...11.22...Tuesdays with Julia...

...we had a delicious Vegan Thanksgiving dinner with Julia's Vegan Jambon Braisé au Madère...and all of the particulars for that recipe are over at The Vegan Version...

...and here are the sides...

...this Vegan Mac-N-Cheeze recipe...15 minutes ...you just cook the noodles...and whizz the sauce up in the blender...and you're done...

...you can just pour it over the noodles and eat it like that without baking it...

...then it's a lot like Kraft Dinner...

...but I wanted it baked...so I put it in a pretty dish...

...and topped it with even more Cheeze...

...and then for the green bean casserole...I didn't really use a recipe...just French Style Green beans...and canned mushrooms and fried onions...

...but I think this was one of the very best mushroom soups I've ever made...and I almost hated to use it in a casserole because it would have been so good on its own...

...but of course...I finished the casserole...

...the baked mac-n-cheeze...

...and the casserole...it was a quietly wonderful Thanksgiving celebration...we texted and FT'd with the kiddos in Japan...and we're heading up to Mom's tomorrow...

~Have a lovely day!

...11.21...Over the Weekend...

...I did the weekly shopping...and I went to Aldi...it was really crowded...and I got in the aisle long line...but you know at Aldi the lines move pretty quickly...but when I got to the end of the aisle...I left a little bit of space...so that people who were still shopping could get by...but a lady wedged her cart in front of me...now...except for the 20 or so people in line behind me...I would have let her go ahead of me...but all of the others may not have appreciated that...so I said..."excuse me...but this is the middle of the line..."and she huffed and said "I don't have time for this"...but she pushed her cart to the end of the line...I'm really only mentioning this because it made me think of Nanny and one of her sayings...

...remembering Nanny's mountain/country accent "if they's in that big of a hurry...they should've left sooner"...

...we stocked up on some canned goods...and I bought a lot of things for the upcoming holiday...

...some non-food items...

...butter beans for this Mac-n-cheeze recipe...

...and all of these veggies for a vegan Au Jus...the Man is going to make for Thanksgiving at Mom's...

...so then we did some food prep for the trip to Mom's...I got out this recipe for Smoky Pub Cheese...because I wanted to make a vegan cheese ball...

...got it all blended up and in the fridge to chill...this is just one component...

...then I greased a pie plate for a pecan pie...really these pecan pie bars...but made in the shape of a traditional pecan pie...

....whizzed up the oats, dates, and almond flour...

...until crumbly and sticky...

...mashed it into the pie plate...

...then switched to a spatula to make it a little more even...then popped it into the oven for about 10 minutes...

...blended up some dates, vanilla, oats and water...to make the filling...

...then the crust was ready...

...poured in the filling...

...carefully placed all of the pecans...

...and baked that...

...and then we moved on to the seitan roast for Thanksgiving...using this recipe...

...shaped in a roast shape...

...double wrapped in foil...

...then tied it with twin...

...and put it in the Instant Pot...

...for an hour...

...menawhile the Man worked on the Vegan Au Jus...

...it already tasted delicious...but it simmered for another 12 hours...

...the roast was ready...we'll take it to Mom's and finish it there...the Man also made a vegan herb butter...but I didn't take any photos of that...

...I wore the fixed up freebie top to Church...I think it looks ok...the ties hang to just about where the little pucker was...making it not too noticeable...

...after Church...I halved some almonds...

...and roasted them...for the coating for the Smoky Cheeze ball...that I'm taking to Mom's for an appetizer...

...mixed up the cheeze ball...

...and gave it a quick taste test...just on a saltine cracker...it's good...

...shaped it into a ball...and put it in the fridge to chill..

...then I got out another sheet of plastic and placed the almond halves on it...

...and just sort of rolled the cheeze ball around on the almonds...

...then wrapped it in plastic...

...and I think we're pretty ready for the trip to Mom's for Thanksgiving...looking forward to seeing all our family there...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your week!...

...11.19...Dinner and a Movie...

...it was Pizza Night again...we tried a new-to-us crust recipe...it was from King Arthur Flour...but we both thought we'd had better pizza crust...so we probably won't be making that recipe again...

...and for the movie...we just watched another two episodes of Magpie Murders...it's a good series...kind of weird that the main character of the main storyline...talks to the fictional inspector from the dead man's novel...still good though...

...what have you been watching lately?...

~Have a lovely weekend!

...11.18...Friday Update...

...one of the Confirmands recommended the book Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson to me when I was about halfway through with Lord Jim...so I told her I'd request it from the library and when I finished Lord Jim I got it...and I really enjoyed it...it was a quick read...it's set in her childhood home of Greenville, SC...and NY...

...and right now...I'm reading The Mystery of Edwin Drood...started by Charles Dickens...and completed by David Madden...y'all know that I LOVE-LOVE-LOVE Dickens...and except for this book...I've read everything that he wrote...and much like the Dune series...I just didn't want to read it because he didn't finish it...but Mom recently read it and suggested it to me...so I got it...I'm only about a dozen or so chapters in so not to the point yet with the new writer...I'll let you know how different I think it is...of course I'm enjoying this front part of the book...actually written by Dickens...

...and in dollie news...I made a little wedding dress for the Ariel doll...it's a really interesting style of dress...I've never seen anything like it...it's got three sheer tiers for the underskirt...and then this four pointed peplum...then long fitted sleeve with a bit of pouf at the top...NOT super easy to construct...haha...

...then I took a bit of vinyl clad wire...

...and shaped it into a head-sized loop...

...and stitched some netting onto it...

...and here's Ariel as a bride...

...I'm pretty happy with how it turned out...

~Wishing you a lovely start to your weekend!

...11.17...What I Ate in a Day...as a Vegan...

...I think I sort of had 3 breakfasts...haha...

...I started with tea and toast...and earth balance...

...and you know me and textures...and warm and cold...I like to put a cold slab of butter on the hot toast...and eat it before it melts...the Man thinks (and has always thought) this is strange...I always do it with the first pancake too...while I'm standing there cooking them...so good...

...2nd breakfast was a mango...it was 99¢...and it wasn't stellar...

...and third breakfast was a small bowl of homemade vegan yogurt flavored with açaí topped with hemp seeds and white and black chia seeds...so then it was time for lunch...haha...

...so...I had a salad of just cucumbers and tomatoes...some frozen okra that I Griddler-ed...a slab of baked tofu...and a couple of super delicious boiled red potatoes...

...afternoon snack was...let's call it a deconstructed trail mix/nut bar...it's almonds, walnuts and black walnuts, pecans, raisins and oats...sometimes I also add chocolate chips...

...then for dinner...I had a big salad...with some homemade Italian dressing...some of the homemade wheat bread...you can tell when I get to the end of the loaf by the funny imprint left by the stirrer in the bread machine...some of Julia's potato pancake thing-ys...and sauerkraut and a vegan Field Roast sausage...it was delicious...a little bit spicy...

...what did you eat yesterday?...

~Have a lovely day!