November 2020 – Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 26, 2020
VBC Meeting #93: Thanksgiving
Host of the Month: The Internet
Location: The Internet

This is what we made (in the words of those who made it):

Historically, Vegan Bake Club has done a Thanksgiving theme for November, so even during a pandemic, we did the same. We didn’t get together with each other in person though. Instead we shared a little something about a vegan food we made or ate for the holiday. It turns out that, although we weren’t together geographically, our stomachs were united in their being filled with mashed potatoes!

John: Thanksgiving Staples

I miss VBC Thanksgiving with all of you guys, but I made a few staples for myself (mashed potatoes, roast carrots & parsnips, canned crescent rolls, with some olives and pickled beets), and did a swap with my neighbor for a few treats she was working on – cranberry bars, key lime bars, and some ginger snaps.

Caroline and Drew: Spiral Plus Feast

This year what with me moving and all, we decided to indulge in having someone else cook the thanksgiving meal for us. Enter Spiral Diner! We got sides and a dessert: collard greens, green bean casserole, cornbread stuffing and sweet potato pie.

In addition, Drew made mashed potatoes, gravy, and “chicken” nuggets.

Michelle: Field Roast and Home Cooking

I haven’t chimed in in forever, but I thought I’d share our lil Thanksgiving dinner: green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, Field Roast en croute thingy, cranberry sauce, and gravy. Everything was homemade except for the roast. We have some pumpkin bread in the oven now, too!

Slynn, Ramon, and Neva: Roast, Fixins, and Sourdough Biscuits

Everyone’s meals look awesome! I feel comforted to know that somewhere John is making the roasted carrots and parsnips and crescent rolls. I was trying to remember how I made a stuffed seitan “roast” way back in the day and found this post: http://veganbakeclub.com/november-16th-2013-thanksgiving/. Check it out for a blast from the past. We made so much food!

Here’s the seitan roast with vegetables Ramon made this year.

This morning Neva and I made my mom’s classic “Sourdough Biscuits” that are neither sourdough or biscuits, but just a delicious yeast roll. I used oat milk plus 1 TB apple cider vinegar in place of buttermilk. I thought I took a photo of them alone, but I guess not.

Here’s a photo of them on the plate along with cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes with kale, and mushroom gravy – all made by Ramon!

Lauren: Baked Goods and Garden Veg

I made some food on Thanksgiving, but forgot to take any photos of the food on the day. Luckily my sister Emily and her husband were able to provide some photos of some of the things I made including: cinnamon rolls (a Thanksgiving making tradition, since it is something I know my nieces will eat), apple cranberry pie, butternut squash steaks, flatbread with thyme-y sautéed mushrooms and Billy’s roma tomatoes (I’m calling it flatbread, not pizza, in honor of Mean Greens).

Also, I took a picture of leftovers including the other stuff I made including dill mashed potatoes, garlicky green beans, corn bread, butternut squash steaks (with vegan ranch!), and Swiss chard with beans.

Shannon: Favorites Feast

To avoid a big family gathering, I spent my Thanksgiving with my sister and her boyfriend in Houston.  We did everything vegan (except half of the tart and their ham).  Our menu consisted of:

Creamed spinach

Squash and onion tart

Corn casserole (see previous years entries)

Mashed potatoes (ad hoc)

Butter rolls (Sister’s boyfriend’s family’s recipe. Sister had sketchy scan of handwritten recipe. Involved lamination)

Apple cranberry pie

Pumpkin pie (ad hoc)

We forgot to open the can of cranberry sauce, and a mandolin cutting incident caused us to delay the zucchini fritters originally on the menu until the day after Thanksgiving. But still a very good meal. We made half of the tart vegan and half of it with real cheese (because my sister likes cheese). We were originally going to follow a recipe for pumpkin pie that was vegan, but when making it we discovered we didn’t have the right cans of coconut cream to make it. So we pivoted and veganized a recipe for pumpkin pie that my sister has made before that uses a can of sweetened condensed milk (had a coconut one on hand); we used silken tofu and cornstarch to substitute for the egg and chilled it to get it to set. It actually turned out really really good.

Billy: Maple Syrup-Glazed Seitham

I made maple syrup-glazed seitham for Thanksgiving. While the color was off and the outright hamedness questionable, the dish received solid reviews and was a big improvement upon a similar (but soggy) 2018 attempt. Lengthy baking times and multiple glaze applications were key.