Thanksgiving was delicious - for days

We had 10 people at the Thanksgiving table this year, including three children, and enough food for about 10 more, but I love Thanksgiving leftovers. On Friday one of our sons came for dinner, and we had leftovers — after my husband and I had already had leftovers for breakfast and lunch. We had leftovers on Saturday and Sunday (breakfast and lunch) too, and I finally finished them off on Monday. Understand that I'm not complaining — as I said, I love leftovers — and am sad that they won't be available tomorrow. We had a lot of food, but I'm happy to say we didn't waste any.

What you see above is our turkey. I found a photo of the veggie turkey online a few years ago and finally remembered to construct it this year. I wish I could remember exactly where I found it, but you can view the photo here. It served as one of the appetizers along with homemade hummus and smokey cheese dip.



Our daughter-in-law brought a large plate of fabulous pickled vegetables as an appetizer as well.



And a bowl of olive tapenade — my favorite. I love tapenade!



One son brought a bowl of chili lime popcorn as an appetizer, and it completely disappeared. Everyone came early so there was plenty of time to nosh before the main meal, and we made quite a dent in the offerings.

From the main Thanksgiving feast, I can only show you some of the food because, as is often the case, I forgot to take photos of everything. There are no photos of the potato stuffing, a fabulous family favorite recipe that originally came from Russia with my great grandmother, and none of the 'main dish', the wild rice pilaf, or the miso gravy, or the savory white bean casserole. One of our sons made the stuffing and beans, and I made the pilaf and gravy. The pilaf was fluffy with wild rice and brown rice and stuffed with mushrooms, onions, garlic, toasted walnuts, air-fried brussels sprouts, peas, celery, soy curls, herbs and spices. I used parsley, sage and rosemary from the garden. The curls were marinated overnight in some of the gravy, and liberally seasoned with granulated onion and garlic as well as chili lime spice from Trader Joe's, then baked a bit before being added to the pilaf and baked in the oven.



I made my usual cranberry compote, which is a favorite with the kids. It's a delicious and easy side dish that can be made the day before, and I recommend it. You can vary the contents to suit your personal tastes, and it cooks itself in a slow cooker while you do other things. (Recipe at end of post.)



New to this year's Thanksgiving table was aloo palak pie in a mashed potato crust — a recipe from Pies and Tarts With Heart by Dynise Balcavage. (I reviewed the book in 2013 when it was first published; you can read the review here if you want to know more about Dynise's cookbook.) I loved, loved, loved the tart, and can't wait to make it again. Because I had permission to publish the recipe when I wrote the review, I'm going to hope and assume I still have permission, and will include it at the end of the post.



Roasted Brussels sprouts and butternut squash was my husband's beautiful and tasty contribution to the meal. We made the preparation of the dish much less time consuming by purchasing already cubed squash. Believe it or not, this was the first time we've bought pre-cut squash, but it certainly won't be the last. What a time-saver —tossed with a little oil and salt, and roasted to caramelized perfection.


Since I failed to photograph the rest of the main course, let's just move on to dessert. Of course there was pie — this year it was sweet potato pie. I used the same recipe I used last year for voluptuous pumpkin pie from Isa Chandra Moskowitz, except I used sweet potatoes, and only two (not four) teaspoons of oil. Because sweet potatoes are more dense than pumpkin or squash, it  required a bit more soymilk. It's a great pie, and easy to make. I always garnish my pie with chocolate chips.



In addition to pie, there was cake. I saw a recipe for chocolate chip pumpkin date bread on Keepin' it Kind, and after reading the story of Kristy's grandmother's famous date nut bread, I got out my copy of But My Family Would Never Eat Vegan, and looked up the original recipe. I didn't want a second pumpkin dessert since one of our guests isn't a fan of pumpkin or cinnamon. I'm not a big fan of nuts in cake, so I decided to use the original recipe from the cookbook, subbing the chocolate chips from the blog recipe, for the walnuts. (I was also planning to add dried cranberries, but forgot.) Not only was the cake dangerously delicious, it kept getting better and better each day. Go make the pumpkin date bread — you won't be sorry. (My review of Kristy's cookbook can be found here. It's filled with delectable dishes, some of which have become staples at our house.)

