VegNews Thanksgiving Feast 2011!

The Chefs: Hilary, Colleen, Jen, Elizabeth, Lyndsay, and Native Foods

The Menu: A feast fit for a voraciously hungry staff: a vegan Wellington and mushroom gravy from Native Foods, Elizabeth's mashed potatoes, Colleen's brussels sprouts and signature winter salad, Lyndsay's biscuits, nog, cider, and three kinds of pie from Sidesaddle Kitchen!

The Goods: It's not easy to write this right now. My intelligence has plummeted since lunch due to a rush of blood to my digestive system. The VegNews Thanksgiving feast was truly scrumptious this year, tickling my tastebuds with every seasonal flavor imaginable and subsequently rendering me immobile. Our talented staff pulled together an array of amazing holiday dishes—from Colleen's winter salad with spiced pecans, sliced apples, and tangy dressing to Lyndsay's perfectly flaky, buttery biscuits. Behold the spread.

And why didn't anybody ever tell me that the Native Foods vegan Wellington is life-changing? Oh wait, they did, and they were right. Come Thursday, I'm going to be consulting the VegNews Holiday Cookbook to dazzle anyone (mostly myself) with all of the mouthwatering Thanksgiving recipes contained therein. Pumpkin Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes are just the beginning. Think your recipes will impress us? Enter the first-ever VegNews Holiday Cookie Contest now!  

VegNews Annual Thanksgiving Feast!

The Chef: Native Foods Café and Colleen

The Menu: One of our favorite meals of the year featured a Native Foods' Wellington (layers of roasted portobello mushrooms, orange-glazed yams, seitan, organic kale, caramelized onions, and stuffing, all wrapped in a decadent puff pastry), shallot-mushroom gravy, balsamic-roasted Brussels sprouts, homemade cranberry sauce, and Colleen's Holiday Salad with baby greens, dried cranberries, sliced apples, and caramelized pecans. And we haven't even touched dessert yet.

The Goods: The VegNews staff anticipates this day all year long—and for good reason! Have you checked out that menu above? Every year, the week of Thanksgiving, the VN team sits down to a sumptuous vegan Thanksgiving meal that we don't stop talking about until the next feast rolls around. Southern California-based Native Foods Café, once again, provided the incredible centerpiece to our meal: The Native Wellington. If you need a stellar main course for your holiday table, this is it. And they ship overnight anywhere in the country! Of course, a lovely feast such as this has to have a dessert finale, and we went with one of our favorites: VN columnist Beverly Lynn Bennett's Pumpkin Cake with Vanilla Buttercream, straight from our brand-new VegNews Holiday Cookbook. It's a cinch to make, and always a crowd-pleaser. Accompanying the multi-layer cake is some delicious chocolate-peppermint bark made by VN Publisher Joseph Connelly—we couldn't get enough! Check out more mouthwatering photos here, and Happy Tofurky Day to all.

Hello, Healthy Eating!

The Chef: Brooke

The Menu: A heaping pile of Brussels sprouts, a Granny Smith apple, toast, and almond butter. That's a mouthful! (Pun intended.)

The Goods: I probably should be on the cover of the 2010 January+February "Hello Healthy!" issue of VegNews, because that's how good I feel after this lunch. We recently received a giant shipment of Wilderness Poets nut butters, and I was looking for an excuse to try the Roasted Almond Butter variety. That's where my Granny Smith apple came in handy—apples and nut butter is a match made in heaven. I also sampled some Dave's Killer Bread that our fearless leader Colleen Holland brought back from the Portland Veg Fest this weekend, and at just 75 calories a slice, it was amazing! I moved onto some steamed Brussels sprouts, a treat that I loved as a child with plenty of vinegar, just like my dad, and then enjoyed this surprisingly hot Tuesday with a little stroll by the beach. Got to get that vitamin D.

