My goodness, I just could hardly wait to share this absolutely delish, moist pumpkin bread with you all! Fred and I tried it tonight for the first time, and adored it. Now, it’s not too sweet, and it cooked a lot longer in my wonderfully gentle 5-Star Gas Oven, over 1 hour & 40 minutes til the tester came out clean, and the kitchen’s aroma magically was, drumroll, please, yep… PUMPKIN BREAD!

And easy enough to prepare! Just follow the directions, and remember what I said about prepping your recipes as soon as you can! All my recipes are fully prepped for my Sunday Macrobiotic Cooking Class for Thanksgiving Day! I’ve even cut the baking paper for my stoneware loaf pan that will bake the pumpkin-nut bread for that class! And every dry ingredient is measured, ready to be used! What a time-saver, and those cannisters are all put back in the cabinets! Another advantage to this pumpkin bread recipe: if you want to make it in advance, you’ll just enhances that moist deliciousness! Mine is sitting within a cake platter, looking yummy!

We still have a few openings for this unique Macrobiotic Cooking Class featuring Thanksgiving Day recipes. Sunday afternoon, November 22, 1-4 pm. Just $45 per person. So if you have friends or family in Atlanta, please let them know to contact us! And you might just want to make the trip over too! If you’re out of town and wish copies of our recipes just send your $20 check, and we’ll mail or email them to you!

PUMPKIN-NUT BREAD

from Sweet and Natural, by Meredith McCarty

Baking time : 45 minutes, up to 1 3/4 hour, depending on your stove.

Dry ingredients:

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour

3/4 cup unbleached white flour

2 1/4 teaspoon aluminum-free baking powder

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon}

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg    }     or       1  1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1/4 teaspoon cloves       }

Wet ingredients:

3/4 cups sweet kabocha squash puree or a 15-oz. can organic pumpkin

1/4 cup light walnut oil

1/2 cup maple syrup or 1/2 cup barley malt and 1/4 cup maple syrup

To fold in later:

1/2 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

1/4 cup raisins

2 Tablespoon golden raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree,, Line bottom of a standard 9×5x3 inch loaf pan with parchment & brush the sides with oil.
2. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients.
3. In a small bowl, whisk wet ingredients together.
4. Then stir into dry ingredients, until well moistened.
5. Fold in nuts and raisins.
6. Transfer this thick batter to pan and smooth surface.
7. Bake until bread tests done, is golden brown and pulls away from side of pan, about 45 minutes. My oven cooked this in 1 hour and 40 minutes. Please watch your oven carefully.
8. Set pan on rack to cool 10 minutes, then turn loaf out to cool completely. It becomes more moist as it cools! Enjoy!

• Prepare Squash: Peel skin, discard skin and seeds. bake  at 350 either whole or cut in half, cut side down on baking sheet. Or cut in smaller pieces, and place in casserole dish with small amount of water. This will soften in about 25 minutes and is ready to puree in a food processor,  perhaps adding tablespoon of water if dry. 1 pound squash yields less than one cup of puree.

Orange Glaze: optional – we thought the pumpkin bread really did not need this.

1/4 cup orange juice                                       1/4 cup maple syrup or brown rice syrup

Bring ingredients to boil in small saucepan, then turn heat to low & simmer til a light syrup forms, 5 – 8 minutes, whisk occasionally. Drizzle and enjoy!

Can you believe it’s almost Thanksgiving? Just one week, and you sit down to dinner with guests at your very own table! Are you ready?!!

Perhaps these hints will smooth your holiday weekend, and you will truly enjoy yourself and your company!

Ready your table soon as you can! We did it today, one week out! Extra leaves, table pads, tablecloths – and the folding chairs are all in place! Reconfirmed the guest list – we’re all set knowing our numbers! Believe it or not, this took a good 3 hours, and we gladly checked it off our to-do list!

This organization maximizes my cooking time which is important since all our dishes are prepared fresh Thanksgiving Day! No cooking a week or so early and freezing these beautiful vegan and macrobiotic dishes. Our 5 o’clock dinner time is easily met, and we also will have served breakfast and lunch to our visiting family and friends –  with us, numbering 7!