I hope you had a happy thanksgiving. Here are the recipes I promised for cranberry compote and spinach pie. Just a note: when I made the pie I used three, five-ounce packages of fresh baby spinach for the pie filling.


Quarry Books has graciously allowed the recipe for Aloo Palak Pie to be reprinted. It is copyrighted material. Please do not reproduce without permission from the publisher.

Aloo Palak Pie with Mashed Potato Crust

Mashed Potato Pie Crust (one 9-inch crust)
We usually think of vegetables as pie filling and not pie bases. But I like to flip things upside down on occasion. Some vegetables, like the potato family, make wonderful savory crust bases. Carbolicious and comforting, mashed potato crusts are economical and an interesting way to transform leftovers into a literal meal base. You can use mashed white potatoes, sweet potatoes, or even mashed turnips or rutabagas. Or mix and match.

• About 5 potatoes, peeled and baked, or "nuked"
• 2 to 3 tablespoons (28 to 42 g) margarine
• 2 to 4 tablespoons (30 to 60 ml) nondairy milk (to bind, if needed)
• ½ teaspoon salt or more, to taste
• Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Place the potatoes in a large bowl. Mash with the margarine and milk until creamy. (Use a potato ricer to save time!) Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Aloo-Palak Pie
Aloo palak without ghee is one of the darlings of vegan Indian cuisine lovers. This 'reconstructed' version uses all the flavors of aloo palak that you love, in an unexpected pie presentation. It’s loaded with vitamins and it’s cheaper than takeout.

(Makes one 9-inch (23 cm) tart)
For Spinach Filling:

• 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
• Pinch of nutmeg
• 1 to 1½ teaspoons garam masala
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon red hot pepper flakes (optional, but I use the full Monty!)
• 7 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, minced
• ¼ to ½ teaspoon salt
• 12 cups (360 g) roughly chopped, trimmed spinach or baby spinach, preferably organic

1. Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC, or gas mark 4).
2. Press the crust into the pan. Set aside.
3. To make the filling: In a large sauté pan, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the spices, then the garlic and onion, and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle with salt if the mixture starts to dry out.
4. Add one-fourth of the spinach, let it wilt, stir, and repeat until all of the spinach is in the pan. 
5. Cook for about 10 minutes. Spread into the crust.
6. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until firm. Let cool for 15 minutes before slicing.

Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of the book. All opinions are my own. I was not paid for my review.

Cranberry compote in the slow cooker  
Adapted from Autumn Fruit Crock in Fresh From the Vegan Slow Cooker, by Robin Robertson, and memories of my mother's and grandmother's kitchens.
I think of the recipe as a 'guideline' rather than a 'recipe' because although  this is close to what I did — I used two pears and one apple this time —you can do pretty much what you want, and adjust it to your preferences. I believe my mother always added pineapple chunks to hers. I like my cranberries tangy, but feel free to make them as sweet as you wish. This is a great dish to serve anytime, any holiday — all fall and winter. You can change up the type and quantity of the fruit except maybe for the cranberries, though I recommend keeping the mango as it adds natural sweetness, and goes so well with the cranberries. Leftovers are great for breakfast with yogurt or oatmeal.

