Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is the big holiday in our family, so I spent most of the week getting ready for the big day. And here's what we had!

Yes, that is two kinds of stuffing on the plate there -- cornbread stuffing at the bottom and sausage stuffing at the top. All of the produce (yams, potatoes, chard, cranberries) came from the farmer's market. That delicious slab of protein in the middle there is Field Roast's hazelnut cranberry roast en croute.

Not pictured: pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie, apple-cranberry pie, macademia creme, vanilla coconut milk ice cream. The apple-cranberry pie (made by my friend Sarah) was one of the very best apple pies I have ever eaten -- and certainly the best apple cranberry pie I'd ever had. Yum! In fact, the only apple pie to rival this one is the apple pie that my Aunt Karen (for whom the blog is named!) would make every year at Thanksgiving. If I can't have that one . . . well, this cranapple pie is a delightful substitute!

Squash Nuggets

We went to a potluck last night and I've been feeling in the autumn spirit as I think about what to make for Thanksgiving next week, so I wanted to bring some very seasonal, autumn-y dishes. I decided to make pumpkin spice cupcakes with cinnamon creamcheese frosting, and these little guys -- squash nuggets.

I was thinking about the super-delicious zucchini cakes I made this summer and wanted to make something in that family, where the vegetable is transformed into the centerpiece of the meal instead of a side. The nuggets have a nice chewy texture from the vital wheat gluten, more like a meat analog than like a pure vegetable. We ate ours dipped in mustard, but they were also good plain.

Really any spice blend would work with these little guys! Next time, I will probably try cinnamon, curry powder, coriander, and ginger. Another blend that would work great with the squash is rosemary, thyme, basil, oregano, and garlic. This recipe is definitely open to lots of different flavorings, so you can get creative with the spices!

Squash Nuggets

makes two dozen nuggets or six cutlets

• 1 1/2 c roasted squash, mashed (you can also use canned pumpkin)
• 1 c vital wheat gluten
• 1/2 c bread crumbs
• 1/2 tsp thyme
• 1/2 tsp sage
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp marjoram

Combine ingredients in a bowl and knead until strings start to appear. Form the dough into small balls about 1 inch in diameter, then flatten them out into nugget shape and place nuggets on a lightly oiled baking sheet. Brush the tops of the nuggets with olive oil, and bake at 350 for 20 minutes -- flipping the nuggets halfway through.

I roasted three small winter squashes left from our CSA -- one delicata, one acorn, and one butternut -- but really any kind of winter squash (including pumpkin!) would work. To roast the squashes, I cut them in half and placed them on a lightly greased baking sheet, then threw them in the oven at 400° for about 45 minutes. If you don't want to roast them yourself, canned pumpkin or squash puree would definitely work in place of the roasted squash. My three squashes yielded a cup and a half of mashed squash, but if you end up with more or less squash after roasting, this recipe could be scaled up or down accordingly.

Roasting the squash takes the longest amount of time; the rest of the recipe comes together very quickly and easily. Since you don't actually have to be there watching the squash while it roasts (in fact, I left P with the roasting squash while Zelda & I went to the store to pick up some ingredients for the cupcakes!), it is not a very time-consuming recipe. Definitely easy enough -- and tasty enough! -- to be worth making again!

Update: These nuggets have become a family favorite!  You can either make a whole bunch of nuggets or make them into larger cutlets.  I normally make some big cutlets for the grown-ups and nuggets for Zelda.

Rice Noodles with Broccoli in Peanut Sauce, version 2.0

It's true that I've posted a similar dish in the past, but there have been some advancements made between the last time and Monday night, when we had this for dinner.

The first advancement is that I made my own peanut sauce this time, instead of copping out and using an already prepared variety. I found Thai culinary stock at Wegman's -- which was fabulous! --though any kind of vegetable broth would certainly have worked in its place. To make the sauce, I began by heating up some of the broth and then mixing in a couple of tablespoons of natural peanut butter so that it dissolved completely. I also added sriracha, lime juice, and a little bit of tapioca flour to thicken the sauce a tad more. I actually meant to add coconut milk, but completely forgot about it; the additional creaminess would be welcome in the future, but the sauce still managed to be quite tasty without it. Even though there wasn't much actual peanut butter in the sauce, it still had a nice, full peanuty flavor.

The second advancement is about the noodles themselves. Previously, I always would drop the noodles in boiling water for two or three minutes before using them; on Monday, I learned about a different technique! Instead of boiling, you can soak the rice noodles in cold water for about twenty minutes and (after draining them) they're all ready to use.

The noodles and peanut sauce, stir-fried with delicious broccoli from the farmers' market, are pictured above. Unfortunately, today was the last day of the farmers' market, so the broccoli we picked up this morning will probably be the last we have for awhile! In the past week, I've learned that there is one local farm market that will be open through the end of December -- so we'll be able to get winter squash, apple cider, and canned tomatoes there, though I'm not sure if they have anything else. It would be a very long winter on just squash and tomatoes! I would love to continue eating only locally-grown produce during the winter, but I'm sure we would get very sick of squash and tomatoes. I am still looking into the potential for growing some spinach inside, but I'm not sure how well that would work. More to come on this later!

Garlicky Kale, White Beans, & Sausage

It's been awhile since I've posted anything, plus our CSA has been finished for several weeks now -- but I'm still here! Things have been crazy with school and the tiny one, but I'm going to try to get back into posting regularly.

We got a great haul at the farmers' market this week, but I am already beginning to worry about the weeks to come; next week is the final week of the season . . . where am I going to get produce then? Are there any farms around here that are open year round? Should I try to grow some indoor vegetables?

Those worries aside, let me tell you about tonight's dinner! I have to start with a confession. I decided what to make tonight because I've always thought the word 'garlicky' is one of the best words ever, and wanted an excuse to use it. That, and we got a gorgeous bunch of kale from the farmers' market this week!

Kale, white beans, and sausage is one of those meals I think of as very classic Italian, and I was all set to make my Italian friends proud (I'm looking at you, JerzeyGrrl!) by making the Italian sausages from Vegan Brunch and giving this meal the proper Italian treatment. But . . . well, I didn't have any tomato paste. Or fennel. Or oregano. Or, really, any of the appropriate seasonings to make some good Italian food. I know, I know.

So what did I have? My answer to everything: curry paste! Instead of tomato paste, I used curry paste; instead of Italian seasonings, I used Indian seasonings. I always have the goods to make Indian food, and so I turned this Italian classic into something new.

I used cannellini beans as the base for the sausages, since I was going to be using them for the rest of the meal anyway. The sausages turned out a little softer than usual, which I am going to attribute to the softness of the beans that I was using -- but they were super tasty! After steaming the sausages, I diced two of them up and sauteed them in a little olive oil before adding the kale.

The kale came with a whole boatload of garlic -- it was supposed to be garlicky, after all! -- and a bit more of the same Indian spices I'd used in the sausages. Once the kale started wilting appropriately, I added the white beans at the end. The white beans really just have to get warm, but they also need to get mixed up with the rest to make sure they get nicely coated with all those other delicious flavors.

Even though this wasn't exactly the meal I had in mind when I started out, it was a fantastic dinner! The sausages take time to cook, but it is an easy meal to throw together -- and you don't have to pay attention to the sausages while they're steaming, so you are free to go off and do something else! The Indian flavors really came through nicely in the sausages and the kale, putting a new spin on an old classic. Definitely a meal we'll be having again!