Blanket Blog: Fakesgiving

A few of my friends following Blanket Blog have been asking me to cook for them for awhile. I've been wanting to try out a vegetarian Thanksgiving, so I invited them to Fakesgiving.

It was awesome.

My friend Becky 2, of cooking-me-thai-food fame, helped with the meal. And by helped, I mean cooked half of it. She is also awesome.

Becky 2 and I. Photobomb courtesy of Danny.

Here's the menu:
Stuffing casserole with fake chicken
Mashed potatoes with vegetarian gravy
Green bean casserole with french fried onions
Waldorf salad
Cranberry sauce
Rolls
And homemade pumpkin pie for dessert

Becky 2 made the pumpkin pie first, because it takes a little while.

Did you know what's in pumpkin pie? Because I totally didn't.

Her original plan was to make the pie entirely from scratch. Like baking the pumpkin and everything. But we didn't have tons of time, so she used canned pumpkin and a store-bought crust. It was still really delicious.

She mixed the above ingredients (be generous with the pumpkin pie spice!) and poured them into a crust. Bake it at 425º for 15 minutes, then turn it down to 350º and bake for about an hour.

Yeah. I learned how to make the º symbol. Take that, people who don't have to write up bio labs. Anyways.

Oh yeah. Pie.

Becky 2 pressed some pecans into the top while it was still hot, and we put it by a cracked window to cool.

Thankfully, not a single looney tunes character came and
stole it off the sill. They're a real imaginary nuisance.

While all this was going on, I made Waldorf salad, using this recipe. It turned out pretty nicely. Becky 2 told me she'd seen a recipe that uses yogurt, which I'd probably try in the future, because mayonnaise freaks me out. It's not normal.

Waldorf salad is weird in general. Tasty, though.

Becky 2 made green bean casserole. It's easy and delicious. Snap a bunch of fresh green beans and put them in a baking pan (I think we used about a pound and a half.)

I made her model bean snapping for me.

Add a can of cream of mushroom soup and mix in half a can of french fried onions. Bake at 350º for about 20 minutes, then add the rest of the onions to the top and bake another 10 minutes or so.

Vegetables get really delicious when you bake them in cream
and cover them in fried things.

My big experiment of the night was vegetarian stuffing. My original idea was to put tofurky inside it, but Tops failed me, so I used Morningstar Farms grilled chicken.

One day I'm gonna look up what's actually in these, and
it's gonna freak me out.

I defrosted them and cut them up, then mixed them into this recipe. A few changes-- I didn't have poultry seasoning, and I didn't use any of the optional ingredients. And I added chopped celery, because seriously? It's stuffing. I also baked it in a pan that I covered in a baking sheet, because we somehow have never purchased tin foil for the apartment.

Good looking stuffing.

It turned out delicious. The fake meat ended up tasting so much like the stuffing that most of my friends didn't even realize when they were eating it. I highly recommend the recipe.

We used some of my massive amounts of instant mashed potatoes (I know, I know. But they're good.) I wanted gravy, but it's usually made with giblets and turkey juices and stuff, so I gave this recipe a try.

A few changes--I left out the yeast, because I couldn't find it in the store. I also didn't have sage. Whatever.

That's probably healthy to put into your body.

The gravy was delicious. Several of my friends specifically mentioned how much they loved it. It had a lighter, more flavorful feel than normal gravy. I'd use it even if I wasn't vegetarian. So yeah, try it.

The last couple parts of the meal were kind of copouts. I used canned whole cranberry sauce, which did the job. I just can't have Thanksgiving without cranberry sauce.

For rolls, I tried this brown-and-serve variety they had at Tops. They are basically rolls that need to be cooked another 5 minutes. They start out looking like this--

It kind of reminds me of people on a beach
in South Jersey.

--And ends up looking like this.

Aaaaaand there's the guidos. I can say it. I'm Italian.

They were clearly tasty, because I had 8 guests, made 24 rolls, and had 3 left over. They're a nice option if you want fresh-tasting bread but don't have time to deal with baking it.

My friends came over and ate most of the food, which really was an accomplishment.