Thanksgiving, 2017

Happy Thanksgiving!! We are having the feast at our house and expecting 10 people. In addition to us and Sarah, there is Jon, Ryan, Nathan, Sam, and Leigh, plus Rose and John Henderson.  John and I have been cooking for days and things go along pretty smoothly. We have one disaster dish, butternut squash with bacon and sage. The squash tastes terrible and we throw it out. Our only other hitch comes when John puts the turkey in the oven not realizing that I had turned the oven off. Turns out that we only need to slip the schedule 30 minutes.

Jonathan brings a broccoli dish and sauteed kale. Ryan brings cranberry sauce. Leigh contributes homemade Chex Mix for before-sies. Rose makes four pies – strawberry rhubarb, pumpkin, mincemeat, and chocolate chess. Sarah also makes dessert, our family favorite, Indian pudding. I think we have enough desserts.

Nathan has made a Lego diorama of aliens at the first Thanksgiving and Sam brings along placecards. Everybody is taking part this year.

Here are some pictures –

Table
Indoor decorations
Outdoor decorations
Nathan’s LEGO depiction of the first alien Thanksgiving
John’s innovation for keeping stemless glasses identified – peelable vinyl stickers (like Color-Forms)
Sam and Leigh pick out stickers for their glasses while “Gramps Henderson” looks on
John and Jonathan
Jon and mom
Sam’s place card for Beeba, a bee saying baaaa
Zayde gets a hissing snake
John and Sarah waiting for their turn at the buffet
Nathan and Sam picking out their favorites
Leigh and Rose in line
Jonathan with his plate
I only took a spoonful of each, except the onions, and my plate is so full!
Nathan, Ryan, and Sam enjoying dinner
Uh-oh Sam is getting tired. Time for dessert!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Quick trip to St. George – November 5-17, 2017

Since the weather looks pretty fabulous in St. George and we will not be able to sneak in a trip in December, John and I decide on the spur of the moment to make our way to St. George.

I think the biggest difference in this trip is that I am trying Mark Bittman’s Vegan Before Six, a new way of thinking about how you eat and the impact you can have on the environment. So most of this post will be about new dishes I am trying out. In addition to shopping and eating John and I manage to get in some tennis every other day until my back just says, Enough!

First, finding decent vegan food on the road is not an easy task. Using YELP! We stop at Hummus Express in Bakersfield. The food is pretty oily but tasty.

Looking out at the golden hills and aqueduct along I-5. We are eager for rain.
Stopping at Hummus Express in Bakersfield, I order hummus with pita and tabbouleh

Mostly my days in St. George are vegan for breakfast and lunch and whatever for dinner but occasionally I manage to construct an entire vegan day. Some dishes I made –

Lunch – Spaghetti with vegetgables
Lunch – Root vegetable soup with tofu cubes dusted with flaxseed
Dinner – chickpea stew with ditalini and greens
Time for an white egret break!
Cauliflower soup for lunch
The unattractive parsley soup that I tried to make more palatable with the addition of carrots

The days pass by quickly and we need to get home for Thanksgiving so face the challenge of finding better food on the road. Eureka! We find an excellent Mediterrean restaurant, Mr. Kabob, in Barstow. It is kind of a hole in the wall but has some excellent dishes.

At Mr. Kabob’s in Barstow I have excellent eggplant with peppers and onions, roasted tomato, and green rice.