Vegetarian/Vegan Families

We -make them- fit as needed.

When we have Thanksgiving at our house, we may cook up a small turkey for extended family. One year we did fish (it was just MIL and FIL - his last Thanksgiving on the planet as it turned out) - totally non-traditional as far as modern traditions go; we're in New England so we used cod which is very in keeping with the origins of the holiday. And, we plan the meal so that it's possible to have a full and satisfying meal without touching the meat. We do a harvest soup of some sort (squash, pumpkin, three-sisters, etc), a tossed salad, fresh whole wheat bread/rolls, roasted autumn veggies (squash, sweet potato, maybe beets, celeriac, carrots, etc), a fruit compote that is often requested (as in "Please make that again this year"), and a stuffing made without meat (using homemade vegetable stock) or made with Quorn grounds if we want that meat texture. Otherwise, it's bread, stock, celery, onion, and diced apple with seasonings.

Even though that recipe for fried pork or whatever is in the cookbook, meat wasn't necessarily an everyday occurrence in prairie days - it was expensive sometimes and other times they had to manage on whatever they had butchered and put aside in the smokehouse - if they ran short, no meat. Lots of grains, eggs, cheeses. Seasonal, local fruits and veggies - back then, an orange in your stocking at Christmas was a big deal for most families. Corn based products were big, beans were important, wild picked mushrooms, wild berries, etc. Dairy products from your own animals or traded with neighbors (milk, eggs, cheese).

--Deb R