Among other things, I am grateful this year for my dolls. It’s hard to put into words what makes these resinsouls so important to me, except that they have opened up a whole new world to me. This was my first thanksgiving as a vegan and since I was kindly invited to a decisively non-vegan dinner with my brother’s girlfriend’s family, I decided to take it upon myself to bring a few things myself. Shiro and Lia wanted to help!
I made German Potato Dumplings (Klöβe or Knödel), which is a traditional part of our family’s holiday dinners. These were by request of my brother. Lucky for me, they’re also vegan.
And even better, they come in easy-to-buy ready-mix format, since it can apparently be quite hard to keep dumplings from falling apart if you don’t use eggs in the recipe.
I used three of these, two of the “bavarian” style and one “shredded.” They’re essentially the same thing except the “shredded” has more texture. I also mixed in a grated organic raw potato for good measure.
After adding 6 cups of water, lots of stirring ensued. Shiro was eager to help with this. Then, we had to wait 10 minutes for the dough to thicken.
While that was happening, I made up some of my never-fail nutty vegan bread. It’s essentially organic whole wheat flour, organic canola oil, organic brown sugar, walnuts, a bit of pumpkin pie spice, and a tiny bit of baking powder.
Lia helped with this one ^^
While the bread was back in the oven, we returned to the dumplings.
The next step is to form the dough into balls. This was my first time going solo on making dumplings so the shape isn’t quite as perfect as what my mother and grandmother make!
Shiro helped me set up the giant pot of salt water, in which the dumplings are cooked. It took quite a long to boil.
The bread is done!
Here comes the hard part: getting it out of the form in one piece! When it didn’t want to budge, Shiro decided to use harsher methods of extraction.
It worked… mostly!
As Lia points out, the bread broke in two. Perhaps it should’ve been baked longer, or maybe I should have let it cool more before trying to get it out. Better luck next time!
The damage is hardly visible from the top.
Shiro wrapped it all up, ready to go to dinner!
The water finally decided to boil, and the dumplings got added. When they rose to the top of the water, I fished them out.
Done!
Time to go to dinner!
Looks almost like a painting, doesn’t it? It was a lovely dinner. I would have liked to take more pictures but I didn’t want to disrupt the familial atmosphere ^^
This year, I am thankful for…
1) the love of my life. Sometimes dreams come true <3
2) my friends, many new and several old.
3) my dollies (and figures). See above ^.~
and so much more…
Happy Thanksgiving!
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