Giving Thanks

We hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving and were blessed to share the holiday with family. We had a very quiet Thanksgiving, just the three of us, at home. I cooked the entire meal, but because there are certain foods I cannot eat I made sure to have a good variety.

I picked up a copy of 'Vegetarian Times' magazine about a month ago...it has become one of my absolute favorite new sources for super tasty recipes...I believe I will have to become a regular subscriber once we stop moving around so much.

I made a pumpkin pie, completely from scratch (100% dairy free)...for some reason it ended up taking 2 hours to cook instead of the 50 minutes that the recipe stated...I still can't figure that one out...and when it finally did come out of the oven it looked a bit scary....it was very dark, not what I'm used to but luck was on my side and it tasted amazing topped with a dollup of soy whipping cream!

For the main course I had decided to try a recipe in VT. It was a spicy fall stew baked inside a pumpkin squash. After visiting seven different stores Zak was defeated...he couldn't find any of the kinds of pumpkin that were appropriate for the recipe...he even drove out to Murray Family Farms on Thanksgiving morning (I had called Tuesday and they assured me that they would be open EVERY DAY this week from 9-5...apparently they changed their mind). When he came back I was so disappointed that I would not be able to make this great Fall stew...but he happened to mention that there were Turban squash everywhere....after a quick internet search we learned that it would work in the recipe so back to the store he went returning this time with a beautiful squash! Our Thanksgiving dinner was saved!!!

Zak and Belen played with construction paper, colored, and played with Play Doh while waiting patiently for dinner to be done cooking...and I must admit that this was a bit of an experiment for me...it was my first time cooking a Holiday meal! I thought that 3 would be a great time to eat.....we ate at 6:30...which for me is a vast improvement...we don't normally end up eating until much later when I do actually cook! Uh well, everything was absolutely yummy!

Here is what we did end up with:

Zak's must haves; Turkey Roast, Mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing.

What else; black olives, Green Salad with pomegranate and apples, Spicy Fall Stew baked in a Pumpkin, rolls, steamed corn on the cob and PIE!