Monthly Archives: November 2012

Pumpkin Mousse

Posted on November 21, 2012 by Julie • 0 Comments

It happens to the best of us. You plan the perfect holiday dessert. You go to four different grocery stores to get the ingredients. Maybe you even order something online. You’re so excited to share your kitchen prowess with your family and friends, and then…something goes horribly wrong. The pie doesn’t set. The souffle falls as soon as the oven door opens. The cake doesn’t rise. And what are you left with? The dregs of all the ingredients you worked so hard to find, just enough to be completely useless if you want to remake your failed creation. Your own dashed hopes. Oh, and no dessert.

If you’re like me, and this happens to you often enough that you always, always have to have a backup plan, this is for you. This is your five-minute, failsafe, “look what I just whipped up!” backup dessert. This warmly spiced pumpkin mousse, made creamy with silken tofu and sweetened with maple syrup, can be served in individual ramekins, or spooned into miniature pie or pastry shells and topped with whipped cream for a makeshift pumpkin custard “pie.” It’s also on the lighter side, so it won’t contribute to the almost inevitable post-Thanksgiving dinner sweats.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Desserts, Quick & Easy, Vegan

Vegan Duchess Potatoes

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Julie • 2 Comments

Mashed potatoes are one of the absolute best parts of Thanksgiving. And of life. Seriously, what’s better than a gigantic plate of creamy mashed potatoes?

I’ll tell you what’s better. Creamy mashed potatoes piped into a swirl and baked to browned, crispy perfection. These are just mashed potatoes taken one step further. I’ve always loved twice-baked potatoes, and these are everything great about those, without having to worry about keeping the skins intact to restuff. These are so easy, and they make for an incredibly impressive presentation. The return on investment is high here, people. You don’t even really need to pipe them – you can just as easily spread them into a casserole dish and bake them. The peaks will brown just as beautifully and no one will know that you took a shortcut, because their mouths will be full of delicious potatoes.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Holiday, Side Dishes, Vegan

Healthy Green Bean Casserole

Posted on November 19, 2012 by Julie • 2 Comments

Thanksgiving is a fun holiday for vegetarians, huh?

That sounded sarcastic. But it really is fun! I get a lot of jokes about what I’m eating during the holidays, and questions about what we do when we sit down at a dinner table with a gigantic turkey carcass plopped in the middle. What do we do? We handle it. For me, there are few things more fun than a challenge – and vegging up a holiday meal that can wow even the most devout turkey fanatic is most definitely a challenge.

The ubiquitous green bean casserole was not something that ever showed up on our Thanksgiving table. I’m not sure why – we did the canned cranberry sauce with the can’s date imprinted in the bottom, the mashed potatoes and gravy, and pretty much every other staple. But I had never even heard of this until five or six years ago, and the person who described it to me didn’t do a great job of selling it – I’m paraphrasing, but it was something along the lines of, “You take a bunch of cans of condensed crap and dump it into a dish, and then you mix in mushy cafeteria green beans and try to cover it with enough fried onions to make it palatable. Then you weep in memory of actual food.”

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Holiday, Side Dishes, Vegan

Peanut Butter Cup Blondies

Posted on November 10, 2012 by Julie • 0 Comments

Let’s discuss my shortcomings. Or rather, let’s discuss ONE of my shortcomings, because we’ll need stuff to talk about in the future and I don’t have that many.

Humility, apparently, should be added to the list, but that’s not the one we’re talking about today.

The one we’re talking about today is my complete disorganization in all aspects of my life, specifically with grocery shopping. I make my list, spend about five minutes in the store halfheartedly attempting to stick to it, and then ripping it into tiny, confetti-like shreds, tossing it into the air, and running down the aisles with both arms out, theatrically sweeping everything that isn’t meat into my cart. I have fragmented thoughts of half-recipes while I’m doing it (“Coconut milk! We can have curry tomorrow! Butternut squash! I can make ravioli! Oh, white chocolate chips! I need those for…something.”). Then I get home and am confronted with the cold reality that I don’t have any curry paste to go with the coconut milk, I don’t know how to make ravioli, and I already have four bags of white chocolate chips – and I still can’t remember what I desperately needed them for.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Desserts

Double Caramel Cupcakes

Posted on November 3, 2012 by Julie • 2 Comments

Before I share this recipe, I want to say that we were extremely fortunate here in DC to have escaped the direct wrath of Hurricane Sandy. Seeing the absolute devastation in New York and New Jersey has made that even more clear. So many people have lost everything – homes, livelihoods, friends and neighbors – and the suffering is just unbelievable. Please consider donating to the American Red Cross Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund by clicking the picture below. If you’re strapped financially, which many of us are, consider making a blood donation – it’s free and every little bit helps.

Our thoughts and well-wishes remain with everyone impacted by Sandy.

… [click for recipe and more]

Filed Under: Desserts