A Vegetarian Thanksgiving

More on food.

I am a foodie....but at least I come by it honestly. My mother was a dietician, my father was a food scientist. Neither of them were very adventurous in their approach to food, but they knew what was *good*. Like the time Dad came home from the Godiva chocolate plant with several bags of rejects from their manufacturing line. And nobody could beat Mom making a pie crust...light, delicate, flaky, melt-in-your-mouth.

We had an excellent Thanksgiving meal yesterday. This year we stayed home and had a little feast on our own. The menu had a traditional theme to it:

• Fake turkey "roast"


• Mashed potatoes


• Stuffing


• Roasted green beans


• Gravy


• Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Pie

We tried two different "roasts" this year. Ordinarily we'll get a Tofurky, but the Vegetarian Times reviewed the Quorn Turk'y Roast and the Celebration Roast. We tried them both. Both were good in different ways. The quorn was drier and had the "squeaky" texture of poultry (at least, as I think I remember). It was very low in fat. The Celebration Roast had a distinctly herbal taste, simulating a marinade or basting sauce. It was richer, higher in fat, and it had stuffing in the middle. Both were good and we'll probably get them again when the mood strikes us.

The mashed potatoes came out excellent - I used Idaho potatoes, fat free half-and-half, and butter. Butter? Yes, butter. I lighten the recipe when and where I can. For a holiday, butter is warranted.

Stuffing was simply Stove Top brand. Interestingly, the only meat-free variety is the pork stuffing. Weird.

Roasted green beans were fairly new for me this year. I don't like green beans, much. I think I OD'd on them as a child, since they were one of Mom's favorites. Recently I read about roasting them and how different they come out. It's true. They still taste vegetable-y, but not so green bean-y. To make them, you trim the ends, give them a good spray of oil and stick them in a 425 or 450 degree oven until they begin to brown. It takes about 20 minutes. It's useful to stir them once or twice during the cooking process.

For gravy, I used Hain's Vegetarian "Chicken Flavor" gravy. We've used this brand before - brown and "chicken" flavors are available. The "chicken" flavor is OK. It's a little on the sweet side...we usually get the brown gravy for general use. It's good on potatoes.

Dessert was a treat. I found the recipe for Pumpkin Chocolate Cheesecake Pie in Better Homes and Gardens magazine. The picture in the November issue looked so good, we had to give it a try. And it's heavenly! I made the crust from scratch, which turned out wonderfully. I inherited the pie crust gene, you see. After reading the nutrition information, though, we just couldn't follow the recipe to the letter. I mean, 35 grams of fat in one serving? Horrifying! I lightened it up as follows:

• Cream Cheese -> Neufchatel (or "lite") cream cheese


• Eggs -> partially replaced with egg whites (instead of 5 yolks, used 2)


• Half and Half -> Fat free half and half.

Again, it didn't make it great, but it did improve the nutritional value. We also have been eating tiny little slivers of pieces. No topping. It was still luscious: spicy, sweet, creamy, with a little bitter from the chocolate.

All this with a little wine, and it was a great meal. Great enough that I'm actually writing a blog post on it. I am looking forward to several days of left overs, too. Mmm. Life is good, even for the turkey we didn't kill and eat.

So, what *do* you eat?

It has become apparent to many of my friends and acquaintances lately that I'm vegetarian. Oh, they say. You don't eat meat? What about dairy? So you aren't a, um, vegan...is that what they call it?

So....what do you eat?

Argh. That question, while well intentioned, aggravates me. What do I eat? Food, silly. Asking the question implies that there is nothing else to eat except meat, and nothing else counts.

From a volume perspective, I bet most people eat more non-meat items than meat items. So there.

Even though I'm tired of the question, I am polite about it, and I regard it as an opportunity to educate and maybe even change a few minds.

Here is a little information about how a main stream American achieves vegetarianism. I am not the most zealous vegetarian, and I don't do fancy calculations about how to balance proteins. I like to eat and I like to eat well, therefore I have an interesting and varied diet. Like most people, I am lazy at times and make convenience foods.

For breakfast, I like a bread/grain (toast, bagel, oatmeal, or a bowl of grits sometimes), a fruit, and some coffee. Sometimes I'll add a piece of cheese or some fake bacon for some added fat/protein, if I think I'm going to have a long morning. I am stubborn about the fruit in the morning. Such is my habit.

