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 9x5x3 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!

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!

Our Southern Pecan Mushroom Gravy recipe for our Tofurkey is simply the talk-of-the-town! In my Macrobiotic Thanksgiving Cooking Classes someone always says they could just eat it with a spoon, all by itself! Repeaters love our Macrobiotic Thanksgiving Cooking Class because they enjoy the food so much – this gravy being one of the favorites!

As you enjoy this gravy and compliments of your delighted guests, you may have just found your all-time new favorite gravy too! And your bonus: it’s easy to make!

This recipe provides a very generous amount, easily serving 18-20. If you have less guests, please adjust the quantity to 1/2 or 3/4 amount. Of course, left-over it’s delightful on whatever you might be serving the next day!

All ingredients are organic. But here’s the secret: the special quality and flavors of the Hiraide Sesame Oil and Johsen Shoyu enhance this dish – and other Macrobiotic recipes immensly. We hope you will experience these delightful flavors by ordering these products from Natural Import Company. Just touch their link in the shopping column on this website, on the right side of this page.

And now, we are happy to feature the very delicious Southern Pecan Mushroom Gravy, inspired by Harriet McNear, from Winter Park, Florida.

2 Tablespoons Hiraide Sesame Oil, Natural Import Company
1 large organic onion, small diced
2 cups organic mushrooms, thinly sliced
3/4 cup organic pecans, toasted and chopped
4-5 cups filtered water
3 Tablespoons Johsen Shoyu, Natural Import Company
5 Tablespoons Kuzu, Natural Import Company, dissolved in 3 teaspoons cold water
teeny minced organic parsley

Heat oil in large skillet and sauté onions until just starting to brown.
Add mushrooms and cook 2 minutes over medium low flame
Add pecans, water and soy sauce and bring to a boil.
Cook 15-20 minutes over low flame.
Adjust flavors. Stir in kuzu and cook until thick and clear.
Add parsley and put into gravy bowl to serve.

We associate certain dishes with every holiday! The Green Bean Casserole was certainly a favorite on our family’s table, set in that exquisite silver covered dish! Topped with crispy onion rings! Can’t you taste it!! So how does this overcooked half-canned, half-frozen vegetable dish ever surface on a healthy Vegan Macrobiotic Thanksgiving Feast we love to share with family and friends today??

Since I served this dish to my children as they were growing up, our daughter has mentioned it to her daughters, who in fact tasted a not-so-healthy version, and of course loved the taste a year or two ago. Each Thanksgiving since, they’ve requested my old Green Bean Casserole. They may as well have asked for Green Eggs and Ham! It just wasn’t going to happen. Then, my daughter called, saying this last week Trader Joe’s featured a tasting station of  a healthier green bean casserole. And  at Whole Foods I spotted Lars Imported Crispy Onions, All Natural. Now I felt  challenged to reinvent this dish.

Just last week my Navy Bean soup surprised me and tasted just perfect for the base of this dish. Here’s what I did, and hope you get to enjoy also for the Thanksgiving Holidays. Maybe this recipe will guide your own adaptation down your family’s Memory Lane of Favorite Holiday Cuisine.

1 cup organic navy beans, rinsed & soaked over night in heavy Le Creuset pot       Recipe for about 4-5 persons
4-5 cups water
1 inch piece of kombu
Si Salt Sea Salt, from Kushi Institute Store
Shoyu, Sakurazawa from Natural Import Company or Kushi Institute Store

Discard soaking water, add kombu and add water to cover.
Bring to boil, skimming off foam, adding additional cold water to shock beans, and skim more foam,
for about 20 minutes. Cover beans and cook til soft.

1 cup sliced organic mushrooms
2 cups fresh string beans, sliced thin, sauteed in olive oil
1/2 cup sliced lotus root
1/4 cup sliced jerusalem artichokes
1/2 cup organic almonds, toasted, and chopped
1/4 cup Lars crispy onions to mix within vegetables
1/2 cup Lars crispy onions topping casserole dish

While beans cook, slice vegetables for casserole dish very finely.
Saute vetables in olive oil til soft.
Once bean dish is a soft creamy soup, add Si Salt Sea Salt, and Shoyu to your preferred taste.
Transfer to a casserole serving dish you can place in oven.
Stir in sauteed vegetables, almonds, and add 1/4 cup crispy onions for crunch.
Top with 1/2 cup Lars crispy onions, and bake just to meld flavors, about 20 minutes at 325 degrees.

And when you serve this dish, I hope you sit back & enjoy remembering the sweet times at your mother and grandmother’s tables this Thanksgiving, just like me.

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!