Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck

In a previous post I had a picture of baked squash with garlic but mentioned that it wasn't baked as long as we normally like. This picture below is much more is to our taste. Nice and golden. I'm actually baking some more squash right now, grown by my friend Erica. We are having that along side of some Celebrity Adzuki Bean Patties.
From Veganomicon, Spaghetti and BeanBalls. These beanballs aren't something that I'll likely make again. They weren't awful but they were a bit mealy. I ended up shoving mine to the side. The kids liked them well enough and Joe said that they were ok. Can't win them all.

Next up, Blueberry Muffins from The Vegan Family Cookbook. I was really craving some blueberry muffins and every recipe that I looked at called for soy yogurt. I didn't have any yogurt. After flipping through all of my cookbooks, I came across this recipe.

They were very nice, tender inside and slightly crispy outside. The recipe calls for olive oil but I think that would be better replaced with coconut or canola. Olive oil lends to strong of a flavor. Other then that I would leave things alone.

This weekend we went to a vegan Thanksgiving potluck. We met Sara from veganmomma there along with her family. I made some Triple Ginger Cookies and some Pecan Tartlets. I adapted the Tartlet recipe from a magazine, I think Healthy Living.

Pecan Tartlets

Dough

3/4 cup whole-wheat pastry flour

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup Earth Balance

4 oz Better-Then-Cream cheese

1/4 cup canola oil

Filling

Egg replacer for 1 large egg, beaten

1 cup chopped pecans

3/4 cup packed brown sugar

1 Tlb. Earth Balance, melted

1 tsp. vanilla

Mix the dough ingredients together with a wooden spoon, until all incorporated in a large bowl. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes to reduce its stickiness.

Position rack in the lower third of the oven; preheat to 350'.

Divide dough into 24 balls, roughly a tablespoon amount. Press each piece of dough into a mini muffin cup, making a well in the center and pressing the dough up the sides of the tin to form a tartlet shell.

Mix the filling ingredients together in a large bowl. Divide the filling evenly among the 24 tartlet shells.

Bake the tartlets for 10 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 325' and bake until the filling is puffed and the crust is lightly golden, 10 to 12 minutes more. Let the tartlets cool COMPLETELY in the pans on a wire rack. Then remove from pan.

Above is a picture of my plate at the potluck. My favorite dishes were those spirally noodles. They had a little something extra then all of the other mac & cheeze's I've had. I also loved Sara's scalloped potatoes. They were great. For dessert I had a someone greasy but tasty brownie and some really great pumpkin pie. I think it might have been more a pumpkin cheese pie because it had a slight cream cheese flavor.

Ramsey and Athena were sitting right in the path of the door and the wind was blowing on them. Ramsey ended borrowing Rowans sweat shirt. It was a little short in the arms but still fit pretty well.

Isn't Rowan's hat cute? I'm guessing Sara made it, but I forgot to ask. She's multi-talented.

Isaac can't pose for a normal picture. That lesson was reinforced yesterday when we were at The Picture People.

I forgot to take a picture of the Lentils and Rice with Caramelized Onions from Veganomicon. The dish was slightly bland. The onions were great but I think there would be more flavor if the rice was cooked with broth instead of water. I'll try the dish again. Anything with 3 onions in it is worth trying again.

With Thanksgiving two days away my next post should have some good stuff in it.