Pad Thai Summer Rolls

 Summer rolls take me back to college. One of our default after church lunches was at Clay Pot, by the time we moved DH had been going there for something like 8 years. Part of the lunch special was starting with goi cuon ga with a peanut dipping sauce. I usually followed it with a chicken clay pot (I'm not a huge pho fan) but DH would get the lemongrass chicken, extra spicy.

These rolls are pretty much a full meal, maybe could fit in more vegetables but otherwise, fairly balanced. If you want to include the spread in the rolls or not is up to you, we found it less messy but we ate them right away. If you plan on waiting a little while you might want to thin it out and use it as a dipping sauce so it doesn't overly soften the wrappers.

White Bean and Mushroom Soup

This is my take on SkinnyTaste's Tuscan White Bean and Roasted Garlic Soup. Developed the flavor a bit more to fit Zoe's Kitchen's Braised Beans which I have an unhealthy love for (seriously, I need to just get a to go thing of it instead of getting those unnecessary extras like salad or veggie kabobs -which are good but not as good.)  I'm seriously considering using thermos-type tumblers to make my own to-go soups for work and at the barn (need to remember to check to see if there's a microwave in the lounge.)

Festive Shredded Kale Salad

Made this for a lighter option at the church party. It went over really well- as long as I didn't mention at first what leafy green was in the salad until after they tried it.  It's nicely balanced to serve as a main course if you're so inclined. Sliced radish might nice in here, something crunchy. The favorite part seemed to be the dressing. It's a nice all around dressing so it can used on most salads, I would think.

I would definitely eat this the day of. I tried to have leftovers for dinner the next night when DH went to the church's chili cook-off but the garlic was too pungent. If you really like garlic, go for it but even I have my limit and I think garlic bread is the best thing ever (as long as there's no cheese.) I think baking the pecan crumbles into a crouton might be nice, or it might be overkill. That's an experiment for another day.

Slightly-Southern Gluten-Free Cornbread

To go with my Smokey Quinoa Chili at the going-away party, I made a loaf of sourdough (King Arthur's Extra-Tangy, as written) and a skillet of cornbread. I'm calling this slightly-Southern because I'm not sweetening but I think the addition of oat flour means it's a little too out there to be true Southern cornbread. For reference, I warmed the loaves up in the oven for a few minutes, wrapped them in fabric napkins and placed them in a bread basket.

Super Autumn Stuffing with Wild Rice and Pomegranates

Stuffing is easily my favorite Thanksgiving dish. Particularly cornbread stuffing (mostly because we didn't really have another option growing up. I had planned on making a fall salad with pomegranates and squash but I was craving stuffing. This isn't cornbread stuffing of course but I like the added texture the rice gives. This is everything autumn stuffed (pardon the pun) into one vegan, gluten-free dish.* I ate it with roasted acorn squash (not a fan) but it would be delicious with really any protein. I think stuffed mushrooms would be fantastic. Or turkey or ham, I guess (do people have have with thanksgiving?) With the red and green aspect, this could definitely go Christmas as well... maybe not at my family's rømmegrøt, seafood chowder, and smoked meat table but at a normal table, sure.

Herb Bread

I had been trying to make bread for a couple days but there was a bit of a comedy of errors. First, I discovered we did not have eggs or milk (after I started proofing the last packet of active rise yeast). Then I couldn't find a recipe at the time that did not use either. Finally, I found a recipe that omitted the two but required several different types of flour and was just too much work. So I winged a recipe using rapid rise (accidentally purchased a couple months ago).

Surprisingly, it turned out pretty well.

This is the Herb de Provence variety