Errands, shopping, personal paperwork are up to date! Especially with family coming in town, we complete everything else to truly focus on this wonderful time together, and sharing special places in Atlanta. Five extra folks staying with us means readying guest rooms – checking closet light bulbs, shelves, sprucing up the bedrooms! Guest bathrooms too, well-stocked 2 weeks out!

Now, the meals. Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday! Loving the tastes, gatherings and wonderful historical story of sharing harvest. Thanksgiving memories shared across this great country.

Well, I’m ready to start cooking, having shortened my preparation time considerably, and you can too.! I call it prepping, just like I prep for my macrobiotic cooking class! That’s right! This Sunday just before Thanksgiving, I’m giving a Vegan and Macrobiotic Cooking Class for Thanksgiving and I have just completed measuring all non-refrigerated ingredients. Set on individual trays for each of the 8 recipes we will make in the class. That’s the trick! Each tray holds the recipe and ingredients of a single dish, copied from my macrobiotic cooking class Thanksgiving recipe handout, so it’s easy to identify each dish. Here’s an example. For ease, the pumpkin pie actually has two trays: one holds ingredients for the filling – the different spices, the kabocha squash; the second tray separately holds the flours & the rolling pin for my famous pie crust, with room for the additional items we add Sunday morning.

Getting a jump on gathering these ingredients, and leisurely measuring ingredients saves so much time Thanksgiving Day. Giving me one more chance to ensure my recipes are understandable, and  all ingredients made the final shopping list. We shop early Friday morning for my Sunday class. Before the crowded weekend, and by then we know our final numbers for the class, and the produce is still exquisitely fresh for Sunday! Early morning class day I gather all refrigerated items, adding them to trays before starting to prep each dish. And we’re off and running!

And you can do this too! Turn on your favorite music, get to grooving around your kitchen, pantry, dining room, and wherever else you may have extra table space. We set up two extra card-tables in our living room, so our 23 guests will sit in close proximity, and those tables are holding my trays for my macrobiotic cooking class. Have fun prepping your holiday cooking this Thanksgiving, and you’ll learn to enjoy this shortcut whenever you entertain!

I just came across this Cranberry Sauce Recipe you might enjoy this year! It’s always fun trying new tastes, and this one is sweet, and really stretches those organic cranberries! From Gail Jack’s wonderful book of American Macrobiotic Cooking, she credits it to her friend Alice, from Becket, Massachusetts! Thank you Alice and Gail!

I call it sweet smilin’ cranberry sauce! And you would too if you saw my sweet husband’s smile when he tasted it for me tonight!

SWEET SMILIN’ CRANBERRY SAUCE

from Gail Jack, Amberwaves of Grain

1 cup organic cranberries

2 cups apples, chopped

1 cup apple juice, Whole Foods, not Gravenstein!

pinch Si Salt sea salt*

Rice syrup to taste

1 1/2 teaspoon kuzu

• Place cranberries, apples, apple juice and sea salt in a saucepan.

• Cover, bringing to boil & simmer til cranberries soften, approx 15 minutes.

• Add a little rice syrup, if too tart.

• Dissolve kuzu in little cold water & add to sauce; cook & stir til thickened & clear.

*Si Salt Sea Salt – preferred in Macrobiotic Diet recipes, fine, still contains 67 trace

minerals, available at the Kushi Institute Store 800 . 645 . 8744!

Hope you and yours enjoy this free Macrobiotic Diet Recipe,

Wishing you a very, healthy, Happy Thanksgiving!

It’s so easy following a macrobiotic diet near Holiday time, because we can shop our holiday meal list early before the crowds hit the markets! That’s right! Hardly any of our food is really perishable, so collect most of what you will use even a week out or more, and that week just pick up your fresh organic veggies, firm tofu, and you are back home, relaxing on your lounge chair with your favorite book!

