For the next 12 days leading up to Christmas, it is my pleasure to share some of my most treasured vegan recipes, some old favorites and some brand new, perfect for this grand holiday.
I’m starting with dessert, as this recipe(from 2009) might take a little bit more preparation and planning than the others. However, when you present this beauty to your loved ones, the smiles on their faces and their oohs and ahs will make any extra little bit of effort entirely worth it.
Named after Southern Living Magazine’s annual cover cake for their December issue, “The Big White Cake” is a bit of a misnomer, for though the frosting is a luscious pillowy white, the cake is German chocolate. And between the rich layers is a festive–and lightly spiked–adaptation of traditional German chocolate cake filling with it’s nuts and coconut. Dried cranberries and citrus make it a true celebration of winter and gift of the season.
Sugared fruit guilds this delicious, impressive lily. And for all of its wow-power, “The Big White Cake” is really not difficult at all.
My Handsome 84-Year Old Father, Byron Gough; Huff; and My Beautiful Sister-in-Law, Terri Ann Lindelow
Ever since the year after we were married, Joe and I have enjoyed the annual privilege of hosting Thanksgiving for our respective families.
The venue has changed from our small first house to the roomier home we built 13 years ago as have the number of people gathered around the table, for family members and friends have come and gone through death, divorce, relocation, engagement, or just scheduling conflicts.
Everyone misses Joe’s now deceased parents and, this year, an engagement and a work schedule prevented one of our nieces and our nephew from coming. But, my parents and sister all joined us this year. (Impending knee surgery had kept my sister and mother home last year and my father, especially, felt guilty for coming without them, though they encouraged him.)
Both of Joe’s sister’s, one niece, and his married sister’s husband all were able to come, which made for a convivial group of 9 plus two hungry Great Danes.
I loved having my sister stay at our house, but I also loved visiting our parents at their beachfront hotel, and taking long (like 7 miles long) walks on the boardwalk with Joe’s younger sister from his families’ beachfront hotel.
There were lunches and dinners both in and out, movies, a couple of exciting football games (MS State vs. Ole Miss and Auburn vs. Alabama), dog walks, a bit of shopping with my mom and sister–we had to get Mom something pretty to wear for the holidays and she no longer drives (words I thought I would never utter)–planning for an SPCA fundraiser (more on that later), and lots of conversation, teasing and laughter.
Our tasty dinner–we usually eat around 6 p.m.–consisted of the following vegan dishes:
Everyone seemed to love it all, but the dressing was a particular favorite. I had found a recipe for Double Corn-Cornbread Dressing in the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I was excited that it incorporated spinach in a great enough amount that each serving included a healthy serving. So, I basically followed their recipe (substituting a vegan broth for their chicken broth). But, as a child, I loved my mom, Sallie’s, Double Corn Fingers, so I decided to use my veganized version of that recipe in place of the cornbread and it was absolutely scrumptious in this teen-to-adult-pleasing stuffing!
Vegan Double Corn Finger, Baby Spinach, and Caramelized Onion and Corn Stuffing
Serves 8-10 (with other side dishes)
1 cup vegan butter, divided
1 cup self-rising cornmeal
1 1/4 cup self-rising flour
1-15.5 ounce can creamed corn (which is vegan)
3 cups frozen corn kernels, thawed
1 large red onion, halved, and cut into thin wedges
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
6 cups fresh baby spinach
2 to 2 3/4 cups no-chicken broth or vegetable broth (I think the no-chicken broth has a richer flavor)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place1/2 cup butter in a 9 x 13″ metal baking pan and slide into oven just until butter melts. Remove pan and set aside. Meanwhile, in a medium size mixing bowl, combine self-rising flour and cornmeal. Make a well in the center and pour in creamed corn and the melted butter. Stir together with a fork until completely combined. Dough will be a little sticky. Spread evenly into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden on top. Remove from oven and let cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees. (Can be made a day ahead up to this point.)
