Kindly Póg Mo Thóin

Dinner by myself this year. This year is the fifth anniversary of my mother’s death; she died two days before Thanksgiving, so it’s become a difficult holiday for me. Since I refuse to travel outside the city on Thanksgiving (and I’m working tomorrow anyway, making travel less than feasible), I won’t be with family, and I didn’t really feel like being around anyone else. But being by yourself is no excuse for not making yourself a good meal, and being by yourself is a good opportunity to try out vegetarian holiday dishes without worrying about whether anyone else will eat them. So, this is what I had for dinner:

• Field Roast Celebration Roast with onion-miso gravy;
• Roasted acorn squash;
• Green beans;
• Mashed sweet potatoes and bananas;
• Maple-pecan Brussels sprouts and pearl onions;
• Seltzer with cranberry ice.

Some comments: it was all delicious, but the Celebration Roast didn’t get as hot as I would have liked following the package directions; if I make it again, I’d wrap it or something. Also, next time out, I plan on making some kind of stuffed squash from scratch, since while the Celebration Roast was good, it seemed a little out of place with all the homemade dishes.

I overcooked the squash; that was supposed to be a wedge, but it fell apart.

The sweet potatoes were awesome, but they turn brown pretty quickly because of the bananas.

The Brussels sprouts were also awesome, which is pretty amazing since I don’t think I’ve ever had Brussels sprouts in any form that I actually liked before. The glaze is made with water, maple syrup and Dijon mustard, with toasted pecans mixed in at the end.

This was also my first experience with miso gravy, and damn, was it good! It was a little different than I expected, and tasted somewhat like turkey gravy, oddly enough. It wasn’t like some kind of incongruous Japanese dish in the middle of a New England feast; instead, with the thyme, it worked very nicely.  It, uh, bubbles, though, so maybe don’t wear sandals while you’re making it.  Ouch.

The cranberry ice is just cranberry juice cocktail frozen in an ice cube tray and used to cool and flavor the seltzer. I’d have preferred 100% juice, but I couldn’t get anything less than half a gallon.

Once I digest, there’s a pumpkin tofu cheesecake waiting for me in the fridge.