Here is the list for our Thanksgiving Class Menu, featuring:
Tofurkey with Herbed Stuffing and Southern Pecan Mushroom Gravy
Easy Squash Pie
Cranberry Sauce
Pumpkin Pie
Warm Cider

We’ll start with the Tofurkey
Equipment:
Colander depending on the size of your dinner party, medium to large
11 x 5 – serve 20-25 6-7 pkg of 14 oz. tofu, extra firm
8 x 4 – serve 8-10 5 pkg of 14 oz. tofu, extra firm
7 x 4 – serve 4-6 3 pkg of 14 oz. tofu, extra firm
Please have extra tofu handy just in case you need it to fill the colander.

Cheesecloth
Baking Sheet
Pastry Brush
Baking Paper – we prefer this to aluminum paper
Heavy Object (1 gallon apple juice jar works like a charm)
2 Metal Spatulas
Knife, wooden spoons

Tofurkey Ingredients:
Extra Firm Tofu, Nasoya, Whole Foods, Wildwood are brands we use
Shoyu: Sakurazawa or Johsen Mitoku, Natural Import Catalogue is special!
Toasted Sesame Oil: Mitoku Hiraide, Natural Import Catalogue, very gourmet!

Herbed Stuffing Ingredients:
organic olive oil
1 organic yellow or white onion
celery – as white as you can find in color is sweetest!
2 cloves garlic
1/4 cup raisins
14 teaspoon Si Salt sea salt – Kushi Institute Store
1/3 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup shoyu
4 1/2 cup sourdough bread cubes, Whole Foods Bakery – non-yeast bread
3 Tablespoon fresh sage, or 1 Tablespoon dried
1 teaspoon dried marjoram
1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, chopped
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, optional

Southern Pecan Mushroom Gravy Ingredients – Serves large group!
1 large onion
2 cups mushrooms
5 Tablespoon Kuzu, – Natural Import Co.
3 Tablespoon Shoyu – Sakurazawa or Johsen Mitoku Natural Import Co.
2 Tablespoon Sesame Oil – Hiraide, Natural Import Co.
3/4 Cup organic pecan
chopped parsley

Cranberry Sauce
2-3 boxes organic cranberries
Suzanne’s brown rice syrup to taste
2 – oranges for juice and zest
lemon zest

Easy Squash Pie
kabocha squash 1 per 8 people
potato masher, wood or metal
Si Salt sea salt

Pumpkin Pie
Crust
3/4 cup organic whole wheat pastry flour, Arrowhead Mills
3/4 cup organic unbleached flour, Arrowhead Mills
1/4 cup corn oil or organic safflower oil
pinch Si Salt sea salt, Kushi Institute Store
1/2 cup ice water

Filling
2 cups winter squash, kabocha or buttercup
1/3 cup Suzanne’s barley malt, Natural Import Co.
2 Tablespoon corn oil
1/2 cup organic pecans
Pinch Si Salt sea salt
2/3 cup Suzanne’s brown rice syrup
1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup vanilla amasake, Rhapsody Foods, Montpelier, Vermont! Delish!
4 Tablespoon kanten flakes
3 Tablespoon kuzu

Warm Apple Cider
In Atlanta we enjoy Whole Foods 365 Apple Juice, not Gravenstein
In Northern California, try Nana Mae’s Apple Juice! Worth the trip to Calistoga!
Enjoy with or without cinammon sticks! A warm welcoming aroma for your guests!

You still have time to order ingredients from these wonderful macrobiotic food resources:
Natural Import Company www.info@naturalimport.com 800 . 533 . 3919
Kushi Institute Store www.kushistore.com 800 . 645 . 8744
Rhapsody Healthy Foods www.rhapsodynaturalfoods.org 802 . 229 . 6112

So, get out your fun Thanksgiving decor, shop early, relax and enjoy your guests! Enjoy knowing the freshness your guests will savor, from these beautifully prepared dishes. So different from preparing dishes in advance, freezing them and pulling them out to defrost Thanksgiving morning! Not us!
Everything is freshly prepared, organic with the finest ingredients, soon to become your favorite holiday memory foods! Our whole family can hardly wait to savor these now familiar dishes! And the turkey will love you too!

