Thanksgiving Menu - Vegetarian Alternatives

I follow a food calendar.  If all is well in my world, certain foods appear like clockwork as part of a holiday meal: apple cake for Rosh Hashanah, soda bread for St. Patrick’s Day, potato latkes for Chanukah, and potato salad for Labor Day.  For Thanksgiving, my food calendar and table are crowded with a Norman Rockwell-style array: turkey and stuffing, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, salad, a green vegetable, and pie. 

But the world does change and I try to change with it.  Donna Reed and Don Draper would not have known any vegetarians, let alone invited them to share a holiday meal, but I do.  And while I’m a confirmed carnivore, I want to make all feel welcome.  With a spirit of compromise that might be a good starting point for the fiscal cliff negotiators, I begin with 3 basic propositions: 

1. There will be turkey;
2. The turkey will be displayed, so anyone who is morally opposed should avert  their gaze or pretend for this one night that it doesn’t bother them; and 
3. There will be plenty for a vegetarian to eat and it will be good stuff, not just rolls and salad – we don’t treat anyone like a second-class eater.

With those groundrules and a menu already full of veggie-friendly items (cranberry sauce, sweet potatoes, salad, green vegetable and pie), I move onto stuffing and main courses that the meatless eaters among us will enjoy. 

Vegetarian-Friendly Stuffing

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July 4th Menu Ideas and Tips

Fourth of July celebrations are on my mind and not just because of this blog.  I tend to obsess when it comes to menu and food planning, so I’ve been thinking about what I’ll make for at least a month.  Our celebration is a pot luck and I’ve agreed to bring dessert.  I’m still deciding what to bring, but hope that a trip to the farmers market tomorrow will yield especially good peaches or berries to incorporate into my contribution.

Are you organizing or contributing to a holiday pot luck/picnic/barbecue/feast?  If you are, here are a few tips and suggestions. 

July 4^th Menu Ideas:

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Staying Sane - Weekday Dinner Tip #1

Preparing a weekday evening meal is not supposed to be a stressful marathon or a trial by stir-fry.  After all, it’s just dinner.  You can eat well – and feed others too - with modest effort and planning.  You don’t need tons of money or hours of research online or rummaging through cookbooks either.  

If you've read MotherWouldKnow before, you have already figured out that I am all for sanity, in the kitchen and elsewhere.  I start with a few basic tenets:

• First, leave your competitive, Type A qualities (if you have them) at the kitchen door.  
• Second, if you notice that your dinner plate has a chip or doesn’t match the placemat, resist the urge to switch them.  That’s for company – this is about weekday sanity.  You can throw out the chipped plate after dinner or switch out the placemat next time
• Third, take a deep breath, ditch your heels or your tie (if you dress that way at work) and smile.   After all, it’s just dinner.  

Are you with me? 

Weekday Dinner Tip# 1 Plan – and Shop – Ahead 

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