For Thanksgiving, a coworker invited me over, as well as people from his lab. He made a turkey, which he made all by himself. It was first for him so he was very nervous about it turning out badly. I made homemade biscuits by Paula Deen and a French silk pie for Steven. They weren't vegan, so I just had a bite of each to taste them. I made the pie at a friend's house because I don't own a stand mixer powerful enough to mix the ingredients to the right consistency. Next time, I will make the whipped cream on the day of the consumption, instead of in advance. I made a a faux turkey that was decent. It is from Vegan Cooking Club. It was better than I expected, but it was a little stretchy (maybe not fully cooked) in certain middle parts. I dipped it in my potatoes to make it better. Steven and I had talked in advance about setting aside some of the veggies for me to make with Earth Balance instead of butter. So I got my own portion of potatoes to whip with soy milk and Earth Balance and my own portion of corn to add Earth Balance and pepper to. I steamed some green beans for everyone. I wanted to serve them with roasted pine nuts, but I burned the pine nuts. Boo. I also made glazed carrots using a recipe from Recipezaar (#40452) for everyone too, which I used Earth Balance in and no one noticed. This was my first vegan Thanksgiving. Last year, my mom got me a Quorn roast which has some egg protein in it and I had most of the sides. I really enjoyed the meal. I had thought about making baked cinnamon apples as my dessert but I didn't.
In other news, I have discovered my favorite bread contains vitamin D3. The Arnold Dutch Country Whole Wheat was once listed as "accidentally vegan" by PETA, I think. I noticed today that this is not the case. Vitamin D3 can only come from animals, unless the company is getting it made synthetically (doubtful). I am sad. I will have to find a new bread to avoid the D3. I think Arnold has another whole wheat bread that is vegan, which I really like so I'll have to check the label next time I'm at the store. Turns out my favorite Naan bread also contains buttermilk, so after I finish this pack no more! I need to find a vegan version somewhere. I don't want to cook every single thing from scratch. Curry is one of my "go to" dinners when I come home late. A can of organic diced tomatoes, a can of organic beans, add in some fresh garlic and onions, and voila! Serve with Naan or rice and dinner is served! Soooo yeah, we shall see how I can work around that.
In a random note, I found a vegan thin mint style cookie at Costco. They are so freakin' good. No wonder Steven claims to have gained ten pounds due to my love of sweets. Guess I'll be cutting back for both of us. He is going to start doing P90X again in the mornings. Maybe I should start hitting the free gym at work in the afternoons.