A little sidetrack for a minute. When I was a new vegetarian, I did a fair bit of reading on vegetarianism, trying to find the optimal diet and to make sure I wasn't harming myself by avoiding meat. One book I read was "Fit for Life" by Harvey and Marilyn Diamond. It's an awful, fanatical book on specific ways of eating, and I wouldn't recommend the book at all. However, one thing they advocated was eating only fruits before noon. I tried it for a while, and while I didn't reap any major benefits, I acquired the habit of fruit for breakfast. It sure beats froot loops, anyway!

For lunch I usually eat leftovers from dinner. When I pack my lunch for work, my little formula is:

• Main dish


• Side dish


• Fruit


• Dessert

Main dish may be something like: a serving of baked ziti, left over tofu dish from a local Chinese restaurant, a sandwich, a veggie burger, a bowl of soup or chili, Thai Kitchen noodle soup, left over pizza, a frozen entree, etc.

The side dish is something complementary to the main dish. Sometimes the main dish includes the side, like left over Chinese with rice. Other examples are: crackers with cheese, chips, a portion of frozen veggies, "finger salad" (baby carrots, grape tomatoes and cucumber sticks), a small serving of soup, etc.

The fruit is obvious.

Funny story: this week, a colleague at work, who happens to be from Ukraine, saw me eating a persimmon at lunch. He said that I was the first American he has ever seen eating a persimmon. Americans don't know what they are! This is true. I have been bringing them to work lately because I started eating them in Japan last month and I decided they're pretty good. People have asked me if it's a tomato.

Ooh, I feel so worldly.

Anyway.... Dessert. I "need" my dessert. It has psychological benefits more than nutritional benefits. My dessert makes me feel loved (uh, by me, but hey, whatever). I have cut it down to just a little portion, but when I tried eliminating it I felt deprived. My petite dessert is something like: one or two cookies (homemade, whenever possible), four Hershey's kisses, one biscotti, etc.

Dinner can be very interesting at our house, again because I like to eat and I like to cook. My latest "thing" is learning some Asian cooking from a vegan cookbook I bought while in Japan last month. About once a week, I make traditional Japanese vegan cuisine. I have made Okonomiyaki, Udon noodle soup with fried vegetable fritters, scattered sushi rice, and miso soup. When I'm not doing something so fancy, I make more traditional American item, like macaroni fake-beef and tomatoes, veggie lasagna, other pastas with sauce, fake-chicken cacciatore, stir-fries, calzones, homemade pizza, fritattas, roasted vegetables,...oh the list goes on and on.

I get a lot of my recipes from the newspaper, incidentally. Our food section publishes a weekly menu and they always have one day as meatless. Occasionally, they print some really good recipes.

One of my favorite vegetarian cookbooks for new or experimenting vegetarians is Vegetarian Pleasures by Jean Lemlin. This book is set up as menus for entire meals. There are many dishes that aren't so different from mainstream American cooking, therefore I think it's less threatening. It's an old book, so you might have to find it used. It looks like she's written some other cookbooks since then - I bet they're good too.

See? A vegetarian eats all kinds of things. You just have to approach your meal a little differently, as a vegetarian.

The Quilt Show

My quilt guild's annual quilt show completed a few hours ago. It's a "showing" not a contest. There are no prizes.

I entered 4 quilts in the show. Two of them are older - items I had completed before even moving to Kansas City. I entered these to makes sure we had enough for the show and to encourage other quilters. These quilts, wall hangings actually, are not going to win any awards, they are rather plain. I love them nevertheless, and they were fun to do.

Which is the point of a hobby anyway.

Another one was finished earlier this year. I gave this wall hanging the title "Carolina in my Mind." My friends from North Carolina made the quilt top before I moved and the design included a North Carolina Star block, and simple square-in-a-square blocks depicting symbols of North Carolina: lighthouses, the state flower, the state bird, the state freshwater fish, the state reptile, the state insect, etc.

The state insect of NC is the honey bee, in case you were wondering.

I did the quilting on this one. I quilted it by machine, incorporating feather designs, stippling, outlining, and a few meandering loops.

