Thanksgiving eve

It's been a long time. Sorry about that. We took a trip to the East Coast (Boston and New Hampshire) and Nat came down with chicken pox. We had to stay a little longer than we planned and all of a sudden it's Thanksgiving!

Ah, Thanksgiving, the holiday of eating. We don't do traditional Thanksgiving and haven't the whole time the girls have been around. We used to make veggie fajitas for our meal, and they were really good, but somewhere along the way, we've been experimenting with other dishes. When my brother Rob comes for Thanksgiving we make eggplant and spaghetti in honor of our Dad.

This year, Natalie wanted to make eggplant even though Uncle Rob couldn't make it, so we will.

Dad used to fry the eggplant in olive oil (not breaded) and then layer sauce and cheese and bake it. We do the frying, but no cheese. It's amazing. I'll post pictures and tell you more tomorrow.

Tonight, Natalie, Kira, and I made a pumpkin pie. We used this recipe . In the past, I've just used eggs and soy milk in the recipe, but this year we decided to be fully plant-based with our pumpkin pie. I know you can do pumpkin pie with tofu, but I didn't have any to use so we tried it without. Recipe with attribution pasted below. 

Vegan Pumpkin Pie with Rustic Spelt Crust
by Angela Liddon
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 1 hour

for the filling
2 & 1/4 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup natural cane sugar or brown sugar
1/4 cup full-fat coconut cream (or almond milk), softened
1 tbsp Earth Balance, softened
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
3 tbsp arrowroot powder (or cornstarch)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
Instructions

Filling: In a small bowl or mug, whisk together the maple syrup and arrowroot powder (or cornstarch). In a large bowl, whisk together all ingredients, adjusting spices to taste.
To bake: Scoop the filling into crust and smooth. Add cut-outs on top. Bake for 45 mins at 350F. Remove and cover crust edges with tinfoil or crust shield. Bake for another 15 mins. Place on cooling rack for 1 hour. Transfer to fridge to set for a minimum of 3 hours or overnight. (this is very important!)

I totally want to try this crust ... I didn't have pecans though.  I'm really wanting to make one with walnuts and chocolate... Maybe I'll try to create one at some point.  I won't do it this Thanksgiving as we already have a big pumpkin pie in the oven and another dessert planned.  More tomorrow....or soon if not tomorrow.


For the crust
1 cup GF certified rolled oats, processed into a fine flour OR 1 cup GF oat flour
2 cups raw pecans
2 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp ground flax
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 cup brown rice syrup (acts as the binder, honey may work if you prefer that)
1 tbsp Earth Balance, melted