• one-14oz box of fresh cranberries
• two medium baking apples
• one ripe pear
• handful of dried apricots
• handful of prunes or raisins
• one cup of cut frozen mango or fresh mango
• 1/4 cup (or more or less, to taste) dark sugar (I used coconut sugar)
• 1/2 cup frozen orange juice concentrate
• two tablespoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice
• 1/2 cup water
• one cinnamon stick 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• one teaspoon vanilla

1. Dice all the fruit (except cranberries and raisins, if using) to approximate size of cranberries. I didn't peel my fruit.
2. Add all ingredients, except vanilla, to a slow cooker.
3. Cook on low 5-1/2 to 6 hours, until fruit is soft. (Depending on what variety of apples you choose, the apples may retain some firmness.)
4. Stir in the vanilla and taste for sweetness.
5. Chill before serving. Can be made the day before needed. Thickens more as it cools.

My compote turned out nice and thick, but if yours doesn't, cook a short while longer without the lid.

Post Script ...

During dinner ...

After dinner ...

Gobble gobble

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Thanksgiving treats with recipes and recipe links

I usually get around to posting about Thanksgiving about two or three weeks after it occurs, but much to my relief, I'm close to right on time this year. We had a small group of only four adults and two kids at our celebration, though there didn't seem to be less cooking than usual. I can't help making a large spread no matter how many guests are expected. A holiday is a holiday is a holiday, and I'm so grateful to have nearby close family members to share it with.

Carrots taste better when they have crinkles, don't you think? :)

I like to cook as much as possible the day before so I don't feel stressed out on the day of the event, and I chose foods that could be prepared in advance — or whose components could be made ahead and combined and cooked right before serving. One of the things I actually made on Thursday was the first dish you see pictured above. You must try this, it's easy and fantastic. It's spinach artichoke dip with garlic cashew cream that I found on Glue and Glitter. It was so quick to make, and the taste and texture were excellent. Our omnivore guest said she would never guess that it was vegan. The only changes I made to Becky's recipe were to defrost the spinach by cooking it briefly in a sauce pan, baking the dip 15 minutes covered and 15 minutes uncovered, and sprinkling some coconut bacon over the top for decoration. I served it as an hors d'oeuvre with carrot and celery sticks (cut the day before) and corn chips, and, I'm not gonna lie — it was so good I ate the leftovers for breakfast on Friday. With carrots, of course, not chips.

Our main dish this year was Dreena Burton's festive chickpea tart paired with a quinoa crust from Pies and Tarts With Heart (review). To be perfectly honest, I wasn't sure I liked the tart on Thursday, but when we had leftovers the next night for supper, covered with the leftover gravy, I loved it. It tasted so good I was wondering if, in spite of my efforts to pace myself, I'd had 'cooking fatigue' clouding my opinion on Thanksgiving,. I actually made the crust and filling on Wednesday, but combined and baked them on Thursday, as part of my do-ahead scheme, but I just wasn't so excited about the tart as I'd hoped I would be after reading all the great reviews. The leftovers, though, as I said, were pretty great. I'm going to try the tart again as it's very easy to throw together, before forming my final opinion.

Because one of our guests doesn't care for pumpkin pie, I didn't make anything with pumpkin for dessert, so I had to get pumpkin into the meal somewhere. I made pumpkin biscuits — heart shaped pumpkin biscuits because the only cutter I happened to have was heart-shaped. I adapted a recipe from Opera Singer in the Kitchen, turning them into gluten-free biscuits. I really liked these, which is why I'm including a recipe below. I think they taste best in a smaller size, so if you have smaller cutter, use it.

It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving for me without my beloved cranberry-apple sauce. I've been using the same recipe for at least 20 years, but this year I changed it a little just for fun, and I like the new version better. If one of our guests wasn't a raisin-hater, there would have been some raisins in there, but it was still pretty good in spite of that. I'm posting the recipe below, mostly so I remember it for next time.

We also had our family's standard potato stuffing made from an old family recipe that came with my great-great grandmother from Russia. Our son made it, and used buckwheat instead of bread so it would be gluten-free. (I actually used to make it with buckwheat long before I ever knew what it meant to be gluten-free.) I love this stuff and could happily eat it for my entire meal, though of course I don't do that. I failed to photograph it but it was delicious.

