The Best Pie Ever and a Skinny Hypoallergenic Christmas Tree

Nobody at my house wants me to experiment for Thanksgiving dinner. If they can have a big pile of veggie chicken and duck from the Asian market, mashed potatoes - lots and lots of mashed potatoes - and pumpkin pie, they're in heaven. This year I bought a Tofurkey and threw out the stuffing, which I don't like, and filled the opening with some veggie duck and chicken. It was a Tofurduken, with Casian flavors in the basting sauce. Vegecasian? It was fun as a novelty item at least, but I'm not sure I'd make it again.

I made a new pie this year - the Vegan Pumpkin Cheesecake Pie from VegSpinz. This pie is so amazingly good, I know I'll be making it again. I made it a little differently than DJ Karma, though. I bought a deep dish graham cracker crust at the grocery store and cut the recipe down to size, and I used my favorite pumpkin pie filling in place of the one in the recipe. So first, I made half of the cheesecake filling in the original recipe in my food processor. After transferring that to a bowl, I made this pumpkin pie filling in the processor (no need to rinse between layers). I spread half the cheesecake filling on the crust, topped with all of the pumpkin filling, and then the rest of the cheesecake. All of the filling wouldn't fit in the pie shell, so I put the remainder in a small, oiled casserole. Then, I swirled the two layers together with a butter knife. Finally, I baked according to the instructions for the plain pumpkin pie - 425 F for 15 minutes and 350 for 40 minutes.

 

My favorite thing about Thanksgiving cooking has to be making delicious things from the leftovers. So, the mock duck will become enchiladas - luckily I have enchiladas sauce in the freezer ready to go. I also have half a box of puff pastry tucked away near the enchilada sauce. It will top a mixture of diced tofurkey, rice and wild rice, green beans and gravy to become pot pie. 

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it's time to start pulling out the Christmas decorations. Until last year we always had a live tree. Then I discovered that I'm allergic to them. Tyler might be, too. The tree had to be banished to the patio, lights and all. People who visited us last Christmas season were so confused when they saw the poor, forlorn tree outside until we explained.

We really wanted a tree so that we had somewhere to put presents besides a pile in the corner, but a store-bought artificial tree didn't appeal to any of us. I had to think of something quickly. I bought two sets of nesting wood rings from Wallter, painted them green, and and hung them from a wood star with ribbon. It's just what I was wanting. The skinniness means it doesn't get in the way of other projects, nor is it too close to the fireplace, the way a traditional tree (real or artificial) would be. This year I'm going to glue beads on it. I think it deserves some bling.



Here are some instructions I wrote up last year for making a tree like this.


 

Can I help? Can I help?

I'll keep the tree safe.