Meanwhile, melt remaining 1/2 cup butter in large cast iron skillet over medium high. Add corn, onion, and salt, and cook, stirring frequently for about 15 minutes or so, until butter begins to brown and corn and onion begin to caramelize. Stir in pepper. Adjust heat as necessary. Remove from heat.
In a very large bowl, break up cornbread into bite size pieces. Add corn and onion mixture and spinach. Toss to combine well. Drizzle with broth to moisten and lightly toss to combine. Spoon into a greased 3-1uart baking dish and bake, uncovered for 40 minutes or until dressing is heated through and lightly browned on top. Serve warm. (Alternatively, dressing may be made up to to the point of baking, covered, refrigerated for up to a day, placed in a cold oven, and then baked at 325 degrees, covered, for 25 to 30 minutes and uncovered for an additional 25 to 30 minutes. Recover if it appears to be browning too fast or drying out.)
Back in the summer, my friend Katherine Huntoon, introduced me to Alimentum, a literary and art journal devoted to food.
I investigated a bit, got up my courage to make a pitch, and sent off requisite materials. Quite a long time passed–publishing the journal is a labor of love–but when I heard back, the news was thrilling: the editors planned to feature two of my mixed-media pieces in the December issue and they want to feature my “Natural Intelligence (Fungus)” series in a future issue!
Had I known at the time how pedigreed and accomplished their editorial staff of 8 is, I might have been too intimidated to contact them. Fortunately, I only read their bios after my work had been accepted and published in this month’s issue! However, my contact, Eric LeMay, was beyond warm and gracious with his feedback from the team.
I would love for you to follow the link above to the journal’s home page where you can click on the featured artwork icon to go directly to the “gallery” of my work, which is accompanied by an artist’s statement and bio.
The journal describes itself thusly:
Since 2005 Alimentum has been delighting readers with stories, essays, and poems that use food as a kind of muse to inspire memory, ideas, humor, joy, melancholy, triumph and reflection. The works are not just about what’s on your plate. They explore our deep personal connection to how we eat, what we eat, and the very primal part food plays in our lives.
We’ve published 13 print issues (a baker’s dozen—still available as collector editions) each packed with over 30 writers and poets, featuring well-known authors like Oliver Sacks and Mark Kurlansky, award-winning authors, and never before published writers.
Our current online journal presents a revolving roster of food-themed fiction, creative nonfiction, poetry, book reviews, art, music, featurettes, recipe poems, favorite food blogs and more from writers and creators who live across the U.S. and abroad.
Alimentum has participated in several AWP conferences and many other conferences and book fairs including the Southern Festival of Books, the Brooklyn Book Festival, NY Small Press Book Fair and has hosted numerous public readings and forums. We’re a member of CLMP and have received kudos from the New York Times, Huffington Post, Chicago Tribune, NY Daily News, Connecticut News Times, Poets & Writers, BBC Radio, Weekend America, and other media. Our writers’ essays have appeared in Best American Essays and Best Food Writing. We’ve received 1st Place Awards from the Bookbinders Guild New York Book Design Show two years in a row, and were honored as Best Food Magazinein the World from the International Gourmand Awards.
November whizzed past and it’s already that time again…
Based on Inside the Actor’s Studio host’s James Lipton’s famous “Q & A”–after the Proust Questionnaire–“Vegan Q & A Tuesday” is The Blooming Platter’s first Tuesday feature on a creative force in the vegan culinary world. Read more about “Q & A Tuesday” HERE.
Featured Force:
Laura Theodore
[See below for Laura’s Spaghetti and Wheatballs recipe.]
Laura Theodore is a television personality and radio host, vegan chef, cookbook author, and award-winning singer. She is the creator of the Jazzy Vegetarian, and author of Jazzy Vegetarian: Lively Vegan Cuisine Made Easy and Delicious and Jazzy Vegetarian Classics: Vegan Twists on American Family Favorites. Laura is the on-camera host and writer of the Jazzy Vegetarian Television Series on PBS and hosts the weekly show, Jazzy Vegetarian Radio. Ms. Theodore has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, and USA Networks and has been featured in the NY Times, Family Circle, NY Daily News, NY Post, Readers Digest and VegNews.