The pie, before garnishing with coconut whipped cream.

And, of course, there was pie and whipped cream from Chloe's Vegan Desserts. The last time I made the recipe I made it into tarts instead a pie, so I thought I might as well try the pie this time. I used a different crust (which didn't work so well so I'm not sharing the recipe) and actually had to make the crust twice. The first time I put it into the wrong sized pie plate and there wouldn't have been enough room for the filling. I also over-baked the crust. I made a second, larger crust, and over-baked that, too, so the crust was not the best. The filling, though, was perfect  — rich and bittersweet. The whipped coconut cream in Chloe's book has 3/4 cup of powdered sugar which I reduced to one tablespoon of coconut sugar plus a spoonful of vanilla.

Here is one of our esteemed guests, before he became covered in cranberries and other assorted colors. He moved as I snapped the photo which is why he looks a bit blurry. Or maybe it's because he wasn't feeling his best. In any case, it was his first Thanksgiving, and he really liked the biscuits!

Pumpkin biscuits (GF)

• 2 tablespoons flax meal plus 5 tablespoons ice water
• 2 cups gluten-free flour mix (I used Bob's Red Mill) plus extra sorghum flour for kneading
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 Tablespoon evaporated cane juice
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 Tablespoon frozen Earth Balance margarine, cut into small pieces
• 3/4 cup pumpkin puree
• 1/2 cup So Delicious coconut milk

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. 
2. Place the flax into a small bowl or glass measuring cup and add the water. Let sit while you prepare the rest of the ingredients. 
3. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and spices. Blend in the margarine using a pastry blender, or buzz the flour mix and margarine in a food processor a few times until the mixture is like coarse breadcrumbs. 
5. Whisk the flax and water with a whisk or fork until it is viscous (like an egg).
6. In a medium bowl, combine the pumpkin, coconut milk, and flax goo.
7. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, and stir until the mixture holds together. Knead lightly in the bowl, using just enough sorghum flour to cut the stickiness. Pat out to 1″ thickness. Using a 2″ (or smaller) biscuit cutter, cut the dough into circles. Or use any shape cutter you prefer, such as a heart.
8. Re-shape the scraps and cut out biscuits until all the dough is used. Place on the prepared baking sheet.
9. Bake 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm with gravy, jam or vegan butter.

A flax egg after sitting and whisking — thick and gooey.

Cranberry-apple sauce

• 16 ounces fresh cranberries
• four medium cooking apples
• one heaping cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1/4 cup raisins (optional)

1. If the apples aren't organic, peel them. Core the apples and cut into 1/2-inch cubes.
2. Place the pineapple and water into a blender jar and purée. 
3. Place all ingredients into a large pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down, and simmer until the cranberries and apples are soft. Cool. Place into a dish and refrigerate until cold. Leave the cinnamon stick in the bowl, or remove it. Your choice. (I leave it in.)

Late, as usual ... | Featured

It seems I'm always the last one to post about holiday events — everyone has long since moved on, and here I go sharing our Thanksgiving meal — with photos taken in a rush under the worst lighting possible. Even color correction couldn't make the tart look like a normal shade of blueberry. But without further apology, here's what we ate. Above is a glamor shot of the tofu turkey, described in more detail, here.



This is the brown basmati, wild rice, toasted walnut and mushroom stuffing that went inside the tofu turkey, and also into a casserole dish. It's pretty much the same stuffing I always make but this year I didn't include bread cubes. I also made a mushroom gravy with ingredients as varied as the liquid left from cooking the wild rice, and the remains of a bottle of leftover beer, kept in the fridge for just such a purpose — simmered with a cinnamon stick and seasoned with fresh sage. Best gravy ever! (But maybe not gluten-free because of the beer?)



