In the Kitchen—Thanksgiving

The plan? A low-key Thanksgiving in Moscow, just me and the gentleman. The actuality? Hectic cooking, a butt-load of dirty dishes, a whole lotta food, punctuated with dancing, merriment, and Doctor Who.

Here's how it began:

Me: "So Gentleman, what should we have for our two-person Thanksgiving? Besides pumpkin pie, of course."
The Gentleman: "Mashed potatoes. And cranberry sauce. And stuffing."
Me: "OK, that means we'll also need gravy, something with protein we can put the cranberry sauce on, and something green or vegetably."

Now picture me sitting on the living room floor with ten November issues of Martha Stewart Living and Vegetarian Times spread out around me, plus a couple cookbooks. I considered getting some free-range turkey, but me and the gentleman aren't big meat eaters so it didn't seem necessary. As for cranberry sauce, I was clueless. I'd eaten cranberry sauce maybe once in my lifetime, and that was on accident.*

Here's the official menu settled upon:

Hard apple cider
Red wine
Huckleberry mead (It's becoming a tradition to buy the local Camas Prairie Winery stuff on special occasions.)

Mashed potatoes (A mix of red potatoes and a sweet potato.)

Punk Rock Chickpea Gravy (Recipe in Vegan with a Vengeance. Good, but next time I'll use less nutritional yeast than the recipe calls for.)

Green bean bundles (Recipe in the November 2012 Vegetarian Times.)

Stuffing (A family recipe from the gentleman, tweaked a little for our vegetarian sensibilities. Easily the best part of the meal.)

Cranberry Sauce with Hard Cider and Mustard (Recipe in the November 2011 Vegetarian Times. It was easy to make; I just threw all the ingredients in a pot and let them simmer while I cooked everything else. So, practically the first time cranberry sauce has passed my lips, what did I think? Delicious. I look forward to eating the leftover stuff on sandwiches, maybe even with turkey!)

Tofu (I had planned on making pumpkin-seed crusted tofu from Vegan with a Vengeance, but this was the last item I cooked and I was feeling pretty harried, so I went with the quickest and easiest method of cooking: throw it in a pan with olive oil. I probably would have skipped the tofu at this point if we hadn't needed something to put the cranberry sauce on.)

Pumpkin pie with almond crust (A tasty, easy-to-make, gluten-free crust from the November 2012 Vegetarian Times. I just don't think the cooking time for the crust coordinated with the cooking time for the filling, even if the recipe implied this crust could be used with a variety of fillings.)

What did you have for Thanksgiving?

*I though it was jam and spread it on a roll. I came to regret my confusion.