Laura Theodore and Jazzy Vegetarian have been honored with a
3. What turns you on? I love the smile on the faces of friends and family when I have served them a meal that they truly savor. Makes me feel like I have accomplished a good deed!
4. What turns you off? Creating a new recipe that I am SO excited about and it just does not taste right. Well – if at first you don’t succeed try again!
5. What sound or noise do you love? Hearing friends and family (at our dining table) raving about the dinner while I am in the kitchen prepping the next course!
6. What sound or noise do you hate? Me, cursing as I drop food or utensils on the kitchen floor when I am trying to do too many things at once!
7. *What makes you curse in the kitchen? Me – dropping food or utensils on the floor when I am trying to do too many things at once!
8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt? Broadway producer. I love musicals.
9. What profession would you not like to do? Doctor or Nurse
10. If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Glad you are here! I am looking forward to hearing a song and tasting those Spaghetti and Wheatballs!
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a medium baking pan with unbleached parchment paper.
Put the bread crumbs, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and salt in a large bowl. Put the walnuts in a blender or food processor, and pulse to process into coarse crumbs. Add the walnuts to the bread crumbs and stir gently to incorporate.
Putthe mushrooms and onion in a blender or food processor, and process to a chunky purée. Add the mushroom mixture to the walnut/bread crumb mixture and stir to incorporate. Spoon out about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the mushroom mixture and roll it into a ball. Continue in this way with the remaining mushroom mixture. Arrange the wheatballs on the lined baking pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Gently rotate each wheatball and bake for 12 to 16 minutes more, or until they are crisp and golden.
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the spaghetti and cook, stirring occasionally, until tender but firm. Drain the spaghetti well.
Meanwhile, pour the marinara sauce in a medium saucepan. Bring the sauce to a simmer over medium-low heat. Gently add the wheatballs to the sauce, one at a time, cover, and simmer for 7 to 10 minutes.
To serve, put one-quarter of the spaghetti into each of four pasta bowls, and top with three or four wheatballs. Ladle marinara sauce over the top and serve immediately.
NOTES
·To make fresh bread crumbs: Put 3 to 4 slices of whole-grain bread in a blender or food processor and process into coarse crumbs.
·You may use your favorite gluten-free pasta in this recipe.
Who knew that those pumpkins and squash at the farmers market–with their fanciful forms and all of their beautiful color, strips and spots–were not just for decoration? Many, if not most, are seriously good eats.
What better to top my roasted version with than my Pepita-Sage Pesto? I make a lot of pestos out of all kinds of ingredients, but this glistening version is an all-time favorite!
Fresh raw kale is the base of this lovely salad chock full of lightly caramelized dried fruit and smoked almonds, all glistening from just the right amount of a savory-sweet-tart pomegranate vinaigrette. The most virtuous dish on the Thanksgiving table may just be the tastiest too!
I served this salad last year and, though the whole menu was scrumptious, I typically don’t duplicate. But this dish made the cut and I will be serving it again!
This globe-, religion-, culture-, and century-spanning book brings together some 160 mealtime blessings for many reasons, including building a sense of community and connection among those who bow their heads and break bread together and to that for which they give thanks.
Poets, thinkers, and activists join religious figures in articulating our gratitude for daily sustenance, food for the body and soul.
A beautiful book–lovely enough for a special gift–it is also educational, in that background information on the cultural traditions represented is included as context. As with anything, not all of the prayers “spoke” to me, nor embodied my own feelings of gratefulness. But the three that follow did in a profound way.
May we all live with gratitude toward whatever or whomever squares with our beliefs and may we accept and extend the amazing grace bestowed by same.
Happy Thanksgiving!
I begin with the shortest which is, perhaps, the most expansive and my favorite:
Prayer 148
Bless our hearts
to hear in the
breaking of bread
the song of the universe.
— Father John Giuliani (b. 1932)
Prayer 132
For the order and constancy of nature;
For the beauty and bounty of the world;
For day and night, summer and winter, seed-time and
harvest;
For the varied gifts of loveliness and use which every
season brings:
We praise thee.