Lentil Soup and Salad

The Chef: Chas

The Menu: A splendidly balanced, tasty soup and salad lunch. Chas anchored our healthful meal with a hearty bowl of green lentil soup teaming with potatoes, carrots, kale, onion, garlic, and a delightful mixture of herbs and spices. Chas also prepared one of his famous, fantastic salads complete with mixed greens, tomatoes, chickpeas, avocado, broccoli slaw, grated carrot, and cucumber marinated in Braggs Liquid Aminos, tarragon, olive oil, and rice vinegar. A side of marinated and steamed snap peas, Brussels sprouts, and broccoli added an extra dose of greens, and yes, Chas made sure we also had slices of bread to dip into our soup bowls.

The Goods: We're not sure how we survived before Chef Chas arrived at the VNHQ, and frankly, we're not asking questions. From plentiful pots of coffee to superstar lunches, we're pretty much the luckiest vegan magazine in town. Our fantastic, fresh lunch was made that much better by dining al fresco with our favorite weekly guest, VegWebmisstress Laura Beck. Over lunch Lyndsay regaled us with stories about her weekend trip to The Worldfest 2010 Earth Day Festival, an annual, veg-friendly event held in Lake Balboa, Calif. We were all delighted—and a little jealous—to hear about Lyndsay's celebrity sightings and opinion of new vegan desserts. Speaking of celebrities, subscribe now to receive our fabulous, star-studded July+August Anniversary Issue! To celebrate our 10th anniversary edition, world-famous artist Peter Max will be designing the cover of this collector's edition, which will be packed full of the most incredible vegan stories, personalities, and travel destinations.

Pre-Thanksgiving Feast

The Chefs: Everyone! And Native Foods and Babycakes NYC

The Menu: Thanksgiving! We went all-out today with an amazing holiday spread. First of all, let's talk about the Native Foods' Wellington. Holy heck. This thing is puff pastry wrapped around delicious layers of seitan, kale, sweet potatoes, and portabello mushrooms, caramelized onions, and some magic. OK, OK, it was mostly magic. Seriously, we could eat this every day. Moving on from the Wellington's majesty, we enjoyed perfectly garlicky mashed potatoes made by Liz, which we doused in a cashew gravy that Elizabeth whipped up. Abby made her signature chive biscuits, and Colleen roasted Brussels sprouts to perfection and made her traditional Thanksgiving salad with candied pecans, dried cranberries, sliced apples, and a homemade balsamic vinaigrette. Oh, and then we had dessert. Apple-crumb cake from Babycakes NYC? We'll let this photo speak for itself:

The Goods: This may well be the most epic lunch ever eaten at the VNHQ. Easily one of the most delectable meals we've had, this pre-Thanksgiving smorgasbord was a wonderful treat for our hard-working staff, and might just have us in fighting shape for the actual T-Day. ("T" is for "Thanks for not eating turkey," obviously.) We'll be back with one more post this week, and then it's off to our respective holiday celebrations/mashed potato-induced comas.

Biscuits and Brussels Sprouts

The Chef: Lyndsay

The Menu: Ms. Lyndsay is into her savory treats, and we're ok with that. Today she made—from scratch, mind you—whole-wheat biscuits, which she topped with Match Meats Breakfast Sausage crumbles, and a rich, Hollandaise-esque sauce. Her roasted Brussels sprouts were perfectly done: bright green, still slightly crisp, and with their natural bite intact.

The Goods: It's going to be a crazy (and short!) week here at the VNHQ, and we're pretty danged excited for it. Don't miss our pre-Thanksgiving celebration lunch report tomorrow, and don't forget to check VegNews and VegWeb for all your holiday recipe needs!

