Vegan Thanksgiving

Now that I'm a postdoc, there are some rules about vacation time. I'm not allowed to use my vacation time until I've been employed for 6 months, it has to be approved by my boss, and I have to log it on my time sheet. So lame. This means that I didn't get to go home for Thanksgiving this year, because it's so far away and I have to drive with the cats. I was planning to cook a Tofurky and all the sides for myself, then maybe get together with my labmate who is also single and living far away from family. I got invited to an all-vegan Thanksgiving at a friend's house though, so I went to that. (My labmate got invited to her former advisor's house so I didn't feel bad that she passed on my invitation to the vegan dinner.) I met the girl hosting dinner at the vegan potlucks, so I trusted that everything would be tasty and I would be safe. We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce, cranberry bread, mushroom soup, corn pudding from Veganomicon, walnut mushroom pate from Veganomicon, a Turkish dish made with bulgur wheat (guest contribution), couscous and chickpea salad (guest contribution, purchased at Whole Foods), Field Roast en croute, a Gardein roast, and my desserts - pumpkin pie with Mimic Creme whipped cream and fudge from Chloe's Kitchen. I'll try to find out the recipe sources for the cranberry sauce, cranberry bread, stuffing, and mushroom soup.

The most ironic part of the day was the fact that the religious guy, who talked about his faith quite a bit and tried to sound smarter than everyone, stole a bunch of the mushrooms in the soup. The market he bought them at provides paper bags for mushrooms, instead of the usual plastic produce bags. He put a bunch of fancy, expensive mushrooms in with the cheaper cremini mushrooms. You weigh produce and print your own label at that market, so he claimed all cremini mushrooms and essentially stole the other mushrooms by being undercharged. Just another reminder why I despise organized religion. "Listen to me blab about my church, even though I'm a klepto!" I commented that I would feel uncomfortable doing that and I frequently correct people when they over/under-charge me at the store. He justified his actions because the store provides a paper bag that you can't see through.