Also check out ☃ Simplify the Holidays for more ideas to help create a fun, festive, relaxed winter holiday season.

And if you’re looking for thoughtful personalized gifts to share with your loved ones, try some Homemade Gifts.

Then wrap them responsibly with Reusable Bags/Cloth Wraps. Each year billions of plastic bags end up as litter; reusable bags, such as furoshiki can help reduce the impact to our environment. Its versatility allows you to wrap almost anything regardless of its shape or size.

Have a wonderful winter!

The good news is that most of the side dishes on the Thanksgiving table are naturally meat free. Vegans usually have fewer traditionally made choices because of cream, milk or butter, but there are really tasty and readily available substitutes at most chain grocery stores.

Below you’ll find delicious vegetarian Thanksgiving menu with highly rated recipes including main dish, sides and desserts.

Enjoy!

Thanksgiving Pot Pie
substitute turkey with Chik’n Strips
and No-Chicken Broth for chicken stock
the veg safe frozen pie crust I use
with Vegetarian Apple "Sausage" Stuffing
or
VeganYumYum’s Thanksgiving
Seitan Roulade with Chestnut Stuffing

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Vegetarian Gravy
Cranberry Sauce
Roasted Brussels Sprouts
Green Bean Casserole
Boston Market Butternut Squash
Turnip and Carrot Mash
Le Sueur peas
Corn Pudding
Pumpkin Eggnog Pie

Vegan Beer – Vegan Wine – Vegan Liquor

We had a great Halloween planned. We started off with Pumpkin pancakes:

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 pinch clove
• 1 cup milk
• 6 tablespoons canned pumpkin puree
• 2 tablespoons melted butter
• 1 egg

Directions

1. Whisk flour, sugar, baking powder, spices and salt in a bowl.
2. In a separate bowl whisk together milk, pumpkin, melted butter, and egg.
3. Fold mixture into dry ingredients.
4. Spray or grease a skillet and heat over medium heat: pour in 1/4 cup batter for each pancake.
5. Cook pancakes about 3 minutes per side. Serve with butter and syrup.
6. Makes about six 6-inch pancakes.

[via Recipezaar]

Then we went looking for more pumpkins to carve because this wasn’t enough:

There was a lot of jack o’ lantern carving going on all afternoon. I carved the cat, and Jim carved the rest with Syna assisting. We got our cool patterns from Zombie Pumpkins.

click for larger image

They were quite the hit with the trick or treaters.

Then we made Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cakies (cake-like cookies), my all time favorite fall, pumpkin recipe.
This recipe is ever so slightly adapted from marthastewart.com (chips instead of glaze).

We used to buy these from Gap Mountain Bread every fall in Troy (now Keene), NH – I miss NH in the fall.

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 can (15 ounces) pure pumpkin puree
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, pumpkin-pie spice, and salt; set aside.
2. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat until smooth. With mixer on low speed, alternately add flour mixture in two parts and pumpkin puree in one, beginning and ending with flour mixture; mix just until combined (do not overmix).
3. Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto two baking sheets, about 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and edges are golden, 15 to 20 minutes, rotating sheets once during baking. Immediately transfer cookies to wire racks, and cool completely.
4. When cookies have cooled, set them (still on rack) over a baking sheet or waxed paper. Place chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl set over (not in) a saucepan of simmering water; stir until almost melted. Remove from heat; stir until completely melted. Pour chocolate into a resealable plastic bag. Snip off a corner with scissors or a knife to make an 1/8-inch hole; pipe chocolate over cookies. Refrigerate until chocolate is firm, about 20 minutes.

 

We had a bunch of family over for pizza, and we took Syna out trick or treating around the neighborhood. It was so warm out, and the misty rain was actually refreshing after all of the running around I was doing. Syna got an amazing amount of candy for just 2 streets, maybe 15 houses. We took out about half and let her eat a few pieces. After everyone had left, Syna hung her head low and said she was sad because Halloween was all over. Surprisingly, she slept great.





]]> http://heatherkatsoulis.com/happy-halloween-2009/feed/ 1 http://heatherkatsoulis.com/halloween-guide-2009/ http://heatherkatsoulis.com/halloween-guide-2009/#comments Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:40:17 +0000 Heather http://heatherkatsoulis.com/?p=401 Here are some great links to help spice up your Halloween. There are ideas for planning parties, recipes, games, crafts…

Printable Halloween Countdown Planner
Halloween Events in Massachusetts
Pioneer Valley Halloween Activities
Halloween at Look Park
Keene Pumpkin Festival
Jack-O-Lantern Spectacular
Halloween Photography Tips
Kids Online Halloween Games
Halloween Origami
Halloween Fonts
Halloween Photo Craft: Pumpkin Frames
Halloween Collective Nouns
Pumpkin Recipes
Dog Halloween
Organic Candy for Halloween





]]> http://heatherkatsoulis.com/halloween-guide-2009/feed/ 0 http://heatherkatsoulis.com/easter-egg-coloring-with-natural-dye/ http://heatherkatsoulis.com/easter-egg-coloring-with-natural-dye/#comments Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:02:59 +0000 Heather http://heatherkatsoulis.com/?p=305 Your kitchen is full of natural dyes. Common food items such as red cabbage, onion skins, and coffee can be used to transform plain white eggs into colorful Easter gems. Kids will especially love discovering all the different colors they can create – let them experiment using hard-boiled eggs and bowls of cold dyes.


Here you can learn how to stencil eggs, marble eggs and fill eggs with chocolate: Natural Egg Coloring

Also, check this video out:

]]> http://heatherkatsoulis.com/easter-egg-coloring-with-natural-dye/feed/ 0