Friday, February 23, 2007

Thanksgiving anytime




First I have to tell you about the Wonderful Wacky Women. The Wackies, started about 3 years ago, is a group of 10 women who take turns planning "adventures" for the group to share. We have been on about a dozen adventures, including a sunset cruise off Key Largo, on a Diva Duck tour of West Palm Beach, and to an art show where we met Suzi Toronto, the artist who inspired us and provides our logo. We have so much fun together that we expanded our activities to include occasional dinners with our husbands.

A few days ago, we had one of those dinners. Several of the Wackies and their husbands are trying to eat less meat, so in addition to the Cornish Hens prepared for the omnivores at the table, my friend prepared a Tofurky Roast for the first time. I assured her it would be a hit. Jerry and I have enjoyed several of them since we discovered them at our local Whole Foods Market. She asked me to bring Dirty Rice and I decided we also needed mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy and cranberry sauce.

For the mashed potatoes, make them just like you used to but substitute rice milk or soy milk and just leave out the butter. I find that soy milk adds a soy taste to the potatoes, but rice milk cannot be detected.

I follow Bryanna Clark Grogan's recipe for Rich (Fat-Free) Brown Gravy along with her suggestion to add mushrooms to the gravy, but I roast the onions and mushrooms together rather than saute them and add fat. This is my adaptation of Bryanna's recipe.

Mushroom Gravy

1 small onion, very thinly sliced
8 ounces Baby Bella mushrooms, thinly sliced
4 ounces Shitake mushrooms
1/3 cup white flour
1/3 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 1/2 cups water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet or other gravy browner

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.Spray a non-stick baking pan with vegetable oil. Clean the mushrooms. Remove the stems from the Shitakes and discard them, then slice the mushrooms thinly. Spread the onions and mushrooms in a single layer in the pan. Bake until lightly browned, stirring them around a bit once or twice as they bake. Remove from the oven and set aside.

In a 5 quart saucepan over high heat, stir the flour and nutritional yeast together until there is a toasty smell. It is not necessary to brown the mixture. Remove from the heat and whisk in the water, soy sauce, salt, and Kitchen Bouquet. Stir constantly until the gravy thickens and comes to a boil. Add the mushrooms and onions and simmer for about 4 minutes. The gravy can be made ahead and reheated on top of the stove or in a microwave.

Cranberry Sauce

One of many good cranberry sauces in Holly Garrison’s “The Thanksgiving Cookbook”, this recipe is well worth the little time it takes to make. It will keep for a few weeks in the refrigerator.

1 cup sugar
½ cup water
¼ cup white vinegar
7 whole cloves
1 3-inch cinnamon stick
3 cups fresh or 16 ounces frozen cranberries

In a 3-quart saucepan bring the sugar, water, vinegar, cloves, and cinnamon to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Remove the cloves with a slotted spoon and discard. Add the cranberries and simmer for 10 minutes until the berries pop. Remove the cinnamon stick and discard. Remove the sauce from the heat and cool slightly. Pour into a bowl with a tight-fitting lid and refrigerate.



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