— John Hunter (1848-1917)
Prayer 96
Eternal Spirit of Justice and Love,
At this time of Thanksgiving we would be aware
of our dependence on the earth and on the
sustaining presence of other human beings
both living and gone before us.
As we partake of bread and wine, may we
remember that there are many for whom
sufficient bread is a luxury, or for whom
wine, when attainable, is only an escape.
Let our thanksgiving for Life’s bounty include a
commitment to changing the world, that
those who are now hungry may be filled and
those without hope may be given courage.
Amen.
— Prayer by the Congregation of Abraxas (1985)
This is the perfect little nibble to stave off I-don’t-think-I -can-wait-any-longer pre-Thanksgiving Feast hunger pains!
I recently created this dip or spread and love serving it as a “shooter” with tiny little spoons a friend brought me back from a trip to India. But any small spoon will do–or mini-spreader with a side of crostini. My serving secret? My “glasses” are actually votive holders!
Food just doesn’t get much more delectably fall-like than this simple spread, so it is perfect for Thanksgiving. You really can taste the contribution of each autumnal ingredient: fresh(!) pumpkin, pecans, white beans and sage. Be sure to cook the pumpkin ahead of time so it’s cooled and ready to go when you are. (See my easy microwave directions below.)
Bind it all together with your favorite vegan creaminess–sour cream, mayo, or unflavored cashew cream–and you have a fabulously flexible shooter, dip for raw veggies or crackers, spread for a bagel, or even a filling for non-traditional quesadillas, stuffed peppers, etc.
(Where’s Minnie? Can anyone spot our female brindle Dane who is never far away when food is out?)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup pecan pieces
Sea salt
1 cup diced onion
2 large cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoon dry rubbed sage
2 cans white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup diced cooked fresh pumpkin (see super simple microwave directions below)
4 to 5 tablespoons vegan sour cream, mayo, or cashew cream
Accompaniments: raw vegetable strips or slices or crackers
Heat olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium-high. Add pecans and a pinch of salt, and toast, stirring continually, for a couple of minutes. Add onion and a pinch more salt, and continue sauteing and stirring for 2 to 3 minutes. Add garlic and sage and continue for another minute. Stir in beans, pumpkin and vegan sour cream or mayo and heat through, stirring continually. Serve warm with the accompaniment of your choice.
How to Microwave a Fresh Pumpkin (The Time-Pressed Woman’s Way)
1-2 pound pumpkin
Wash your pumpkin, pierce several times all-over with a sharp knife, place on a microwave-safe dish, and microwave on high for about 7 -10 minutes. Check for tenderness, by piercing with a knife. It if goes in easily, the pumpkin is ready. Allow to cool, then slip off the skin, ct in half, and remove seeds and pulp. If you prefer, you can halve and deseed the pumpkin first, but I find it puts up more resistance that way.
For the next 12 days leading up to Christmas, it is my pleasure to share some of my most treasured vegan recipes, some old favorites and some brand new, perfect for this grand holiday.
Everyone seemed to love it all, but the dressing was a particular favorite. I had found a recipe for Double Corn-Cornbread Dressing in the November issue of Better Homes and Gardens. I was excited that it incorporated spinach in a great enough amount that each serving included a healthy serving. So, I basically followed their recipe (substituting a vegan broth for their chicken broth). But, as a child, I loved my mom, Sallie’s, 
Back in the summer, my friend Katherine Huntoon, introduced me to 
Featured Force: 
Spaghetti and Wheatballs
Somehow it happened yet again this year: Thanksgiving is only one day away!
Who knew that those pumpkins and squash at the farmers market–with their fanciful forms and all of their beautiful color, strips and spots–were not just for decoration? Many, if not most, are seriously good eats.
Fresh raw kale is the base of 
As I noted in the original post of
This season, when thankfulness is at the forefront of our minds, seemed the perfect time to post a mini-review of 
This is the perfect little nibble to stave off I-don’t-think-I -can-wait-any-longer pre-Thanksgiving Feast hunger pains!
