I haven’t blogged about Thanksgiving since 2010, and I’ve written only one food-related post in the three years since then, so here’s another perspective on this very American holiday.
On Thursday, I celebrated “regular Thanksgiving,” along with millions of my fellow citizens. It was a lovely day for me, because I escaped the dysfunctional family dynamics that characterize so many of these gatherings and instead traveled to Amherst to join a small group of friends. Today, ten of us gathered in Worcester for “vegan Thanksgiving,” as we have each year for over a decade.
Yes, we ate heartily and well without animals having suffered and died in order for us to do so. Among the delicious dishes on the table this year were these:
- Tofurkey with gravy
- mashed potatoes
- stuffing
- butternut squash
- Irish stuffing
- sweet potatoes and apples
- nut and bean loaf
- cranberry sauce
- rolls
There was vegan wine, and for dessert
- chocolate cake
- chocolate mousse
- pumpkin pie
I made the sweet potato dish, from a recipe in the November 2013 Vegetarian Times magazine, and the pumpkin pie from a recipe I found on the web.
Thank you, Deirdre and Larry for hosting, and thank you to Dave, Nina, Steve, Hugh, Diane, Barbara, and Anne for your company and conversation.
But did the recipes work??
I tested both recipes before I felt comfortable bringing them to the dinner. So yes, they both turned out well. I made one modification to the sweet potato-apple dish, in that I didn’t mash it — it’s supposed to be like mashed potatoes but I left it chunky. For the pumpkin pie, I cut the amount of sugar in half, and of course I pressed the tofu first.