Veg Thanksgiving, Sedona 2012

I hope everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving full of family, friends, and love.  I was lucky enough to spend the week in beautiful Sedona, AZ with my family and friends (including some new friends we met along the way). Sedona is known for being a funky, spiritual place full of opportunities for meditation, healing, hiking, and fun.  We stayed in a dome house in a quiet part of town where we could hear the coyotes howling at night while sitting out on the deck drinking wine and star gazing.  We saw a few shooting stars, too!  They sky was so clear and I have never seen so many stars in the night sky.  It was totally worth bundling up in coats and blankets to brave the 30 degree weather at night to enjoy that experience.

Check out our house:  My Sedona Place

And what better way to spend our first full day in Arizona than by taking a helicopter ride over the Grand Canyon?  Yep.  It was as amazing as it sounds :)

Thanks to Maverick Helicopters and our awesome pilot, Kenan, for a fabulous trip!

Back in Sedona, the next day we took a hike to see more beautiful scenery. The color of the blue sky against the red rock is just unreal.  These pictures do not do it justice.

So for Thanksgiving, we had the good fortune to share our meal and evening with some new friends.  Along with some of the more traditional foods, I served up a full vegan menu that everyone enjoyed.  Starting with my kale salad, of course.

This cranberry sauce is by far the best I have ever had.  Period.  Do yourself a favor and make it.  It is so easy and so worth it.  (Recipe here: Cranberry-Pecan Sauce)

What You Need:

• 1/2 cup pecan halves
• 1/2 cup Madeira
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 3 cups cranberries, fresh or frozen
• pinch of salt

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and toast for 8 to 10 minutes, or until fragrant. Remove, let cool for a few minutes, and roughly chop by hand.
2. In a medium saucepan, combine the madeira, maple syrup, cinnamon, cranberries, and salt. Cover and bring to a boil, watching carefully to make sure it does not boil over. Uncover and cook at a rapid simmer for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring every so often, until the cranberries have burst and the liquid has reduced enough to become saucy.
3. Stir in the pecans and pour into a bowl. Refrigerate until cool. Serve cold or at room temperature.

Boiling cranberries in the maple syrup and wine 

Once sauce thickens, mix in the pecans and chill.

Pour that sauce liberally over these delectable stuffed acorn squash and you have yourself a plant-strong Thanksgiving main course that will be the envy of the turkey eaters (our turkey eaters lusted after these!  We were nice and shared them with everyone :))

Recipe here:  Stuffed Acorn Squash

What You Need:

• 3 acorn squashes, cut in half and seeded
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 2 medium yellow onions, diced
• 3 stalks celery, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon dried sage (I used fresh)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups Lundberg Wild Rice Blend (or homemade mix of whole grain rice varieties)
• 3 cups vegetable stock
• 3/4 cup pecans, toasted and roughly chopped
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup scallion greens, thinly sliced on a bias
• Salt and pepper, to taste

What You Do:

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Brush acorn squash halves with 2 tablespoons of the olive oil and place cut-side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and set aside.
3. In a medium saucepan, heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Add the onions, celery, sage, and salt and cook over medium-high heat for several minutes, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent. Add the rice and toast for a few minutes. Add the broth and bring to a boil. Cover and place saucepan in the oven.  (I just cooked it on the stove)
4. Put the sheet of squash halves in the oven as well.
5. Bake rice for 45-50 minutes, until moisture is absorbed. Roast acorn squash halves for 45 minutes, until squash flesh is soft and surface is browned.  (My squash cooked in 30 minutes, so I suggest checking them early on to make sure they do not overcook)
6. Remove both rice and squash halves from oven. Let rice sit, covered, for 10 minutes. Uncover and toss rice with pecans, dried cranberries, and scallion greens. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
7. Added step:  scoop out a few spoonfuls of the squash from each half, and mix in with the rice mixture.  It will make it creamier and will hold it all together.
8. Stuff each squash half with a 1/2 to 3/4 cup of rice mixture and serve with a liberal amount of Cranberry-Pecan Sauce.

We also made a vegan stuffing (admittedly it was out of a package but hey, everything else on the table was made from scratch so I do not feel bad about that!) and a vegan mushroom gravy.  I'm not sharing the gravy recipe here because it did not turn out very well.  I ate it and my cousin liked it, but it is not worth making again.

Here is my plate before I devoured it.  I could only eat half of the half of the squash because it was so filling!  Lucky for my brother, who got to eat the rest.

All in all, it was a fabulous vacation with a fabulous meal.  Here are a few more tidbits from the trip:

A handmade garlic plate, gift from my mom.  You rub a clove of garlic over the ridges to make a paste, then pour olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs, salt, and pepper, etc. over it then dip crusty bread in it for a delicious appetizer.   

Some healing crystals I picked up at a local shop.  The two bags are vortex charged crystals I got for some friends, and then clockwise from the top: green calcite (mental healer, abundance, communication, transitions & letting go, fertility), goldstone (master healer, protection, calming, stabilizes emotions, energy generator), red tiger's eye (grounding, vitality, Kundalini, protection, integrity), Apache tear obsidian (grounding, protection, forgiveness, comforts grief & sorrow, emotional cleansing), and peacock ore, aka bornite (joyfulness, shielding, confidence, stress relief, aligns all Chakras)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  If you have any of your own Thanksgiving recipes, memories, or ideas to share, please post here!