Thanksgiving Plate

One o’clock = Cornbread made in an iron skillet
Three o’clock = 1/2 sweet potato the way I like ‘em. Plain.
Six o’clock = Green beans & cremini mushrooms in wine and garlic*
Eight o’clock = Red-skinned mashed potatoes** with Diner Gravy (the original way)
Ten o’clock = Seitan Roast with Diner Gravy
In-the-middle = Oven-roasted brussel sprouts and garlic*
Not pictured = cranberry sauce and apple pie

*Thanks Vegan with a Vengeance
**My secret to the best mashed potatoes on the planet: a touch of white pepper (1/2 tsp maybe).

G. G. Stir-fry

I seem to cook what I crave, and I seem to crave two main food categories: Southern and Asian. I know I started this blog to help me deviate from the same ol’, same ol’, but I couldn’t help myself. I had a c(r)aving*.

Last night I made a basic Asian stir-fry with cremini mushrooms, baby broccoli, and sliced seitan. You can make your stir-fry with whatever mixture of vegetables and meat analogs you’d like, but my recommendation is to stick with three or four ingredients, each of a different color. Limiting yourself to three or four not only makes prep easier, but it also prevents flavor mush. You want each ingredient to add, not take away, from the stir-fry you’re making.

Here is my recipe for a basic, delicious brown sauce. It has a lot of garlic and ginger, so KristinAthena nicknamed it G.G. stir-fry.

G.G. Stir-fry Sauce

1 cup vegetable broth
1/8 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. arrowroot powder or cornstarch
1 packed Tbsp. ginger, peeled and minced or grated
1 Tbsp. (2-4 cloves) garlic, pressed
Red pepper flakes**
Crushed black pepper**

Combine all ingredients in glass measuring cup. Stir before pouring over cooked stir-fry ingredients. Bring to boil, reduce heat, stir occasionally. Ready to serve when thick.

**If you want, instead of mixing the red pepper flakes and crushed black pepper in the sauce, add it to your stir-fry ingredients while they cook and turn brightly colored.

*One of my favorite geographers, Allan Pred, used to write the most beautiful articles/books using words marked with parentheses like that. His work was like poetry.

Seitan & Sauerkraut Sandwich

Honestly, I just don’t know what I’d do if I were allergic to gluten. There was a time when I thought I couldn’t live without chocolate. But I swear I could do that before I could live without my precious wheat meat. Nope, not kidding. I always have a little space in the fridge for my favo meat analog. Always.

I prefer to make my own, as time consuming as it can be even with the quick mix, but sometimes I just don’t get around to it. So I like to have a little package of store-bought stashed away in the fridge at all times. Because, just like Ally Sheedy said in The Breakfast Club, “You never know when you might need to jam.”

I needed to jam this past week when our fridge started to go on the fritz. As it’s warming up and up, we’re trying to use whatever is inside. Perfect. I’ll take some of this seitan, a little sauerkraut, some German mustard and make myself a variation on the ol’ “corned-beef” sandwich (the one that isn’t Reuben).

All I did was slice the seitan, throw it in a pan heated with olive oil, and cook until browned on both sides. Just as the seitan was starting to really stick to the pan and make it crusty, I threw in the ‘kraut with some of its juice, then scraped the bottom of the pan to loosen all that yummy, crusted on seitan. Threw it on toasted bread with the German mustard, then went out and bought a new refrigerator.

Thank you.