Seasonings and Sweeteners

Did you use to cook a Sweet Potato Pudding for Thanksgiving with 4 cups of brown sugar, Carnation condensed sweet milk, sweet potatoes – queen of the night shade vegetables, plus 3 cans of Dole crushed pineapples? Topped with melted brown marshmellows? Yep, that was my beloved family’s heritage recipe from all Thanksgivings past, and just about every other holiday as well.

Now enter a Macrobiotic Diet, 17 years of it to be exact, and we found the most delish substitute – cooked stove-top, delectably sweet, savory and healthy!

In my macrobiotic cooking classes I call it Easy Squash Pie, but our first Thanksgiving dinner with my son-in-law’s family when his dear Aunt Gail said, “This is the best Sweet Potato Pie I’ve ever had”, my daughter and I never said a word that it was made with Kabocha Squash! Kids of all ages enjoy this one! And a dessert really good for you, too! Didja know, squash is really good for our skin and especially our pancreas?

Here’s the recipe for you and your family to enjoy and savor!

Easy Squash Pie
1 Kabocha squash per 8 people, cut in inch large chunks
please use organic and do not peel, just cut away hard spots on
surface
potato masher
Steamer basket
Filtered or Spring water
Pinch Si Salt Sea Salt – teeny pinch enhance sweetness of squash
Optional: Suzanne’s Brown Rice Syrup if you wish a little sweeter

Directions:
1. Steam squash for about 20 minutes, until knife slides easily through chunks.
2. Mash squash, and place in pie pans, serve warm.
That’s it folks! Nature has sweetened this squash for you! Yummy it up!
Optional: set into pie crust if you like.
Sprinkle with toasted pecans.

Please join our Thanksgiving Cooking Class, Sunday November 22nd
Atlanta/Dunwoody, Georgia 1-4 pm for a complete Thanksgiving Dinner
Menu perfect for vegan, vegetarian and macrobiotic diets! $45 per person.
Can’t make that date? Private classes are available.
Check our website for menu: www.atlantamacrobiotics.com
RSVP: marsharueff@mac.com or call: 770 -396-9413
Not in Atlanta? Send your $20 check to Marsha Rueff, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338 for perfectly wonderful and healthy Thanksgiving
recipes! Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving to you and your dear ones!

Are you new to a vegan, vegetarian, or macrobiotic diet and wondering what in the world to feed your family this Thanksgiving Dinner? Well, wonder no more, and stop fretting about all the delightful yummy wishful dishes you are missing this year! Because, here is Thanksgiving memory food created at its very best! Gourmet tastes featuring the finest healthy ingredients! Exactly what you’re looking for! Without sugar, eggs, dairy, and poultry, msg, etc.

You’re Invited to

Holiday Cooking Class Series

A Macrobiotic Thanksgiving Dinner

featuring

Tofurkey with Herbed Stuffing

Southern Pecan Mushroom Gravy

Cranberry Sauce

Vegetable Medley

Pumpkin Pie

Sunday, November 22

1-4 pm

$45.00 per person

We will be cooking a Tofurky, or as my granddaughter Brittany calls it, a Faux Turkey! Unbelievable taste – you’ll relish it and wonder why you suffered with turkey all those years! Now, if you had store-bought tofurkeys in the past, they do not even come close to comparing with this incredible taste of a fresh home-made look-alike turkey breast made from the best tofu. Filled with amazing Herbed Stuffing, and everyone’s favorite: Southern Pecan Mushroom Gravy. Homemade Cranberry Sauce, Pumpkin Bread, and Pumpkin Pie featuring Franciscan Monk, Brother Ron Pickarsky’s award-winning crust. Every dish features organically grown vegetables and other products.

RSVP your reservation to hold your spot with Kushi Institute trained Marsha Rueff at 770-396-9413. Your  check will hold your place. Please send to Marsha Rueff, 1130 Trailridge Lane, Dunwoody, Georgia 30338.

This class might even be worth your trip to Atlanta! Can’t make that particular date? Other dates can be arranged, and private classes also available.