My thanksgiving surprise

A Thanksgiving to remember!! I know this post is quite late but it is necessary, for it ends with a bang!

So it was the night before thanksgiving(eve), and all through the house not a baby was crying... so we decided to do something about that... we faked labor to go into the hospital and get checked to see is baby was coming anytime soon, well i was at a very "bulging" 6 cm. The midwife did a "rough" exam to try to get things moving and they told us we could go home if we felt like it but we would for sure be back that night. So we went home made dinner and a good friend of our took the kids for the night, and we prepared to go to the hospital... then the next morning we woke up, the/n picked up two very disappointed kids and went shopping for thanksgiving dinner!

The family came in the night before thanksgiving, and andy and i prepared some dishes and bread that afternoon in preparation for the big event!! Then we all went out to my FAVORITE restaraunt "Indian Guru" YUMMO!

The next morning i woke up and made some Pumpkin doughnuts(recipe from "Healthy Bread in 5 minutes a day" which were fantastic... I think Pierce had at least 10 of them(they were 2 1/2 inches), and would have had more if we hadn't run out. My candy thermometer worked out just perfect for making the doughnuts puff up and not be greasy.

Then we played Some pretty intense games of Dominoes before starting our Vegan cooking extravaganza!! River learned what it was like to lose, and lets just say she didnt like it at all, and it is pretty hard to "throw" a game of dominoes :/

Then we boarded the Titanic!

We set the table with napkins folded in the "indian guru" style :) 

set out our Ikea ware, and menu!

We had originally planned on being in "Dinner dress" to add to the ambience, but the cooking wore us out and we decided to co casual... but river was so excited about getting all dressed up I let her do it anyways 

Our first course... Bruschetta, this turned out being every ones absolute favorite! Lemme tell you it was delicious!!
Olive oil wheat Bread from our '5min' book and tomato recipe from allrecipe.com   without the cheese of course ;)

The soup du jour... a dish we made the night before, and threw in the spinach before serving! Most of the recipes to follow (including this one) were made from This Book... Which I LOOOOOVE

Pierce enjoyed the soup, but then was way to tired to go on, so we put him down for a much needed nap!

Husband enjoying some pear salad. This salad required roasted walnuts, which i decided would be cheaper and fun to roast ourselves, so the first batch mom and i made wound up food for the opossums, the second batch turned out much better and it is surprising how much the flavor of walnuts change once roasted! 

Stuffed Provencal Mushrooms, we all agreed that this would be better with some sort of sauce, but they were still pretty darn good!

Some Ziti and Cauliflower, This won the Husbands Choice award

What is left of my Curry Shepherds pie, and some sparkling cranberry juice!

Husband made this one and i gave it the "prettiest thing at the table" award! so festive and the cranberrys shined like jewels it was so perfect we had to video chat with my brother in LA to show him! And it was yummy so perfect all around... this recipe was found HERE and i highly recommend it!

We then cooled our taste buds with some sorbet! 

 We had planned on having some Spanish style hot chocolate, but we were all so stuffed we gave up and planned that for later!

So after ALL of that food settled and we put the kids to bed, we decided to go black friday shopping, to pin down a couple of Leap pads for the cheeren(sound it out yankees) We left at about 9 came back at 2 am (black friday) empty handed......... bummed and bewildered and sore, being as it was now my due date and baby was still leaching from me. We hit the sack.... Well every one else hit the sack i was waking up every 15 minutes to go potty and then finnaly the contractions started at about 4:30, i told andy it was time to go, we hobbled out to the car and headed to our final destination as a 4 person family (mom and them stayed behind with the first two unsuspecting and sleeping kids)

at 5:30(yep an hour later) Oliver Rhys arrived!!! he was a beautiful sight

Now we are five!!!





(and counting)

A Titanic Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has been weighing heavily on my mind, for so many reasons; baby is soon to be hear(any day now) family is coming to stay, and how will we do tradition in a vegan style!!

My biggest concern is making everything interesting and fun but still sticking with our new way of life. While my husband and i are devoted to this, my family may not be so excited about breaking out of traditional turkey dinners and sides to complement the TURKEY... or ham and pineapples, and tons of dressing made with chicken broth or brisket and rice and gravy... or even one year we had a Turducken.

When i think of this, my mind starts playing Everybody loves raymond... the episode where Deborah tries to start a new tradition by cooking fish, and Marie is appalled by the idea. I dont think my family would ever be so difficult, we are all pretty open minded... but i still would like them to enjoy themselves. So i was thinking maybe a formal setting with a few different dishes to try, but without the main focus of turkey it would be like we were just having a bunch of sides(though each dish we have had for an entire meal at some point)

So my next thought was each dish should be presented separately, and this lead to the idea of a five course dinner... We have been to the marine corps ball plenty of times, and the meals are generally set up in a 3 course fashion, but that is about a fancy as we get, so we looked it up

from the wiki:

In formal dining, a full course dinner can consist of five, seven, eight, ten or twelve courses, and, in its extreme form, has been known to have twenty-one courses. In these more formalized dining events, the courses are carefully planned to complement each other gastronomically. The courses are smaller and spread out over a long evening, up to three, four or five hours, and follow conventions of menu planning that have been established over many years.

Most courses (excluding some light courses such as sorbets) in the most formal full course dinners are usually accompanied by ("paired with") a different wine, liqueur, or other spirit; today, craft beers and sakes are increasingly being integrated into the pairings.

So very intrigued by the twenty one course meal we read on, and found that the more courses a meal has the smaller the serving are, for example on the 21 course meal one course was nuts, another caviar. Wiki also drew out the TEN course meal that was served on the TITANIC: 

of course this was served to the First Class passengers

First Course

• Hors D'Oeuvres
• Oysters

Second Course

• Consommé Olga
• Cream of Barley

Third Course

• Poached Salmon with Mousseline Sauce, Cucumbers

Fourth Course

• Filet Mignons Lili
• Saute of Chicken, Lyonnaise
• Vegetable Marrow Farci

Fifth Course

• Lamb, Mint Sauce
• Roast Duckling, Apple Sauce
• Sirloin of Beef, Chateau Potatoes
• Green Pea
• Creamed Carrots
• Boiled Rice
• Parmentier & Boiled New Potatoes

Sixth Course

• Punch Romaine

Seventh Course

• Roast Squab & Cress

Eighth Course

• Cold Asparagus Vinaigrette

Ninth Course

• Pate de Foie Gras
• Celery

Tenth Course

• Waldorf Pudding
• Peaches in Chartreuse Jelly
• Chocolate & Vanilla Eclairs
• French Ice Cream

At this point i am hooked, we shall have a full course meal, complete with non alcoholic beverage pairings!! Who can resist that!! Regardless of our meatless situation i believe this to be a thanksgiving to remember... I also put together a menu, that will be set on the table so that our "first class passengers" can have a reference to what they will be enjoying!!

It started as a 5 course menu and evolved into an 8 course meal! we have some very simple things on there and some courses that can easily be made ahead of time. Thanksgiving meals usually take a few days of cooking anyways this one will just mean i wont have to wake up at 2 in the am to put a turkey in the oven!! Though i am planning on making pumpkin donuts the morning of out of our yummy new bread book "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day" ... actually it is such an amazing book we are making three other breads in preparation for our Titanic meal, some for bruschetta some for rolls, and some bread pudding(maybe). All in all I CANT WAIT... now if only i can push a baby out before then!!!