Fat Bottom Bakery Mac 'n' Cheese

The Chefs: Carolynn and Ashley from Fat Bottom Bakery

The Menu: A mighty good mac 'n' cheese. In fact, this is the very same recipe which garnered our guests second place in the SF Food Wars mac 'n' cheese competition, when they battled both vegan and pork-laden versions of the homey favorite. Our beloved Laura Beck of VegWeb fame brought some radically roasted Brussels sprouts, and we whipped up a salad. Oh, and maybe Carolynn and Ashley also brought us some cupcakes:

Yeah, what you're seeing there are coconut, red velvet, and carrot cake cupcakes. The one with pink dinosaur sprinkles was for Laura, obviously.

The Goods: Today's lunch might just have been one for the record books it was so delightful and delectable. Here's the team—very, very full of mac 'n' cheese and cupcakes at this point. These darling bakers are welcome back any time, and you can sample their wares at the next SF Vegan Bakesale!

Lovely Potato Leek Soup

The Chef: Liz

The Menu: An utterly phenomenal potato-leek soup. Liz wowed us with this rich, homey main course that was definitely more of a meal than our typical miso. She added cashew cream (the recipe for which can be found in The Conscious Cook—we're slowly tapering off cooking from this book!), rosemary, and cherry tomatoes to the pot, and the savory results were nothing less than sensational. Liz also whipped up a lovely salad and roasted some Brussels sprouts with corn, which rounded out the hearty meal.

The Goods: It's another exciting week at the VNHQ! To carry over some of last week's giveaway fun, we are proud to announce that MacKenzie has won our last copy of The Conscious Cook! Congrats, MacKenzie! Please send us an email with your full name and mailing address, and we'll stick your winnings in the mail. Other than that, it's back to work for us! Happy Monday to all!

Come 'n' Get It Curry

The Chef: Colleen

The Menu: A comforting, couldn't-be-tastier curry courtesy of Colleen. Coconut, ginger, peanut butter, and other spices combined in an absolutely delicious curry sauce, which topped butternut squash, Swiss chard, and red onions. Served atop a bed of fluffy, lovely couscous and aside some of the best roasted Brussels sprouts we've ever had, this curry called our names.

The Goods: Yes, we ate more cake after ravenously devouring today's curry. After an altogether awesome evening last night at the inaugural SF Vegan Drinks (check out the photos!), it was right back to work at the office today, and Colleen's curry certainly sustained us through our tasks. Thanks to all who came out and had a drink with us last night, and make sure to check out Press Pass for a full recap. See you again next month!

Tasty Tuscany

The Chef: Stacy and Kashi

The Menu: A lovely Tuscan Veggie Bake, courtesy of Kashi, which Ms. Stacy expertly heated. This lasagna-type dish featured a nice tomato sauce and some chunky veggies. Stacy roasted her own mixture of Brussels sprouts and Romanesco broccoli, which made for a visually impressive side dish. She also sautéed some delicious Swiss chard and topped it with tomato-garlic soy cheese.

The Goods: There may be a subtle theme to today's lunch: Romanesco broccoli, Swiss chard, Tuscan bake. Seeing a pattern here? Maybe some hard-hitting investigative journalism is required to look into what is clearly a burgeoning trend—European-inspired ingredients. If anyone has an extra round-trip ticket to Europe that you don't plan on using, feel free to send it our way.

Quick Quinoa

The Chef: Stacy

The Menu: It's official: Ms. Stacy has mastered the VNHQ style of cooking, which is basically summarized as the I'll-cook-whatever-I-can-find-in-the-fridge method. From a few humble ingredients she pulled together the lovely meal you see above, which consisted of roasted Brussels sprouts and dinosaur kale, and a filling, slightly sweet quinoa salad with cinnamon-roasted delicata squash, craisins, and avocado. Yes, the word you're looking for here is "yum."

The Goods: It's the end of a long week here at the VNHQ, and we couldn't have been happier with this send-off meal. We learned that quinoa, while technically not a grain, is often considered the fastest-cooking grain, which makes it extra handy for days when you're short on time and long on stuff to do. If it weren't for said stuff, we all could have stayed outside in the warm sunshine the rest of the day!