Making Molehills Out Of Mountains: November 2012

I'll start this off by saying I am very thankful, I have a wonderful life with my incredible wife. I am so lucky, my thanks will never end. But I just don't care about the Thanksgiving holiday. Even when I ate meat and wheat-tastic bread stuffs (I will always miss you, Stove Top) I wasn't big on the whole shebang. This year being gluten free, vegan and avoiding potatoes (talk about NO options!), I wasn't exactly counting down the days for the meat / wheat / spud fest. My stomach seems to like less and less food and I have had a really negative attitude about food in general lately. I really just wanted to not do anything, stay home, watch netflix and eat hummus and baby carrots like every other day and pretend Thanksgiving didn't exist. Luckily for me, K is truly incredible and made the day so superb! I was home sick (thanks db stomach!) on Monday and she convinced me to search for gf, vegan recipes for the holiday. I found some GREAT recipes and we got the goods to make everything. Then comes Thanksgiving morning and I did NOT want to cook. Again, lucky me, K came to my rescue and got my whiny ass back in the kitchen and got the grub made. And holy hell, it was SO good. So, so, so good. And the blog I found, Gluten Free Goddess has renewed my interest in food in general, giant thanks there! I am super excited to try more of her wonderful recipes.

The icing on top is that we brought all the dishes to our friend's house for a multi-family Thanksgiving feast and there were several people in the same boat I'm in. It felt great to be able to fill their plates with food they could eat. It's such a lonely, hungry holiday when you're the vegan/vegetarian/allergic to whatever person staring at a table full of assorted meats, bread, cheeses, and the only vegetables are probably swimming in more meat, cheese and bread. Being able to help others avoid that fate really made my Thanksgiving grinch heart grow several sizes! And the dishes all got rave reviews from the meat eaters as well. Win, win, win!

We made a few changes to the recipes but kept it as close as possible. I somehow never picked up molasses so we just used more maple syrup and some random corn syrup we had in the cupboard. I'd have rather not used the corn syrup but whatev's, it is what it is. And what it was, was DELICIOUS! I used butternut squash in place of the sweet potato and it worked great. The veggie loaf was great, just have to figure out some new name for it that sounds more appealing and befitting of its tastiness. The showstopper was the pumpkin pie with pepita pecan brittle. Oh. My. Goodness. Delicious. Back in the day, when I had my pick of pies pumpkin was rarely on my radar, pecan generally won out. Pumpkin was always so bland and boring. This recipe has made me a believer in the power of pumpkin! It almost got axed from the menu, the recipe was daunting and as mentioned above, I was not super stoked about cooking. Sweet, endlessly patient wife of mine is to thank for it getting made, without her encouragement and help it surely would not have. And it was actually a lot easier than I expected. The pecan coconut crust is very macaroon like and I want to make just it again but in cookie form. Maybe later during this lovely long weekend we get! Here are some shots of vegetable bounty and the links to the recipes. Enjoy!