Thanksgiving wrap up!

remember when i said that i wasn’t sure if we’d be able to top last thanksgiving? well we TOTALLY did! everyone helped to cook the absolute best thanksgiving dinner in all of the rodgers/kirk/benz/maines/clapp history! 

from the left, my cousin zach chowing down on some corn muffins, william goin for the mashed potatoes, and aunt rara, emilee, dad, and josh digging in!

i was wayyyy too hungry to take the time to take pictures of each and every delicious dish, but i managed to take a few shots of my plate, which had everything on it!

my aunt maura, my cousin emilee and i made a double batch of the green bean casserole from fat free vegan kitchen and it is by far my favorite of all the thanksgiving dishes! super creamy and delicious, and we had enough for leftovers this time since we doubled the recipe! the mashed potatoes are my nanna’s “holiday potatoes,” but she has the cutest way of saying it…she pronounces potatoes as “ba-day-das”, if that makes any sense..haha. its possibly the cutest thing in the world. anyway, the potatoes and SO good! she uses vegetable broth, margarine, and vegan sour cream to make it super fluffy and moist and amazing! we also made three, yes three, tofurky roasts topped with my dad’s now famous mushroom and red wine gravy, which we had to tear out of william and josh’s hands because it was so good!

here we have my dad’s super scrumptious stuffing, my grandpa’s glazed carrots, and my winter vegetable casserole that turned out to be really good!!!! i roasted a butternut squash and an acorn squash, and mashed them both together with 4 baked sweet potatoes..then i added margarine, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt. i topped it with some more brown sugar and chopped pecans..it was a HUGE success!

josh and i made about 36 homemade dinner rolls, which aren’t pictured, but they were perfect! my momma made our yummy corn muffins, which we have never had on thanksgiving before but i think they will definitely be a new tradition!

now that everyone is filled in on our family’s curse with thanksgiving desserts, you wouldn’t believe how well all of the pies turned out!!!! my cousin emilee made the pumpkin cheesecake, it was quite possibly the best thing i have ever eaten in my life. my sister ally made a pumpkin pecan pie, and made the mistake of allowing my mom in the same room with it because someone opened the fridge and her pie came flying out and landed face down on the floor! we were able to salvage it and even though it looked a little rough it tasted really good! silken tofu is a complete god send…it really makes the perfect pumpkin pie! josh and i made a brandy apple pie with a crumb topping, and we made a brandy caramel sauce to go on top. holy shit…so good. we made it in a spring form pan so it was a super deep dish pie with a thick, buttery crust..and the brandy in the apple filling gave it such an amazing flavor.

we hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! now if you’ll excuse me, i’m going to go help josh in the kitchen…he’s baking vegan versions of THESE:

hells yeah.