Here is the scrumptious potato-buckwheat stuffing (kugel) made by our oldest son. It's from a recipe handed down from several generations of my family, and a holiday wouldn't seem complete without it. My mother used to stuff the turkey with it, but there was always a great quantity packed into casseroles as well. The original recipe used bread rather than buckwheat, but we were going for gluten-free this year. Actually, I started making the stuffing with buckwheat years ago when I was cooking macrobiotic. Potatoes are very yin, and the buckwheat helps to balance them a bit (take that as you wish). I actually prefer the buckwheat, so usually prepare the dish with buckwheat now.

As a side note, I'll mention the original recipe also contained egg, which the buckwheat nicely compensates for. I still remember the year my mother accidentally dropped an eggshell into the blender as she ground up the potatoes. It was immediately pulverized, so my mother hoped it wouldn't be detected in the cooked stuffing. It was. And it was horrible. That wouldn't have happened during all the years she grated those potatoes by hand! Or if she were vegan.



My husband was in charge of the salad and dressing.



Our daughter-in-law brought a big pan of delicious rutabaga fries. The rutabaga was from her garden, making these especially cool. I've never been a big fan of rutabaga, but these were sensational.



Our middle son prepared roasted Brussels sprouts and carrots — one of my favorite veggie treats. Roasted Brussels sprouts have become a standard at our holiday table, and these were especially delicious.



Naturally we had pleasingly tart cranberry-apple sauce. I never get tired of cranberry sauce.



For dessert we had Happy Herbivore's no-fat pumpkin pie. This year's pie came out a little too firm, and slightly weird. Maybe it was because I used spelt flour instead of wheat, but maybe it wasn't. I have to say, though, that the pie improved over time, and last night it tasted quite good, but I think I'm returning to my old p-pie recipe, if I can find it.



The blueberry-pineapple tart didn't photograph well, but it sure looked good in person. This was my first attempt at a gluten-free crust, and I thought it was a big success. It had both pleasing taste and texture, despite the fact I didn't follow an actual recipe. I have a question, though, for experienced xgfx bakers. Although the tart was great when I served it, the leftover crust got kind of mushy the next day. Is that typical or was it because of my ingredients? (brown rice flour, tapioca starch, potato starch, coconut flour, walnuts, Earth Balance, maple syrup.)



Oh yes, we also had pre-dinner tidbits, but they didn't get well-photographed, unfortunately. I made baba ghannouj, a tray of calamata olives, stuffed green olives and marinated artichoke hearts, accompanied by a bowl of Food Should Taste Good tortilla chips. The eggplant for the baba ghannouj was roasted over our gas stove burner so it would taste smoky, like the grilled eggplant traditionally used for this dish, but the eggplant was so huge, that I got discouraged about halfway though the roasting, and finished baking it in the oven. The time spent toasting on the stove-top was enough to impart a smoky flavor, so now I know I can partially roast in the oven if necessary. Or maybe I can just use liquid smoke next time. :)



The mystery cat (I call her Tinkerbelle) showed up to join the family for our Thanksgiving celebration, and made herself right at home.

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Lorilee Lippincott, who writes the blog Loving Simple Living (lovingsimpleliving.com) featured this blog on her site yesterday. She has geared her blog toward embracing a simple lifestyle, and I think you might enjoy visiting her site.

Pre-Thanksgiving: tofu turkey or TG part 1

I altered our family tradition this year and made a tofu turkey instead of a stuffed seitan, and I thought I'd do a little step-by-step photo story as I made the dish. I really love when bloggers show the progress of a complex creation. Unfortunately, I'm not one of those people, though I seriously tried. The camera was in the kitchen, but my mind was preoccupied, and I only got so far. The recipe on which I based my tofu turkey is here. (I made my own version of stuffing.)



Before getting to the tofu, I started the day with a nod to the season and made a cranberry smoothie. It also had banana, frozen blueberries, frozen mango, a tablespoon of frozen OJ concentrate, lucuma powder (thanks, Ricki!) and almond milk. It was so pretty and delicious that I think frozen cranberries may become a regular smoothie ingredient. Suitably fortified, I moved on to the tofu business.

