Vegan Thanksgiving with Cinnamon Snail

Hey everyone! I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving with family and friends! I know I have a lot to be grateful for. I feel rich with the friends and music and happiness I have in my life!

This year I celebrated with my dad and took the trek out to Stony Brook, Long Island. On the way there, I stopped in Manhattan's Flat Iron district to pick up our pre-ordered dinner from Cinnamon Snail. Yep! Cinnamon Snail offered a kick-ass Thanksgiving menu this year, and I was glad to partake!

NYC Vegans. We be many.

 

Even though everyone showed up with pre-orders, the lines were crazy, spiraling around the block! We were separated by alphabetical order. I waited for about 45 minutes. It was a bit of a pain, but it was so cool to see how many enthusiastic vegans were there to get their Cinnamon on!

 

 

 

Here's what we ordered:  Pecan Sage Crusted Seitan with Smoked Garlic Gravy, Rosemary Root Vegetable Puree, Lemon Mustard Marinated Kale, Grilled Fennel Cornbread Stuffing and Cranberry Orange Relish.

 

Everything was absolutely delicious! However..I daresay I make a better cornbread stuffing (recipe to come soon?). But the rest of the meal..the smoky gravy..the root veggies, the cranberry relish on the lemony kale..were all so impressive, and full of flavors to savor! It was my dad's first vegan Thanksgiving dinner. And he seemed to genuinely enjoy it!

 

 

Then came the part of the meal my dad and I eagerly anticipated-dessert! We got the Pumpkin Chiffon Pie, made with pumpkin (of course), rum, cashew cream, and coconut milk. With a gingersnap crust and toasted coconut on top. Apparently it took the chef over a dozen years to perfect. It may have been the best pumpkin pie I've ever tasted!

 

We enjoyed the pie with some green tea, watched movies and my dad lended me a book on the history of Sicily (half of my heritage) before I hit the road. And that was my vegan Thanksgiving!

 

More updates to come soon (festvities are not over yet)!

Till then.

xo,

Ellie

 

 



Pumpkin Soup

Apparently the season for pumpkins has ended? A friend said she couldn't find them in her local store. Still, even though I've delayed, I'd like to post today about something I made with the pumpkin I picked during my excursion at a farm with friends in October.

I love enjoying the smell of a freshly cut pumpkin! And I love to scoop out the seeds and roast them with sea salt! And that's just what I did. I halved the pumpkin and made soup with one half, and I planned to make pumpkin curry with the other half, but alas, the other half rotted before I could! I will probably make pumpkin curry soon anyway with canned puree. For now, I'm going to share with you how I made what I call "Happy Soup".

When I was in college, my boyfriend and I made this soup from scratch. It was so incredibly aromatic, warming, comforting and delicious, I'd jovially named it "Happy Soup". It's made with Asian elements, such as cilantro, basil and coconut milk. It's very simple to make, and does not involve a food processor!

 

I quartered the pumpkin and roasted it with olive oil and salt and pepper, then scooped out the insides and put it in a pot.

Continually stirring,  I gradually added generous amounts of cilantro, basil, coconut milk, black pepper, and water (optionally veg broth). Garlic powder is optional. You could also use fresh garlic and/or ginger and sautee with olive oil first. And of course, use sea salt to taste. 

Guaranteed to warm your fall/winter night.

Don't forget to roast the seeds, too!

xo,

Ellie

What to Eat Instead of Turkey?

Hey everyone! I've been meaning to post, but being busy with work and soooooo tired has gotten in the way. Today, I'm making a quick post during lunch break to share what I've alternatively served at Thanksgiving dinners to replace the "big dead bird".

I tend to go for meat substitutes, and seitan is great for that. On my first vegan Thanksgiving, I made Candle 79's famous Seitan Piccata. You can find the recipe in Alicia Silverstone's amazing book "The Kind Diet", or in Candle 79's beautiful cookbook. There are also plenty of sites online that share the recipe, like this one: Candle 79's Seitan Piccata Recipe on Veg News

 

An elegant choice that is sure to please..

Last year, I found this amaaaazing recipe online for  breaded seitan. I served it with some cranberry sauce (a simple but excellent recipe I also got from Alicia's book). This year I will serve it again, but with a lovely rosemary and sage gravy that was served at Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary's Thanksliving event. Chef Kevin Archer was kind enough to share the recipe with me. Thanks, Kevin!! This recipe is a real crowd pleaser, and great to serve to meat-eaters. 

Breaded Seitan

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package seitan
• 1/3 cup nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons tamari
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine nutritional yeast, garlic powder, coriander, cumin, and black pepper. Dip seitan in tamari, then in the yeast and spice mixture. Set aside.

2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Fry seitan in batches until browned on all sides. 

 It's so simple, and easy to make!

Now, those of you who know me well know that I'm crazy about Field Roast sausages. I've been bringing them over to my family's place on actual Thanksgiving Day. Some relatives asked to take a bite, and were surprised that it wasn't meat! Field Roast also makes a Celebration Roast. Here's how they describe it: "We start with a rich and savory sausage-style stuffing made from Field Roast grain meat, fresh cut butternut squash, mushrooms and granny smith apples seasoned with a blend of rosemary, thyme and sage. We then surround the stuffing with our most luxuriant grain meat seasoned with rubbed sage, garlic and lemon juice". I haven't tried it yet, but it sounds delicious! 

What will you be having on Thanksgiving?

xo,

Ellie

Goodbye, 101 Eckford Street!

