The weather for Thanksgiving was perfect. Warm, but not hot. Sunny. The boys wore shorts and t-shirts and rode bikes. The neighborhood kids came over to play kick-ball in the street, then basketball. Through it all, as I prepped for dinner, Buttercup sat on the window sill monitoring all the activity. He would chirp his hello! chirp when he saw them ride by on their bikes (you can hear him here, and you can tell by the way he swings he head when one of the boys zoom by).
This year we had our first vegetarian* Thanksgiving for Nico, who has been talking and fretting about this since August. It was okay? I guess? I’m not sure, because as a general rule I dislike everything traditionally served at Thanksgiving: stuffing/dressing, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, casseroles, et al. I realized later, as I talked about dinner with the Mister, that it’s the abundance of heavy, carb-laden** dishes I don’t like. Oh, and the fact that the food gets all jumbled up with creams and spices. I like green beans to taste like green beans, rice to taste like rice, and cranberry sauce to just go away. Don’t get me started on pumpkin pie. {{shudder}}
This is probably why I could eat sushi every single day of the rest of my life. You can’t get more plain than that!
As you could probably predict, Thanksgiving dinner is the Mister’s favorite meal of the year. He’ll take a fork full of stuffing, potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, and carrots, pop it in his mouth, and call it “the perfect bite.” Gah! No.
Nico eats fish, so for Christmas I’m going to make some plain salmon or maybe a cioppino. That sounds delicious.***
* I made roasted carrots, steamed green beans, my favorite rice casserole (that I couldn’t eat), this beet salad (meh), mashed potatoes, this gravy, salad, and cookies. I stand by the cookies.
** I love ice cream and chips, so it’s not like I’m opposed to carbs. I’m just not a bread person. I rarely eat sandwiches and only eat pizza because the boys love it.
*** I know, cioppino is a soup/stew filled with 25 different kinds of fish, but I can eat them one at a time so it gets a pass.
We can't have meat at Christmas (12 meatless dishes and all that), so we have salmon every year- which is probably technically cheating, but most of the family would revolt if there wasn't some meat, somewhere on the table. We stuff it with sliced lemons, sliced onions and some dill, tie it closed, and there you go! We also have wild rice stuffing, and baked potatoes (since you're not going to be having any gravy)…I'm not kidding when I say that there are 12 dishes on the table, so I'll stop short of listing them all. All this to say- if you need Meatless Holiday Meal ideas, I may be able to help. You know how to get in touch with me!
I will definitely be texting you on that one.
We've made this for our past two vegetarian Thanksgivings: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/lattice-crusted-minestrone-pot-pies
It's delicious, and it feels perfectly fall-y, and it's also just complicated enough that it feels like a holiday meal, lol.
Great recipe! Thank you! :)