Thanksgiving Recap

This Thanksgiving was so nice. I got up early yesterday morning and started cooking and had everything prepared to go over to our friends’ (Karen, Jeremy and Oliver) by 12:30. Eric and I actually had time to sit down and watch an episode of Glee and and episode of The Big Bang Theory before we headed to Karen’s at 3:00. I just have to say, I love The Big Bang Theory so much and think that Sheldon is hands-down one of the funniest characters on TV. Anyway, I of course, forgot to take pictures of the actual dishes I made, so these are recycled photos. We made stuffing:

Brussel sprouts:

Roasted potatoes:

Pumpkin pie:

And I made some fresh spiced apple cider, which was not the most aesthetically pleasing thing, but tasted delicious. I’ll post the recipe for that later.

Karen made some really delicious food and convinced me that I need to get a copy of The Voluptuous Vegan. Karen made for the main course/protein some breaded/fried tofu that was awesome. She marinated the tofu in cranberry juice and Thanksgiving herbs and then breaded it with crushed pumpkin seeds and herbs and fried it. Delicious:

She made yams which were wonderful–sweet and cinnamony:

And a cranberry sauce that I loved–with apples and pears in it. It was just the right combination of tart and sweet and I loved the crunch of the fruit in it:

A chickpea gravy that was rich and savory and everything a gravy should be:

For dessert, she made a pecan and fig (I think) coffee cake, which was perfect. I’m not a fan of pumpkin pie, actually, but I love coffee cake and this was an awesome one:

I can’t believe I forgot to take a picture of the table and my plate, but the table was beautifully set and Oliver made place-cards for us so we knew where we should sit. I got to sit next to Oliver!

It was so lovely to have Thanksgiving with Karen, Jeremy and Oliver. Karen is a friend of mine from the University of Washington. She’s in the Philosophy department, currently finishing up the writing of her brilliant dissertation that explores how we might adjudicate conflicts relating to human-animal relationships. I can’t wait to read it! Jeremy, Karen’s husband, is a lovely man and we don’t see him very often, but it was really nice to get to spend some more time with him. He and Eric both work in the tech industry and it’s interesting to hear their different perspectives on the work they do. Oliver is their five-year old son and he is completely delightful. When I hang out with Oliver, it instantly makes me want to have kids and when we do, I can only hope that they are half as awesome as Oliver. He’s very sensitive and thoughtful and aware of his veganism. When we sat down to dinner, Oliver said “I’m so glad that Katie and Eric are sharing Thanksgiving with us and that we don’t have to have a turkey on the table.” Karen told me about a recent conversation she and Oliver had.

Oliver came home from school and said, “I think it might be okay to eat a pig if he/she died of natural causes and then we ate him/her, right?”

Karen said, “Well, Oliver, would you eat a person if a person died?”

Oliver said, “No!!”

Karen said, “Why not?”

Oliver said, “Because people are important.”

There was a pause.

Then Oliver said, “Oh! Animals are important, too!”

Another pause.

Then Oliver again, “You’re right mom. We shouldn’t eat an animal when they die. Animals are important.”

I love this.

Oliver is also a big fan of Maizy and we were talking about how much she likes tennis balls. I said that she had a yellow/green one and a hot pink one and he ran to one of his toy boxes and got a tennis ball out for Maizy. He said “Here, this is for Maizy.”

I said, “Oh, you should keep your tennis ball! Maizy has two at home.”

He said, “I have three. Maizy needs it more than I do.”

I said, “Why don’t you bring it over when you all come for dinner next time and give it to her yourself? Then you can see how happy she’ll be with your gift.”

He said, “No, it’s more important that she has it now and gets to play with it.”

He ran to get a marker and wrote Maizy’s name on the ball:

Maizy was, of course, delighted with the tennis ball. A lovely afternoon with friends. After that, we stopped over at Eric’s mom’s house to visit with his brother and their family who had just arrived in town. It’s always nice to see them and catch up a bit, but I was soooo tired by the time we got there, I felt like a zombie. All in all, a very happy and stress-free day with wonderful people and food–all for which I am truly thankful!

I also got a text message halfway through our Thanksgiving dinner from my good friend Theresa in Spokane. She was having her first vegetarian Thanksgiving and has had some pushback from some extended family members. She sent me a picture of their beautiful table, with the caption “Happy I didn’t kill any animals to make myself happy day!”. I wish I could figure out how to get it onto my computer so I could show it to you, but suffice to say it looked lovely.

How was your day yesterday?