A couple 'lounging' on a typical summer day in Mc Carren Park

 

Ahhhh, Brooklyn! I'd say farewell, but I'll probably still be around. In fact, I already still am around! Even so..I wanted to say some goodbyes during my last days as an actual resident. I've moved to (gasp!) Jersey City, and I decided to do some last rituals;hit up some spots once more before leaving. I'm going to miss the middle-aged man who drives around Driggs and Bedford, blasting music, singing along on nice sunny days! I'm even gonna miss seeing the man who lives across the street from my old apartment always stick his feet up to the window. I told the roomie Lauren that and she said, "Eww, don't!"

 

Anyway...

 

One last morning, I went to Brooklyn Standard to order their amazing Cali Bagel on a toasted whole wheat bagel. This deli is great. Their Jerked Seitan sandwiches and Portobello Mushroom sandwiches (ask for it vegan!) are also very good.

 

Their Cali Bagel is made with tofutti cream cheese, 'sausage', jalapeno peppers,

 roasted tomatoes, and basil. 

 

 

Since my good friend Shaliga is only two stops away on the G train, we'd periodically have sleepovers. We met for one more Brooklyn sleepover/hangout.We headed to Paulie Gee's for some pizzas. While waiting for a seat ('cause it's always busy there), we had some fantastic pumpkin beer at nearby Brouwerij Lane.

 

When we were seated, we started with their The Gates of Eden salad. I like to sub their gorgonzola cheese with their house-made cashew ricotta cheese. It's so delish!

 

We shared their Vegan Shmoogula (italian tomatoes, baby arugula, olive oil, post oven nutritional yeast and mild aleppo chili oil)...

 

..and their In Ricotta da Vegan (italian tomatoes, house made vegan fennel sausage, post oven house made cashew ricotta dollops, baby arugula and extra virgin olive oil).

 

 

We then headed back to my place, stopping at a store for some Steve's Ice Cream.

 

Their stuff is so amazing! We got the Cinnamon Coffee flavored one, which is one of my favorites.

 

 

We watched a silly movie before passing out, then made brunch in the morning...

With some leftover pizza, we had some tofu scramble with broccoli, and a mesclun green salad.

 

 

 

 

 

That was how I kicked off my last weekend in Brooklyn, followed by a Halloween outing, then one last open mike at Pete's Candy Store (as a local), then...the hurricane. I plan to cover more vegan details about all those events in continuing posts very soon.

 

Stay warm everyone!

xo,

Ellie

Vegan Thanksgiving Traditions~Adopt-A-Turkey Project

It's been a while since my last post. There's lots I'd like to catch up on, here. About the hurricane/Halloween, about my move...yes, I moved! More about that soon.

To be honest, I hadn't been in the mood to blog for a while. The hurricane was a great reason for me to take what was a much-needed pause. I was always go, go, go..with a full calendar. So I stopped. And embraced it. Even now, I'm a little reticent, but gradually coming out of my cave.

I thought it was important to peep my head out for a bit to make this post. And then I'll stick my head back in. Thanksgiving is around the corner! Yes, folks. Is it just me, or has the Hurricane Sandy haze distracted us from the fact that the holiday is near? Well it is! And in the last few years, I've formed some traditions around it. One is that I host a vegan Thanksgiving feast for my friends every year. The other is that I sponsor a turkey. Yup!

Hosting my first vegan Thanksgiving in 2010

Now, I'm not one to vegangelize, but...I don't know. I guess turkeys have a particular place in my heart? They're kind of funny-looking, it's true-but in such an adorable way! And I love how they coo!

Also, I read these excerpts from 'Eating Animals' by Johnathan Safran Foer, and they left an impression on me:
"Today's turkeys are natural insectavores fed a grossly unnatural diet, which can include 'meat, sawdust, leather tannery by-products', and other things whose mention, while widely documented, would probably push your belief too far. Given their vulnerability to disease, turkeys are perhaps the worst fit of any animal for the factory model. So they are given more antibiotics than any other farmed animals. Which encourages antibiotic resistance. Which makes these indispensable drugs less effective for humans. In a perfectly direct way, the turkeys on our tables are making it harder to cure human illness..."

" 'Not a single turkey you can buy in a supermarket could walk normally, much less fly. Did you know that? They can't even have sex. Not the antibiotic-free, or organic, or free-range, or anything. They all have the same foolish genetics, and their bodies won't allow for it anymore. Every turkey sold in every store in every restaurant was the product of artificial insemination. If it were only for  efficiency, that would be one thing, but these animals literally can't reproduce naturally. Tell me what could be sustainable about that?' "

Farm Sanctuary has an annual Adopt-A-Turkey Project, where one could sponsor a turkey of their choice. In 2010, I allowed the sanctuary to choose a turkey for me and I sponsored Kima, who likes cherries and chard, according to her bio. Last year I chose Elizabeth, because we share the same name and she was described as shy-like me! Although, some would say that's not true...This year, I'm sponsoring Victoria, pictured below...

Victoria.

How noble she looks!

 

Every year I request an Adoption Certificate from the sanctuary. It displays a bio of the turkey, and I proudly post it on my fridge. It's a tradition that I've come to enjoy and prefer.

 

So, um, I'm posting about my tradition in the hopes that you will consider doing the same (in case you don't already!). It's such a joyous way to celebrate the holiday. As my girl Michelle said during last year's dinner, "No animals were harmed in the making of this feast!". And how satisfying is that?! So satisfying! And trust me. Delicious.

 

 Last year's vegan Thanksgiving. A potluck of fun and amazing food.

 

If you'd like to read more on this topic, I'd strongly recommend checking out this excellent blog post by Joshua Katcher of The Discerning Brute: Thanks, But No Thanksgiving. 

 

To "adopt" a turkey, please go to this site: http://www.farmsanctuary.org/giving/adopt-a-turkey/

 

 

With gratitude and love...

xo,

Ellie