I am about to enter a stretch of highway that will take me over and through some for serious swamp.  I am particularly fond of the fact that the land in Louisiana could, you know, eat me.

4.  It has been way too long since I’ve eaten boiled peanuts, and I must remedy that AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

And so, as I have now spent a little more than half an hour here soaking up Louisiana’s very warm and sultry welcome, I leave you with a couple of songs I can’t get out of my head.

A little Randy Newman and a little Lucinda Williams for your listening and viewing pleasure.

This morning began with a lovely continental breakfast at our hotel in Farmington so that we could keep our strength up for the journey to — look at the title and guess where —

FOUR PLACES AT ONCE IS COOL

Four Corners!

Things are pretty there.

land for a long way

Have you a flag?

Corners! Four of them!

We then made our way to Flagstaff, AZ.  By the way, it’s one of the coolest cities EVER!

Flagstaff

We stopped for lunch at Black Bean Burrito Bar.  I had a veggie tacos and what they call their “heavenly habanero” salsa.  It was super sweet with a rockin’ kick at the end.

Tacos! Tacos! Tacos and Hot Salsa!

In between Flagstaff and Sedona, where we’re staying tonight, there’s Red Rock State Park.  The drive took us through about 20 miles of mountains and forest so pretty I wouldn’t have believed it had I not been there.

WOW

People were jumping off cliffs at Slide Rock Park

Swimming

I think I may have to buy an airstream trailer and live on the side of a mountain.

New Mexico Border!

The state’s motto does not lie!  I am enchanted.  My buddy John and I left the great state of Texas this afternoon on our much-anticipated road trip to Vegas and were greeted warmly by our western neighbor.  I, a seasoned southeastern welcome center veteran, was eager to experience what the West has to offer in terms of state greetings.  Let me say now for the record, New Mexico’s I-40 welcome center did not disappoint.  It offered maps, maps, maps, literature of many kinds detailing activities for every region, free coffee, and…

A Really Big Cast of a Dinosaur Bone!

In case you didn’t read the caption, it says “a really big cast of a dinosaur bone!”

We were excited.  See the picture below.

That's John being excited.

Also, New Mexico has MOUNTAINS!  And those mountains are really cool to look at.  So cool, in fact, that I only remembered to take pictures of the first little mountains we saw on the trip.  I was too busy staring at bigger ones later on to capture them digitally.

a little hill mountain

More stuff tomorrow.  We’re going to Four Corners and poking around Arizona.  We’re spending tonight in Farmington, NM and tomorrow night in Sedona, AZ.