Vegan MoFo Day 26: Thanksgiving Yesterday, Leftovers Today

For Thanksgiving yesterday, I made two sides -- Potato Fennel Gratin and Green Bean Vegan Casserole, both recipes that I got when I attended the Native Foods cooking demo last Saturday.

It's a good thing I woke up early yesterday. I had prepped much of the ingredients for my Thanksgiving sides on Wednesday, but I didn't prepare what would take the longest -- the potatoes. I got up, washed them, boiled them, and then embarked on the painstaking task of peeling them. So, that took about an hour total. The rest of the gratin recipe was fairly simple, save for a lot of dish washing.

The casserole recipe was a little... confusing. The instructions had me blanch the green beans, fry the flour-coated shallots in oil, heat up bread crumbs, cook mushrooms, and stir in a Vegenaise mixture with the mushrooms. Then, the last step said, "Remove from heat, add green beans and bread crumbs, then toss and serve!"

Wait - did I miss something? Was it supposed to be a green bean salad? Hm. I thought casseroles were supposed to go in the oven for some time. And what am I to do with the shallots? Er...

So, I put the green beans, the mushroom mixture and the bread crumbs in a baking dish and stuck it in the oven for 20 minutes. Then I put the shallots on top and kept it in the oven for another 5 minutes. I figured that would work.

After those two sides were done, I put the Native Wellington in the oven for almost an hour. Then, we packed all three in one of those insulated bags and headed on down to Orange County. It all surprisingly stayed rather warm.

The stuff was all good :) I actually think I liked the green beans the best. I forgot to take pics of it all yesterday, but I took a picture of the leftovers I had today.

Clockwise from top: Potato Fennel Gratin, Native Wellington with Mushroom Gravy, Green Bean Vegan Casserole

We've eaten so much of it already. The green beans are almost gone, the Wellington has a couple servings left, and the potatoes have a few large servings to go.

I'm already thinking of Christmas food to try. I am pretty sure I want mashed potatoes this time, and I think I'd like creamed spinach :)