Soon after I gave up eating meat, the family was visiting my brother on Cape Cod. After lunch one day, we went for a stroll and came across an independently owned bookstore, so of course I had to go inside and have poke around.There I found exactly the sort of book I had been looking for, and not surprisingly it was written by the folks at the Moosewood Collective. Moosewood Restaurant Celebrates is a collection of holiday recipes, organized by season, featuring all the well-known favorites, as well as some fun extras like Diwali, Cinco de Mayo, and Setsubun (Japanese Bean Day). A section is included on foods to make and gift, like pear-raspberry preserves and our dogs' favorite homemade dog biscuits.
For Thanksgiving, both a vegetarian and vegan menu are provided. At our home, we roast turkey legs for our meat eaters, who then enjoy our dishes as their sides: polenta, sauteed greens, cranberry sauce, potato filling, and veggie au gratin, like the one picture above. Not to mention freshly baked rolls and pumpkin pie. Yum, I am getting hungry already and still five days to wait until the big day. :-)
If you're stuck on ideas for your family's (non)turkey dinner and don't have the time/money/space for yet another cookbook (which I totally understand), here is another menu I found on the Food Network's web site. Lots of tasty-looking suggestions there, too, yum.
Finally, when you are doing your holiday food shopping, do try to pick up a few extra cans---whatever your budget allows---and swing by your local food pantry on the way home. Not surprisingly, with so many people still out of work, more are relying on food banks to feed their families, and donations are MUCH appreciated. In the spirit of the holiday, it's the least we can do.
