As I've been packing up things to move to Florida (in only two weeks now), I've been reminiscing about memories in mine and my husband's first home together. When we moved in, neither of us had any furniture to our names, so instead of going on a honeymoon, we opted to head to Ikea and buy a whole house-full of furniture: couch, beds, dressers, tables, lamps, nightstands. We filled our new home with new furniture to start our new life together.
This is what our couch looks like. Durb actually picked it out!
And this is what our sweet king-sized bed looks like. So comfy!
I remember the night all the furniture got unloaded and set up, we piled into the huge new king-sized bed with a few of our friends (Natalie, Derek, and Laura) and we all just laid in bed, staring at the ceiling, talking and laughing. I remember the week after our wedding having the guys over for a Phillies game and everyone pigging out on a Chick-Fil-A nugget tray. I remember the first time I cooked a big dinner in my new kitchen for Durb and Derek - I made baked chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, and rolls (I obviously won't ever make that whole dinner again). I remember vegging out on the couch watching movies with Durb during the crazy snowstorms that made it nearly impossible to get off our gigantic hill. I remember my friend Nikki coming down to spend the night while Durb was in Florida and my epic failure at making a brownie pizza (the brownies got a little too crunchy) and us drinking tequila and watching 'The Neverending Story' and finally somewhat understanding what was going on in the heads of the people who created that crazy movie. I remember Natalie coming down just about every other day after I got out of the hospital to go swimming with me and keeping me some really awesome company. I remember just last week celebrating my one-year anniversary with my husband by toasting with cheap champagne and eating year-old non-vegan Italian creme cake.
There are so many wonderful memories I have in this apartment (and some not-so-awesome ones of course), and I've realized it's going to be kind of bittersweet leaving it. This was the place my husband and I started our lives together, and now it's time to move on to bigger and better things.
In honor of fond family memories, I'm sharing a recipe for vegan pumpkin cheesecake. When I think back on some of my favorite memories of my family and my parents' home, most of them revolve around the holidays and the food that goes along with them. Thanksgiving is coming up pretty soon, and it's a holiday I'm unfortunately more than likely going to have to miss out on spending with my family this year. It's a very good possibility that I'm going to end up spending it alone in Florida, without even my husband there. Not to fret, though, because next Saturday my parents are having a big going-away dinner for Durb and I for our whole family, including Durb's family, too, and they're making Thanksgiving dinner for it. My mom's even going out of her way to make vegan things for me, like mashed potatoes with almond milk and vegan margarine and she's going to use vegetable broth in her stuffing instead of the usual chicken broth. For the last several years, it's been my job to make pumpkin cheesecake at Thanksgiving, which is one of my absolute FAVORITE desserts imaginable. This year, I'm just going to make one that's vegan, and I found PETA's recipe for it. So here it is, I hope you enjoy it and I hope you enjoy and appreciate getting to spend Thanksgiving with loved ones in a few weeks.
Ingredients
12 oz firm silken tofu, pureed
8 oz nondairy cream cheese (I like Tofutti brand)
1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup granulated sugar
3 tbsp flour
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 prepared graham cracker crust
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Directions
Preheat the oven to 350. Puree all the ingredients except for the pie crust in a food processor (or you could just be a badass like me and use your Ninja). Pour filling into the graham cracker crust. Bake for 50 minutes. Allow to cool on a rack for an hour, then cover and refrigerate at least 6 hours before serving. Sprinkle the top of the cheesecake with the chopped pecans before serving. Be nice and set out some real whipped cream for people who aren't vegan because I guarantee they won't appreciate the vegan whipped cream shit you can make with agar powder and all that crap, but at the same time, don't tell them the cheesecake is vegan because I guarantee they'll never know the difference.
Holy crap I can't wait to eat some of this next week!