The fourth entry was a large wall hanging for my mother. She had picked out the fabrics and the quilt design. I applied the fabric selections to the design. It is machine pieced and hand quilted. I started it in...get this...2001. I remember because we bought the fabrics on a weekend we visited Mom and Dad in September 2001. Right after "9-11." We had gone up to spend a long weekend and go to the football game between University of Virginia (where my parents live) and Penn State (my alma mater). Because of 9-11, the game was cancelled. We went to visit, anyway.

So, instead we decided to take a day trip to see the quilt museum of Virginia. After seeing the displays, we went to a Mennonite community shopping area to a fantastic quilt and fabric shop, in Dayton, VA. That is where we bought the fabric. A project was born.

I had not worked on the project for 7 years straight! I took breaks, got bored, got laid off from work, tried a series of jobs, went to nursing school, moved across the country, etc. etc. I completed many other projects in the meantime. I don't know why I was able to finish it now.

Anyway, back to the quilt show. I am humbled by the quilts next to which mine hung. Mine are so amateur! The colors so outdated! There are some really talented people in our guild. I use these people to inspire and motivate me.

It is an enormous weight lifted off my shoulders to get this project done! I am free to start new projects again without guilty conscience!

An anniversary...and a few comments

I continue to work hard on my travel blog. I am up to day 10, so I'll be done soon.

This blog is a year old! I was not sure I'd continue, but I am so pleased that I did; it is good therapy. Here is my initial post. I was rereading a few of my older posts this morning. Gawd, I am terribly redundant in what I write about. I need to find some interesting new subjects on which to write. Nevertheless, this blog really helps me keep track of when things happened and how I felt.

Now, a few updates. When I was reading some posts from last winter I was reminded of all the drama involving a nurse who had hired on the unit. This was someone who had worked there before, and she and I did not get along. I was cajoled into precepting her, and it was a disaster. Guess what? She left again. I hope my boss has learned something about that person and she doesn't hire her again for a fourth time. I am so pleased - oh, how terrible and awful of me! Despite my joy, I've pretty much shut up about it at work.

Although, once I locked myself in the bathroom at work and did the happy dance, after I found out. Hee hee hee.

Regarding the correspondence from my former life in the previous post. I replied to the email and indicated possible interest. I got a reply that wasn't very warm, and the more I think about it, the less I want to deal with that crap. I could do it, and the money would be nice, but thinking of doing that work in my precious free time depresses me.

The last thing I need is a depressing situation here in the upcoming winter.

Tomorrow is my birthday again. I like it even less this year. I will be 43. What a nothing age. Well, I choose to ignore it and continue to live my life and the most passionate, interesting, energetic, healthy way I can. Time to start planning the next big trip!!

The quilt show is coming up on Nov 14-15. See the Blue Valley Quilters Guild website for details on the event. I entered four quilts - my first time entering something. Three of them are older, one is not yet completed. The incomplete quilt is my longevity project called "Mom's Quilt." It's gorgeous, but it has taken me 7 years to get it done - machine pieced and hand quilted. I finished the quilting this week. It needs binding and the usual accoutrements and then it's ready to show.

I entered it in order to force myself to finish. It worked.

Heh, I'd better go sew!

Happy today.

Ping!

I got an email today. It's from a guy I used to work with - apparently he signed on with a company I had contracted for about 5 or 6 years ago. They need some technical writing. Am I interested?

Hm.

Hm, hm.

From the email, he knows I have a new life as a nurse. I'm not a software developer any more. I don't write as much as I used to any more. I posted about the content of my writing these days and it's pretty lame. I would say I am a bit out of practice.

I don't know if he knows I live 1000 miles away now. He says he's involved in a new "life sciences practice" for this business. I wonder what that means....and I wonder if my current field is of interest now? Would it help them to have an RN, BSN affiliated with them?

I'm curious.My ego has been thirsting for something like this. I've entertained some thoughts about getting back into software from a nursing context. I've had some ideas for software to be used in the medical world.

But, careful, careful. I was miserable as a software developer. I'm deliriously happy with what I do now (at least 80% of the time...) Why would I want to mess that up?

Conflict. I wonder what I'll do?

P.S. Reader, I've been writing enthusiastically on my Lost Japan travel blog. It's been such fun - I've even posted some pictures! Check it out