The following takes place the day before Thanksgiving.



Since pressing the tofu seemed key to getting the texture right, I first pressed my tofu for a few hours in my Japanese pickle press. The tofu was the fresh stuff from a Vietnamese tofu shop, and seemed quite firm, but I was amazed to see how much water came out of it, so I'm glad I took this extra step. Fresh tofu is much more flavorful than the supermarket variety, and I wanted my concoction to taste really good, but any extra-firm water-pack tofu would be fine.



After pressing, the tofu got puréed in a food processor. (I tried the VitaMix first, but that was too gross, and removing the tofu from the blender jar was horrible.) Next the seasonings were added. I used hickory smoked salt in the seasoning mix, not broth powder. In addition to the herbs in the recipe, I added some light yeast flavoring that I'd previously made from this recipe from Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner.* (She used to make and sell the Now and Zen Unturkey, which I've never actually tried, but the light yeast seasoning is very handy, and you might want to make some!)



The next step was to line a colander with cheesecloth, and pack the tofu into the colander, covering the top with the overhanging cheesecloth. A plate got placed on top of the cheesecloth and a weight was placed on the plate; in this case two boxes of veggie stock were placed on their sides atop the plate. This is where the communications between my brain and the camera broke down, and no further illustrative photos were taken. The tofu-packed colander was placed on a plate and went into the fridge overnight.

The following takes place on Thanksgiving day.
I made a stuffing with wild rice, brown basmati rice, toasted walnuts, onions, garlic, ginger, fresh sage and lots of baby bella mushrooms, all cooked to perfection in my trusty wok. Once the stuffing was made and cooled, the cheesecloth over the top of the tofu was pulled aside, and tofu was scooped out, leaving a rim of 1 to 2 inches. The resulting hole was filled with stuffing, and the tofu I had removed was smoothed over the top, forming a solid covering. (Still in the colander.) The next part was a little scary, but it worked perfectly.

To cook, the stuffed tofu was inverted onto a baking pan, and the cheesecloth-covered blob miraculously fell out without breaking. I carefully removed the cheesecloth and basted the mound, placed it into the oven, and removed and basted many times until it was done. In the end, I had to turn the oven up to 450˚F for about 20 minutes to crisp it up.



Voila! It emerged looking quite nice. I had planned to surround it with roasted veggies but miscalculated the amount of space it would take up on the serving platter, so settled for some parsley and a few tomatoes.



Here's a view of the inside. The recipe said it served six, but I knew that couldn't be right since five pieces of tofu were involved. In fact, we had lots of leftovers to send home with guests, and even though we ate it again last night, we STILL have leftovers. Next year: smaller tofu turkey or more guests!

In my next post, I'll show you what we actually had for our meal. Hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving, had a lovely time.

*Miyoko Nishimoto Schinner is the author of Japanese Cooking: Contemporary and Traditional, which I reviewed here. She is also the author of The New Now and Zen Epicure: Gourmet Vegan Recipes for the Enlightened Palate, and she writes a cooking blog called, The Vegan Manifesto.

Thanksgiving has come and gone

My plate from bottom left: stuffed, roasted seitan with mushroom gravy, salad, potato kugel, roasted veggies and figs, herbed orange-cranberry relish

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and most people have moved on, but I'm still dragging my feet about my Thanksgiving post. Please indulge me while I do a little blurb about our feast so I can move on, too. We had the whole family at our home this year which was a unique treat for us since we've not lived in the same city with all our kids in a long time. The guests brought contributions to the meal so the work was spread around a little. I got so caught up in the celebrating that I forgot to photograph some parts of the feast, like the delicious potato kugel brought by our oldest son and daughter-in-law. This is an old family recipe that came to the U.S. with my Russian great-grandmother, and appears at nearly every family holiday event. It just wouldn't be a holiday without it. I forgot to photograph the Thai coconut corn soup based on a recipe in "Vegan Express" by Nava Atlas. I love this soup, and have served it to a LOT of people. (My adapted recipe appears at the end of this post.) And I didn't photograph the mushroom gravy.

