Vegan Thanksgiving

What does a vegan eat for Thanksgiving? Tofurkey!

I've been wary of the Tofurkey, but I had a friend in Madison who obsessed with it. After trying the Tofurkey Smoked Deli Slices, and they were great. So, I am giving it a try.

In addition to the Tofurkey, I have red potatoes, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and onions. The red potatoes, onion, and carrots will go in the oven with the Torfurkey. The rest will be cooked and probably smashed. Yes, lots of smashed starchy foods, but that is what Thanksgiving is for. And my jaw still hurts, so smashed starchy food sounds good. I also have some Purple Peruvian Potatoes. (I may save half of the butternut squash and roast it later this week, but then again, I may not.)

I had to go to campus to do more dicking around with the insurance company. Afterwords I swung by one of the other libraries to see a friend. Somehow, the subject of Purple Peruvian Potatoes came up. I told her how Frenchie wanted me to use purple potatoes to make mashed garlic potatoes. A couple of years ago she planned to host Thanksgiving at her new house and her mom would be there. If she made purple potatoes her mom would criticize her. But if I made them? Well, what do I know? I'm that Yankee Vegetarian. I'm weird by definition. In the end, Frenchie left town for the holiday and it never happened. But what did I see when I went to the Co-op this afternoon? Peruvian Purple Potatoes. I had to buy them.

I went there looking for vegan dessert, specifically vegan pumpkin pie. We don't have a vegan bakery in town, but the Co-op has vegan desserts. I looked all over, up and down, and was getting really frustrated because I couldn't find vegan pumpkin pie. And then I noticed right in front of me was a sign for vegan pumpkin pies. And they were almost gone. Who knew? Well, I should have since this is one big hippie town.

I also have wine. I don't know what kind it is. Something white, something citrusy, something dry. One guy asked me if I knew how their wines are organized. Uh... wines are organized outside of red and white? Yes, by location. I almost bought a bottle of something from California because it was a smaller bottle and not too expensive, but then I slipped into undergraduate-student-mode and realized I could get a bigger bottle for the same price. More volume equals more alcohol for the same amount of money.

The second guy who asked me if I needed help said things like, "Well, [insert wine types/names here] refer to the different types of grapes. But I'm sure you know that already." (Uh, no.) I picked up something and asked him what it was like. It was local, it was cheap, and it had a nifty label. He said it was a good basic wine, a good starter wine. Good wine, expensive wine is lost on me because it all tastes the same. So... I went with the good basic wine. The wine dude said I could take that and then decide what I liked and go from there.

Sure.

How much you want to bet that in a year I will get all snobby about what kind of wine I drink?

I offered to cook food for friends, but we all decided wine, dessert, and stupid movies would be better.