VeganMoFo: Thanksgiving Wrap-Up

I'm grateful to have a magnificent vegan community and am especially grateful to said community for a truly abundant Thanksgiving this year. On Thursday, I was very fortunate to have taken part in the Bold Native family's Thanksgiving potluck where more people than I could count sat down together to enjoy an amazing vegan bounty. I spent time with friends, made new ones, and didn't even sample a third (maybe even a quarter) of the food that was on hand. My contributions were the stuffing (this year, I made it using an entire sourdough baguette that I cubed and dried a day in advance) and Dreena Burton's Chocolate-Pumpkin Pie (better photo of a pie I made from the same recipe here) in the above photo.

Appetizers included these gorgeous savory tarts with aioli, the recipe for which will soon be available on Spork Online:



A tofu-based dip with pita points, veggies and hummus, chips and salsa, and olives:



And a huge bowl of vegan chicken curry salad (this is available at the Whole Foods deli counter and is really delicious):



My plate included (clockwise from top) Brussels sprouts, eggplant parmesan, seitan en croute with a green sauce (I believe this is also from an upcoming Spork Online recipe), spicy cubed pumpkin, my stuffing, the most amazing gingery mashed sweet potatoes, and mashed potatoes:



I went back for seconds of the mashed sweet potatoes and spicy pumpkin. I also ate, but did not photograph, kale salad, breaded seitan, and two different versions of homemade cranberry sauce. Among the dishes I didn't try were succotash, ratatouille, many different stuffings, quinoa salad, and so much more that I can't recall and was too stuffed to eat.

For dessert, all I could find room for was this lovely Strawberry Chai Cobbler:



To me, Thanksgiving this year was exactly as it should be; a house absolutely packed with friends, great food, and overflowing with joy. There are hardly words to express how thankful I am to have shared the holiday with this wonderful group of people.

On Friday, I was invited to an ingenious Thanksgiving leftovers potluck at the home of the C'est la Vegan team. What a brilliant way to get leftovers out of the house and spend another day with friends! With leftover stuffing and pie in tow, I joined my hosts and ten other friends, including Miss Alix of Cute and Delicious, Shawn of Little Vegan Planet, and the mastermind behind Alternative Outfitters.



This photo doesn't come close to doing justice to the wonderful kale salad, sweet potato casserole topped with Dandies (another Spork Foods recipe!), and mashed potatoes and gravy I sampled. I didn't photograph dessert because I knew there was already a beautiful picture of the Pumpkin Butterscotch Trifle here.

Yesterday marked another momentous occasion: My cat, who I adopted from my hometown's shelter via a foster when he and his late twin were 6 weeks old, turned 20 yesterday! I have so much for which to be grateful.