Posted on 11/17/2006 9:43:00 AM PST by DogByte6RER
Move over, turkey
April E. Clark Post Independent Staff November 17, 2006
If Margie Garrett had her wish, she'd be having a turkey at her Thanksgiving dinner.
But this turkey wouldn't be roasted, fried or stuffed. It would be a guest.
"I'd love to invite one to dinner," said Garrett, who has worked at Good Health grocery store for 10 years. "I would love to have one as a pet turkey some day."
Each year, Garrett hosts a Thanksgiving spread that features enough food to make anyone forget about turkey. She's been a vegetarian since 1972 and, more recently, is a vegan, a lifestyle that avoids using or consuming all animal products.
"I'm telling you, by the time you finish dinner, you don't even miss the gobble gobble," she said. "I have all the trimmings."
Garrett's Thanksgiving menu includes homemade vegetarian stuffing covered with mushroom gravy, cranberries, salads, mashed potatoes, creamed peas, and baked squash stuffed with wild rice. Dessert features homemade pumpkin pie with organic whipping cream.
"People always ask me, 'Well, what do you eat?' But look at all this," she said. "The stuffing is so good when you make it from scratch."
For a turkey alternative, vegetarian-friendly stores such as Good Health sells Tofurkey, an organic, meatless tofu product that can be served alongside traditional Thanksgiving recipes. Tempe and tofu can also be substituted as Thursday's main course.
"If you're looking for a fake meat-type thing, one of the dishes I make - and I raised my family on it - is tempe or tofu diced up, sautéd in olive oil and coated with nutritional yeast on it," she said. "It makes a crispy brown coating that is almost like fried chicken."
Garrett has so many recipes for a vegetarian Thanksgiving, she doesn't even miss the leftover turkey sandwiches.
"I'm so determined for my love for the little animals, I don't miss the leftover turkey sandwiches," she said.
Being thankful doesn't require a turkey on a platter, Garret said.
"We're thankful, right, that we live in this valley," she said. "There's much to be thankful for, and it doesn't have to involve a poor little turkey."
Unless, of course, it's sitting at the kid's table enjoying a home-cooked meal.
Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO
Hubby ordered our Turducken (14-16 pound average with Turkey, Duck, Chicken and Cajun Sausage) a month ago. We'll be ready to start defrosting it on Sunday.
It will be joined on the festive holiday table by a deep fried turkey and some Virginia Ham.
Our group of 25 will be well fed on MEAT and great-grandma's homemade pies.
:)
Hey it's your choice to eat whatever you want.
If I made moral judgements about a homosexual, preached to them about how they should live their lives, and called them indifferant to the medical cost of their chosen lifestyle, I would be labeled a small-minded, homophobic, inconsiderate bastard who is trying to force his values on innocent people who want no part of his outdated, bigoted ideas. However, Vegans are encouraged to look down their noses at we carnivores in exactly the same manor...and they are made to look like nobel, dedicated people, concerned with the welfare of others. Some double standard!
That's so wrong!!!!! Two hours to lunch and you post that! That's just not nice!!
Room for two more??? [/drool]
My cholesterol just went up looking at that picture...;-)
Looks good though...
One thing I will never understand about Vegans. Why, if meat disgusts them so much, do they serve Tofu or other gelatinous mucks, shaped and/or flavored just like turkey, or hamburger, or bacon, or whatever.
Also, the Nimrod that wanted to have a turkey to dinner, not for dinner? I wonder if she's ever really been around those birds?
We fry one every year, sometimes, our friends come over the day before with their turkeys and we just fry turkeys all day long.
Not without a designated fryer, LOL! That can be pretty dangerous, drinking and frying.
More turkey for me!
"Pumpkin pie" is a custard, an that is made with eggs. So how does she make it if she doesn't eat eggs?
And something else? LOL!
Whoa, I'm getting dizzy... heart palpitations... must...sit...down...
Where... is... the... remote...
I've been eating Tofurky with my vegan (and conservative Republican) family members for about the last 8 years for both TG and CM meals.
I like it.....They like it, no problem. I get turkey all the time on work sites, so it's a nice change. In fact, the year we had TG at SIL's sister's house, it was the closest thing to real turkey anyone brought.
That was also the TG that we ate off off a plastic Happy Birthday table cloth off of Bugs Bunny Disposable plates and had bad BBQ on cheap buns---- Martha Stewart has nothing to fear from that family ;)
I know a fair number of vegans (didn't say I understood their choices, mind you), but I have never before seen anyone encouraging vegans to behave a certain way towards non-vegans.
Some vegans, just like some meat eaters, are just a-holes naturally. Some of the meat eaters on this thread are behaving just as you describe the vegans.
That being said, that turkey with the bacon on top ROCKS!
Martin Sheen donated a few tofurkeys to our town's homeless shelter a few years ago. IIRC the homeless weren't too appreciative.
It's PEOPLE!! Tofurkey is PEOPLE!!
Thank you ... that's me, the designated fryer. Three or four gallons of bio-diesel feedstock, over a naked flame? I'll keep my wits about me ...
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