Wednesday 23 September 2015

VeganMoFo 2015 #23: Autumn equinox themed father's day dinner (in Spring)



23. Equinox eats.

So, funny story. This prompt was originally called 'Autumn equinox eats' and was originally day 30 in the prompts. I prepared much of my MoFo in advance from a list of prompts I printed out some time ago due to my busy end of September. Since that list, they actually changed the prompts around, switching this to day 23 to be on the equinox itself. So this morning I put up what I thought was day 23 (fusion food), but is actually now day 30. Some had read it (and commented, thanks Babette!). I have taken that post down to put this one up today. The fusion post will reappear as the final day of MoFo post. Also I had prepared the post for the original prompt of autumn equinox, even though it is spring here. I don't know that I have ever used the word prompt so much in my life!

Anyway, here is the post!

Today's prompt originally was quite out of season for the southern hemisphere (Autumn equinox eats), because it is actually spring here. September is also the month of father's day in Australia, and every year I make a special father's day dinner. Due to some communication mishaps, we happen to have several bags of frozen cranberries in the freezer, and Dad suggested that he would like a dessert that included some cranberries. Plus he loves pumpkin. So I decided to run with the autumn equinox theme for his dinner rather than doing the more geographically appropriate spring equinox.

Cozy Roasted Butternut Soup from The Abundance Diet by Somer McCowan was the first course. This soup blends roasted pumpkin, onion and garlic with a noochy broth and a generous splash of sherry (which I found a little strong, I would decrease it next time). Pureed cashews provided some creaminess.
Rating: :)

Cozy Roasted Butternut Soup


Shepherd's Pie Pizza from Bake & Destroy by Natalie Slater provided a fun main course. I made the pizza base using the recipe in Vegan Pizza (it is so easy). The base is slightly baked naked, then is topped with a herby potato mash as the 'sauce' and a layer of vegetables including carrots, cauliflower, green beans and mushrooms. Very yummy! It also passed the test of being fantastic cold the next day.
Rating: :)

Shepherd's Pie Pizza


Shepherd's Pie Pizza


Cranapple Crumble Pie from Whole Grain Vegan Baking by Celine Steen and Tamasin Noyes was the final course, being the cranberry dessert, The tart pastry is made with a blend of wholegrain flours including wholemeal, oat and barley. It was quite a thin pastry, and tore easily. I used my deep dish 9 inch pan and it didn't quite go all the way up the sides. For the filling, the recipe calls for 880g of peeled and sliced apples. I stopped at about 600g because it was already a huge amount, and any more would not have fit into my pie plate! It is all topped with a great crumble. This was very yummy, though ended up being not entirely structurally sound when cut and served. Messy but good!
Rating: :)

Cranapple Crumble Pie


Cranapple Crumble Pie


Cute Kitty Photo of the Post: Month of Gizmo

Gizmo on her 15th birthday


And here is Gizmo on her 15th birthday! Can you tell the difference? Still perfection. :)

11 comments:

  1. Gizmo is warming her paws under the cushion! I really need to check out the Abundance Diet.

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  2. Happy Fathers' Day to your dad! Obviously, we need a few more Aussies on our MoFo team. I totally forgot about the Spring Equinox thing! Sorry to throw you a curve ball.. I love that you just went with it. Your dishes all look so good. That Shepherd's Pie pizza sounds so unusual, but the pictures are very convincing!

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  3. Shepherds pie pizza, what a brilliant idea. So creative! I am a big fan of that base recipe too.

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  4. I love all the pictures of lovely Gizmo! The soup is beautiful, the pizza looks amazing, what a great idea, and the dessert makes me want to bake right now!

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  5. I almost made the same mistake with the Fusion/Equinox posts! That crumble pie looks incredible!

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  6. The pizza and crumble pie both look really good & Gizmo looks so dignified! :)

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  7. Shepherd's Pie Pizza---that looks awesome, and perfect for a Father's Day meal!

    Happy Birthday Gizmo!

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  8. Happy Ostara to you!! I'm jealous (but you knew that). That shepherd's pie pizza looks INSANE! I wish I was eating that for my Mabon celebration tonight!

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  9. It's unfair for you Australians, you have to post before everyone else!

    Shepherd's pie pizza? I am skeptical! Especially when it comes to eating it cold!

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  10. That soup looks so bright and cozy! It's spring where i live as well but, to be honest, you wouldn't know from the weather right now!

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  11. Well, good thing I'm late catching up on blog reading haha ;p
    You make your dad a dinner? That is so sweet! And you picked good food. I'm totally drooling over that shepherd's pie pizza. As a matter of fact, when I saw it, I started yelling shepherd's pie pizza to my husband in the other room. We are both intrigued and like the sound of the potato mash sauce.

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