Friday - Food, Family and Festivities

Last Friday was our annual adventure to Greenfield Village for their Holiday Nights. We go with Good's Bro and & Sis-in-law and we always have a grand time....but first we must feast on food! This year I got to cook! I decided upon PPK Seitan Portobella Stroganoff , I'm not a fan of mushrooms but I thought I would give it a shot - and am I glad I did. The recipe calls for 3.5 cups of seitan, I used the left overs from the seitan crockpot roast I made earlier in the week. It was perfect for it! Here it is getting all crispy....
Of course, I changed the recipe a tiny bit....
For the mushrooms, I used baby Portobella, small whites, and Shiitake mix. I knew I could hand the Shiitake, so that is why I included them. I didn't know what cremini where, so I went with small white fungus.
For the soy milk, I substituted Tofuttii sour cream.

Here is how it turned out.....

Served with noodles and broccoli..

Verdict: I LOVE MUSHROOMS. Really truly, after this dish, I've even eaten stuffed ones! Oh, I'm still going to be a picky with the fungus, but I now no longer can't stand them! I made rice noodles for myself (cutting back on gluten) but I don't think next time I would make them for myself- just throw it on the broccoli, which was a great accompaniment...oh or a baked potato.

Oh but next time I will cut the salt to just 1 tsp. I was the only one that thought it was salty, but since I'm the cook, I can do what I want.

And look how shocked Good's Bro was, because it was so good....

So after good eats, we were off to Greenfield Village....

It was cold....

It was festive....

This is in one of the houses you could go into and see how they celebrated the holidays, way back when. Look a table set for a VEGAN FEAST!

And here is the "lady of the house" explaining all about their celebration, and what VEGAN food she will be preparing for all to enjoy.....

I'm guessing you know I made up the "VEGAN FEAST" part..

No festivities would be complete with out some music...

Music inside and outside...

And the festive finally...

Perfect evening! We are so blessed.

Next up - Saturday's Detroit adventure......

I Faked it this Weekend....

.....with fake sausage patties - Chickpea Sausage Patties to be exact. This recipe I found on the blog "EATAIR" . These were beyond yummy! And for once I followed the recipe and the only thing I would do differently next time is to double the recipe. 5 out of 5 forks on these. I'm dreaming of "Vegan McMuffins" as I type this. These patties would be perfect for that...but I served them with baked butternut squash and asparagus.

Then I made some balls....

...for pasta & balls. I use the "BETTER BURGER" recipe from "Vegan Vittles" and make them into balls. I usually double the recipe so I have extras to freeze. This time I change the recipe a tad...instead of 2 cups of TVP (in the double recipe) I used 1 1/2 cups of TVP and 1/2 c. of ground walnuts. I very much like the change, it added more flavor and they weren't as "gooey".

....and some baked seiten. I confess, I made them a while ago, in fact I've made a couple of times. This recipe is from "Veganomicon" - since everyone now has made the Chickpea Cutlets**, the Baked Seiten Cutlet recipe is the recipe before it.

Here's a photo before going into the oven.....

And the finished product.....

As stated, I've made these a couple of times. The second time I made them, I thought I screwed up with the wheat gluten and the "dough" was extremely a stringy glob mess- and of course I doubled the recipe. So I put that aside, and made another, single batch, better, but still had stringy globs in it. Well, I decided not to waste anything and cooked all 3 batches. They ended up turning out great- taste wise, just not as pretty as the above photos. Oh, and I save the broth from the baking process (freezer) to use again to make these...no need to waste. The cutlets were moist and tender with less mess then the boil method.

I really need to perfect my wheat gluten technique; I have issues of getting distracted and I think the problem arises when I don't mix immediately upon adding the wet ingredients. Or maybe I pour the wet ingredients in too quickly and not evenly. Any one has hints, pretty please let me know. The seiten was great as a substitute for the tofu in my lettuce wraps (April 13, 2007 post).

**Okay, don't totally BOO me, but the Chickpea Cutlets from "Veganomicon" were just okay for me. Goods even agreed with me. I do think they are a great base to work with. Sorry if I offend anyone.

The next new fake meat I'm going to make is Corned Beef from the blog- Everyday Dish. Yummy??? I'll let you know.