Vegetarian Thanksgiving?
We are going to my sister’s house for Thanksgiving, and I have to figure out something to bring for my family to eat. I’m really sick of having the Thanksgiving meal be such a letdown for me. And this year, Arp is planning on skipping the Turkey himself since he has been trying to avoid eating meat that is not free-range.
Here’s how Thanksgiving normally goes for me: I sit around all day watching the furious activity in the kitchen as my extended family busily cooks a huge turkey in the kitchen. I gape in horror at such things as giblets and the carcass of the pasty bird. Then I sit down and grit my teeth at the annoying constant noise of the football game being watching on TV while my relatives avoid conversing while they stare at the game. I shovel in as many of the appetizers as I can because I know the meal will not provide me with much protein. When the meal finally comes, I hunker down to a meal of mashed potatoes, boiled vegetables, and maybe some mushrooms and cranberry sauce. Somehow that never seems like a celebration. Last year I managed to piss off my older sister by exposing the truth about stuffing to my nephews: that it is cooked in the carcass. That part was great fun!
Here’s how it will be different this year: Firstly, My sister (the younger one), I believe, plans to ban all television at her house (GO SIS!). Secondly, I really want to bring a meal with me that my family will enjoy. I’m not sure what though. Anyone out there with recommendations? I was thinking that maybe a casserole of homemade macaroni and cheese would taste really yummy and seem more celebratory. It doesn’t have to be particularly healthy - it is a holiday, right? I just want something that will taste positively yummy and not seem like someone else’s side dishes for a change. I have to think on it some more.
‘Free-range’ isn’t my actual criteria for not eating meat. Thanks to being enlightened by The Omnivore’s Dilemma, I’ve stopped eating meat that’s not
* farm or pasture raised
* fed properly (ie the animals eat what they are born to)
* no hormones or unnecessary antibiotics
* preferably organic (ie their diet consists of organic food)
I may well be missing some of the reasoning behind my decision, but to quote Potter Stewart, I know it when I see it. Since we were discussing Thanksgiving this morning, I considered why I changed my mind after reading several chapters from The Omnivore’s Dilemma a while back (I just got the audio book out of the library to finish it). These points refer to CAFOs - Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, where animals live in inhumane conditions. I admit to having forgotten each & every detail and hope that most of the following is true:
* Cows are fed mostly corn, which they aren’t meant to, and are fed a LOT of it. To compensate for health issues caused by an unusual diet, they get lots of antibiotics.
* They get fed a LOT. This overfeeding requires antiobiotics as well.
* As a result, cows become big enough to slaughter around 18 months rather than a more natural 3-ish years. And they’re much bigger. It’s like accepting that it’s normal for 9 out of 10 thirteen-year-old boys to be 6′ 2″ and 280lbs.
* They also feed them … other animal parts in the form of ‘meat & bone meal.’ This seems to be their attempt at recycling. Mad Cow disease resulted from cows eating meal with infected blood or fecal matter. So now they won’t let mammal meal be fed to ruminants but it’s ok for pigs and chickens. Ugh.
* CAFOs a horrible for the environment. Too many animals in a confined space = lots of poop. Which collects in pools and runs off into the land.
* Big fields where corn is the only crop suck for the environment too since they load up with fertilizer. Which runs off into the land.
* As a result of the last 2 points, there is a hypoxic (oxygen-deprived) zone in the Gulf of Mexico that’s about 16,000 square kilometers on average. The run off goes into the Mississippi and we have a huge area where fish can’t live due to lack of oxygen.
That’s all I can think of for now. I’m also avoiding corn products like High Fructose Corn Syrup, but it’s a bit harder than just not eating regular meat. And the next step is to also get organic dairy, but that’s waiting for some budgetary increases.
Stuff that makes turkey look like what it is - some foul that people would probably cook more than once a year if it were really good. And stuff that looks more attractive.
Like sweet potato souffles.
My parents are coming for Thanksgiving so I bought my Dad a Tofurkey that also comes with dumplings, gravy and some other things that I can’t remember and everything is vegan. I also bought vegetable stock instead of chicken broth to make the stuffing with and cook OUT of the turkey so he can eat it. We are also having some spinach and mushroom cheesy concoction that has been at Thanksgiving dinner for as long as I can remember. Of course mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes are good too. Good luck!
We survived - and it turned out to be one of the better Thanksgiving meals we’ve had. I think the No TV rule helped out a lot - we sang some songs as an activity, something that I’m sure will make for a much better memory than watching a bunch of 300 lb men in tights.