Saturday, November 10, 2007

Feeling a Bit Peckish?

First of all I would just like to say that it's not even 7am on a Saturday and I'm blogging about food .... now if that isn't love for VeganMoFo, I don't know what is.

Last night my folks came over for tea (i.e. dinner), and there was a theme! Just a year ago, my parents returned to the States from living in Chester, England for four years. I thought I would give them a vegan version of some traditional English favorites (or at least what I thought was English). My dad dressed for the occasion...



Although throwing together a curry was tempting, I decided to attempt the Tempeh Shepardess Pie from Veganomicon (what are people using as acronyms for this book? it's exhausting typing that out every time). My parents have never had tempeh, but I have introduced them to seitan and tofu with great success, so I figured it was time and they were ready. I followed the alternate suggestion and used sweet potatoes for the topping instead of regular potatoes, a good move I thought. The meal came together fairly easily (I cooked the potatoes the night before to save time). Everyone agreed that this was definitely a huge step up from traditional Shepard's pie. This made a ton of food! Three of us had two helpings and there is still enough leftover for a meal for four. On the side I served some roasted brussels sprouts (I decided that these were sort of an English thing, my dad confirmed that they are pretty popular over there, what instinct!), a green salad, and a fruit salad made of two varieties of apples and the remaining red Bartlett pears.



For dessert, I took a huge leap of faith. You always hear mixed things about bread pudding, lots of people seem to hate it. But I wanted to keep with my theme. So again, I entrusted our meal with Veganomicon, and made the chocolate banana bread pudding. Thursday night I cut up the bread into chunks to let them get stale. At this point I questioned my judgement of choosing whole wheat bread, would it be sweet enough? I was very worried. But, lo and behold after soaking up the soymilk mixture and adding a bunch of ripe bananas and chocolate chips, this turned out so much better than I imagined. I think I may even go sneak some now for breakfast :-) A dallop of Soyatoo whipped soy topping in the bread pudding-filled ramekins finished it off.

During dinner we talked about some English traditions and sayings. In trying to find a clever title for my post, my dad mentioned that in southern England, when people are hungry, they say they're "feeling peckish". By the end of the meal, we were peckish no more.

I'm sure you're wondering why I'm up so early (or maybe not). We are headed up to the Renaissance Fair with some friends today and I'm bringing a breakfast treat that has involved some serious labor. More on that later. Enjoy your Saturday!

16 comments:

Unknown said...

this dessert is definitely making me feel perkish!

Anonymous said...

Love your blog and all the links. It may be the way vowels are pronounced in the south as I think the word you're referring to is 'peckish'.

Tamara said...

Veganomicon = V-con. :-)

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Yay for England (my birth country). And double yay for vegan bread pudding! I love Soyatoo... but have such bad luck getting it to come out! The stupid spray bottle always gets stuck, which makes me want to take a hammer to it since I know that heavenly vegan cream awaits me inside, taunting me, and I just can't get to it!

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

Blogging at 7:00am? that's when I wake up! you're DEFINITELY showing love for VeganMoFo - kudos! :0)

How fun that you had a British-themed dinner with your parents!! Wow, that Tempeh Shepardess Pie (I too get tired of typing the cookbook title out - just call the book 'Nomicon, haha) and Bread Pudding (that's the recipe that I want to try first!!! with w.w. bread!! I'm so glad that it worked out with the w.w. bread!!) look spectacular - yay for veganizing traditional British fare :0)

oooh, have fun at the Renaissance Fair!

zippiknits...sometimes said...

DH has been asking about bread pudding and, now, here you are with all the info up. It looks ab fab, and thank you for blogging and sharing. :-)

Vegan_Noodle said...

davidh...you are right! It was so early when I posted this, that I mixed up the word. It is peckish, not perkish. How silly am I. Fixed the error....

bazu said...

How cool! My parents also lived in England (London) for quite a few years before I was born. I believe their honeymoon was in Wales, so I have a built-in soft spot for all things British!
I call the book V-Con, by the way! And I can't believe how many recipe there are in there. Every time I see a yummy blog post about it, I see more and more things that I want to make. I love bread pudding, and the thought of a chocolate banana version is making me swoon.
Cheerio!

aTxVegn said...

Your English meal looks wonderful! Every shepherd's pie I've made has turned out to be huge. Thankfully it makes good leftovers.

The Renaissance Fair makes me think of people walking around eating giant turkey legs!

Anonymous said...

im feeling very "peckish" with all your food. yum!!!!!

Pink Theory said...

wow, that looks like such a hearty meal! Hope you have fun at the Renaissance Fair.

Kayla said...

Mmm, I'm feeling quite peckish looking at all of your wonderful food..and I just ate breakfast! Next time I make Shepherd's Pie, I will try the sweet potato variation. And you can't go wrong with brussel sprouts..or that bread pudding!

the little one said...

Soyatoo! Holy - what am I missing? I don't think I can get that where I live, but I'm on a mission to find it now!

Anonymous said...

OMG - that bread pudding. Yum! It looks so delicious. If only I didn't have a huge tray of apple crisp in my refrigerator right now.

n/a said...

That's so sweet of you to make a nice dinner like that!!! I like your cinnamon rolls pic above, too.

vko said...

That bread pudding is too decadent. Lucky parents...