Searching for Blitzen: Thanksgiving

Since this blog is supposed to be about living vegan in London, there should definitely be a post about the vegan Thanksgiving Dinner I made! Some friends brought a turkey and "classic" dishes, but I made an entire feast, and it seemed to go over well with everyone! And a side benefit - not only could quiet vegetarians enjoy everything, but Muslims as well! No need to worry about if anything is halal.

I made all my usual dishes - a Native American polenta-bean dish, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with candied pecan topping, spaghetti squash with peas and almonds, walnut apple stuffing, green bean casserole, "cheesy" biscuits, and green bean casserole. And pumpkin pie, apple pie, and cherry cobbler for dessert. All completely from scratch. Including making my own breadcrumbs. My roommate Sobhia was absolutely essential in all of this - I couldn't have made any of it without her help and support.

There were maybe 20 - 25 people throughout the night, and while there were leftovers of some dishes, the leftovers that I wanted the most (biscuits and green bean casserole) were nowhere to be seen! But this is the third Thanksgiving Dinner that I've made completely from scratch, and it just gets more fun every year. Even with the completely terrifyingly small oven survived it! Grocery shopping was extremely stressful (apparently spaghetti squash doesn't exist much around here - thank goodness for Earth organic store!) and stocking up on pots and pans wasn't easy, but now all other cooking seems so easy! Even cooking for Christmas was a cinch! Although I also had a lovely sous chef then. Turns out that I tell other people how to cook much more willingly than I actually cook!

Here's some pictures of the lovely feast. My i-pod doesn't take the best pics, sadly. Oh well.