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
Good point.
In all my experience with my family at meals etc, you wouldn't know who was vegan and who wasn't. Same with professional meetings and events. Most vegetarians/vegans I deal with aren't militant about it.
However, I can always count on vegetarians/vegans to catch it on these threads, even though many Freepers are, well....
vegetarians/vegans.
I guess no one told them meat eating was a conservative requirement ;)
You do that, stay safe!
I've never seen what could happen, but I've imagined it plenty of times. My husband is always the designated fryer, because sober or not, that bubbling grease scares me to death!
Vegetarian: Indian word for lousy hunter!
Ms.B
>>Vegans are encouraged to look down their noses at we carnivores in exactly the same manor
More ammo just in case (you can never have too much ammunition)
THE NAÏVE VEGETARIAN : http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/vegetarian.html
We like to politicize everything here. I think my loafers are democrats.
Not a turkey fan myself, but what else are they good for other than eating?
My cats sure are....
My cockatoo is a libertarian, that's for sure.
Tofurkey. That's disgusting. We're having 2 turkeys this year - one smoked, and one BBQ'd.
And the other side of the coin is, of course, I shouldn't be made out to be Adolf Hitler because I enjoy eating an animal that is raised exclusively for it's meat and milk.
Hey, I eat meat.
I have a sibling whose diet is beer and meat and meat and beer.
I have 2 others that have chosen not to eat meat.
End of story with that.
Honestly, I've seen way more bad behavior directed at my loved ones who don't eat meat by mean spirited family members who are idiots and who think it's thier right to be rude idiots.
;)
Our cats were specists...they knew they were better than the humans that they kept as slaves for their own maintenace. (We loved them anyway!)
Why is there a 'vegan alert'? Is dietary choice now a conservative / liberal thing?
How is it possible to live a life that is free from cow or animal by-products? From glues to cleaners, they all have some animal componants, don't they?
God bless the vegans. If there are enough of them to reduce supply, turkeys will become cheaper for omnivores like myself.
Exactly. Vegetarians who are because they want to be are fine with me. It's those who try to pull guilt trips. My husand knew a girl at work who used to talk about those who eat carcass. Her last day of work he said he would have meat in her honor.
Till the first time (of MANY) that it craps in her house. I've lived out in the country and turkey is the WORST. Pigs are a close second.
I got a frozen one a couple of years ago and was unimpressed. Steve is frying the main turkey, but I've got one still in the freezer from last year that I'm going to try smoking.
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