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Monday, November 19, 2012

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Menu

So while Ya'll are defrosting, brining, deciding whether to stuff or not stuff your turkey and planning to get up at o'dark 30 to get said turkey in the oven I'll be sleeping in. Why? Because vegetables don't take effing forever to cook. 

Just because we are not doing a turkey doesn't mean we aren't going to have a lovely traditional meal. Because, you know thanksgiving is all about the side dishes and the leftovers. We don't need a turkey for that. 

It looks like it will be just JR and I for dinner this year and while that sounds quiet and leisurely it also sounds like a lot more planning work. You know that if you are cooking for twenty it is easy...just cook lots of everything. But, cooking for just two is a lesson in subtraction. Every recipe will need to be cut down to serve 4 max. Math + librarian = head exploding.

So, I'll be cooking a little bit of the following:

Appetizers
*Mushroom pâté
*Deviled eggs (just a few because it wouldn't be a holiday without these)
*Blood Orange Cosmopolitans. 

Main Course
*Vegetable Wellington
*Roasted vegetable and sage gravy
*Roasted garlic and white cheese mashed potatoes
*Rosemary roasted beets
*Bourbon glazed sweet potatoes
*Green beans (not sure what I'll do with these yet)
*Cheesy creamed spinach (because I'll eat this stuff on a flip flop)
*Veggie sausage dressing (JR loves my veggie chorizo dressing) 
*Oregon Pinot Noir

Dessert
*Pumpkin tarts (we can not eat a whole pie to ourselves or at least we shouldn't) 
*Blue Bell Gingerbread Ice Cream (JR couldn't resist)

Now, that I write all this down it seems like a lot but really since I will only be making no more than 4 servings of each we will have a few leftovers, which really is at this is all about. 

None of this takes a whole lot of time on my part which is nice since I've done my time in the kitchen in the past. I'd like to start spending holidays actually enjoying my time off. So, while I love cooking I've really gotten tired of the all-day kitchen marathon that most holidays seem to demand.

Sending my best wishes for a happy Thanksgiving to you and your families.

Peace,
M

4 comments:

  1. That Vegetable Wellington actually looks pretty darn good, and the rest of your menu sounds delightful, as always.

    I kind of like the all-day marathon, although we are paring it down considerably this year. And there's the added benefit that I won't have to cook on Friday, and maybe even Saturday. Hooray for that.

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  2. I'm getting out of cooking the turkey--Nick does it on the grill so he has to watch and fuss over it, not me. I just have to brine the silly thing. So I do have to put in my time wrestling the turkey.
    I might have to get the cheesy spinach recipe from you so I can try it on my boys--they might give spinach a try that way.

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  3. Thanksgiving is at my mom's this year so I'm supposed to help with getting it all set up, cooking, and keeping my mom and her best friend from jumping out of the windows. Luckily, my parents live in a one story house, but at their ages, they could still break something.. ;-)
    Happy Thanksgiving to you, JR, and your sons/daughters-in-law! xoxo

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  4. HAAAA. Now do the count for one and you'll be in my world. Everything comes in 2/4/8s or 20s. This year though I bought myself a big freezer and it has made all the difference. I have the Christmas bird in it already. Oh and I'm using a scales since the darn measures are heavy handed when I slice into a pot.

    I wonder do the Indians celebrate. :-)

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