The main dish for Thanksgiving at our house is always stuffed seitan. Here you see it (uncooked) in the baking dish with the stuffing. My husband's fingers are keeping the very elastic seitan from shrinking down into the pan while I do a photo shoot. The stuffing is brown rice, wild rice, home-made-bread cubes, mushrooms, celery, shredded carrots, onions, dried cranberries, herbs and spices, and maybe other things, too.

The seitan is first rolled out and then transferred to the dish, where it's filled, and the top folded over and sealed. It's always a stressful and comical process to roll out the stretchy seitan and get it into the dish before it shrinks up, but this year I made a brilliant discovery. I rolled the seitan onto a large sheet of parchment paper, and it seemed to stick in place. My husband and I then lifted the whole thing up and placed it, paper and all, into the dish, to be stuffed. (I also added chickpea flour to the seitan mix which may have made it more pliable.)

After the stuffed seitan was baked, we lifted it out of the baking dish and onto the serving platter using the paper. It was so much easier then trying to un-stick it from the pan! I raised the seitan up a little with a spatula and slid the paper out.

In the photo above you see the vegetables — Brussels sprouts, turnips, carrots and potatoes — before they went into the oven to roast. When they were nearly done, dried figs were mixed in. I forgot to photograph the veggies after they were roasted to perfection with olive oil and herbs.

For starters, we had various raw veggies, olives, pickles, crackers, hummus and Tings. (Yes, that's right, Tings.) We also had bowls of Thai coconut corn soup. This soup takes only minutes to make but tastes like it took hours.

Here's the herbed cranberry-orange relish I blogged about recently. This time I remembered to decorate it.

This is the fabulous salad brought by our middle son and his girlfriend. It was delicious.

We had two desserts. We had almond twilles filled with pumpkin mousse. (Our mini-guest was particularly taken by the mousse and wanted more, more, more...)

And we had a pumpkin chocolate spice cake from this recipe, minus the anise (I HATE anise. Ugh.) and with only 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne. (note: The ganache from the recipe didn't work for me — there was way too much liquid and it turned into chocolate milk. Luckily I had extra chocolate on hand and made my own version of ganache using only 1/4 cup of non-dairy milk, 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and 1 tablespoon of Earth Balance.)

Because I've made several alterations to the coconut corn soup recipe, and because the original appears in several places on the Web, I'm going to share my version, here. This is the perfect soup to make when you want something that doesn't take much time or effort but tastes great.

Thai coconut corn soup (adapted from a recipe by Nava Atlas)

• 1 tablespoon light olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 to 5 scallions, white and green parts, thinly sliced
• 1 medium red bell pepper, cut into short, narrow strips
• One 15-ounce can light coconut milk
• 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth
• 1½ cups rice milk
• One 16-ounce bag frozen corn
• 2 teaspoons good quality curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Thai red curry paste, more or less to taste
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
• juice from 1/2 small lime or lemon
• ½ cup minced fresh cilantro or Italian parsley

1. Heat the oil in a small soup pot. Add the garlic, the white parts of the scallions, and the bell pepper. Sauté over medium-low heat until softened and golden, about 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add the coconut milk, rice milk, broth, corn, curry powder, the green parts of the scallions. If using the curry paste, dissolve it in a small amount of hot soup before adding to the pot.
3. Bring to a rapid simmer, then lower the heat. Cover and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Season with salt and citrus juice, and remove from the heat.
4. Serve, with cilantro or parsley and fresh ground black pepper.

Yield: 6 servings of spicy soup.
You can substitute two cups of rice milk for the vegetable broth if desired. I've done it both ways and I like the broth version best, but both are good.