Thanksgiving Wrap Up

Well, first of all, I hope everybody out there had a wonderful thanksgiving!

Yesterday, after posting, I made my vegetable soup (Mexican Butternut Squash Soup--recipe off MSN.com with a few modifications; add potatoes and carrots, and cook in a crock pot.) and my Sweet Potato Mash (recipe from Kristen's Raw holiday food recipe book). My food processor is really small, so to make enough sweet potatoes for both dinner at Mom's and the church dinner we were helping at, I had to run 6 batches! It took forever, but oh well.

Then I got ready and we went over to the church. It's not a church we go to, but hubby was asked by someone where he works if he'd like to help out and he said yes. So we took our sweet potatoes and were supposed to help serve. It was a great idea, but I don't do well with too many people I don't know. I'm basically a hermit. Also, we stayed for the first 2 hours and served only 3 people--and they were all volunteers, too. There just weren't many people there. And there was so much food--I really hope they had somewhere to donate the leftovers. We took our sweet potatoes home with us and they hadn't even been touched except by me (I had a small serving because I was bored and getting hungry).

So then we went over to Mom's. She did turkey (a 19 pound bird for 5 people eating off it), stuffing, potatoes and gravy. I did bread and pumpkin pie (made on Wednesday) and soup and sweet potatoes. When we got over there, she asked me to make the gravy. I cringed, but went ahead and did it. Then I mashed the potatoes for here (using soy milk and vegan margarine) and we ate.

No one said anything when I passed over the turkey, stuffing or gravy. We had a really nice meal--my folks, my 2 kids, my hubby and me.

After dinner, when Mom and I were cleaning up, she asked me to take the rest of the meat off the carcass and I declined. She said that was fine and asked (for the first time) why I had quit eating meat. So I told her about the book (Skinny Bitch) and how I had done some more research on my own and how now, I just can't even stomach the thought of eating meat now. And how if a few fewer animals are bread and/or killed every year because I choose not to eat them, then that was just so much the better with me.

During dinner, Dad brought up how beautiful wild turkeys were and how domestic turkeys don't even resemble the wild ones much anymore. So I piped up that it was because the only reason domestic turkeys even exist is for meat--so all of their wonderful qualities have been bread out in favor of stupid fast growing meat. I think my attitude surfaced because he quickly changed the subject.

At Fred Meyer, I got some Soyatoo! soy whipped topping. It was just like the canned stuff made from cream. So I got whip cream on my pie, too. (Thanks to my friend for showing it to me!)

When we got home, I put the rest of my sweet potatoes in the freezer so we can have them 4 more times. I put the rest of my soup in the fridge for lunch today, and then we sat and vegged on the couch and watched TV. Just before bed, we had a piece of son's left over B-day cake and then went to bed early.

This weekend, we are planning on going over to see my sister and doing some shopping and goofing off. She lives about 4 hours away. Her birthday is next week so I made pumpkin muffin (from Vegan with a Vengeance) for her for her birthday.

I guess I should say we were planning on going. Daughter is feeling a little puny this morning. puked and runs once. I hope it's from eating too much yesterday, but if she's still feeling poorly, we won't be going.

I also have a friend moving her shop today. My hubby did the plumbing on the shop she's in now and she's asked him to help. So after I get around to getting dressed, I'll go help her move and when he's done with the deer, he'll come over and help with the plumbing. (If daughter is too sickly, we may end up taking shifts staying here with her.)

Well anyway, that's all that's going on around here.
Ciao for now.