Thanksgiving 2012

We had a fairly low-key Thanksgiving, spent in our home with another couple.  When you live far from family, it's difficult to travel for all the birthdays and holidays.  Birthdays are easier, because most in our family don't fall on any holidays.  But during the holidays, traffic can be a bear and flights are usually expensive.  This was certainly not the first Thanksgiving we spent away from our family.  I recall a Thanksgiving in Knoxville, TN during grad school and I'm would guess there have been others. Unfortunately, the blog does not date back that far to help remind me!

Knowing that we planned to indulge in some delicious food and desserts all day, we mapped out an 8 kilometer (5 mile) run in the morning.  As I've posted before, I'm not a fan of races because they start so early!  In addition, most races also do not allow dogs and we wanted to take Darwin with us.  We decided on 5 miles (8K) because Raleigh also had an 8K Turkey Trot race scheduled.

Since the spring, I have not been running regularly.  I injured my foot in June playing soccer and took most of the summer off from activities.  This fall I played a fair amount of soccer, but mostly went for walks instead of runs on the days I didn't play.  When soccer season ended in early November, I decided I needed to do more exercise. I hadn't gained too much weight since June (about 2-4 pounds), but I certainly didn't feel strong or in shape.  One of my teammates had success doing the 2 month Insanity workouts and I had tried a few videos with my roommate when I lived with her, so I decided to start that up.  I've only done one full week of the program and generally do the workouts every other day (on average) instead of planned 6 days a week.  The way it's going, I'll probably do it in 4 months instead of 2. I have been enjoying the workout program and have noticed that I do feel stronger even after just a week.  My performance and energy during the Thanksgiving 8K makes me believe the program has helped me to gain strength and endurance.

Here are my stats for our 8K Turkey Trot:
5.0 miles in 43 minutes, 5 seconds (avg pace 8:37/mi).

Each of the 5 miles was very consistent and I felt strong for the entire run.  It also helped that the weather was near perfect for running - mid-upper 50's and warm in the sun.

Once we finished the run, we started the longer process of preparing our Thanksgiving lunch. On the menu we had turkey, home-made stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, roasted vegetables, black bean brownies, blucherpepple cheesecake, and banana bread.  Our friends brought the cheese and chocolate fondues (and assorted dipping items) for our planned "evening snack."

The thing I find most difficult when cooking so many different items for a meal is trying to plan them all so they finish at the same time.  We did a pretty good job of putting everything out while hot, but didn't have a chance to clean up the kitchen before sitting down to eat.

I must admit that everything came out really good! We were about 30 minutes behind schedule with eating, but no one seemed to mind.  Colin put out some cheese, pepperoni and crackers, a black bean and cheese dip, cranberry salsa from the farmers' market, and mixed nuts to keep people from going hungry.  But, most of us did not indulge in the appetizers because we wanted room for the main courses (entree and dessert!).

Branches from a berry bush in the yard and fallen leaves made up our centerpiece

A few of my bites of turkey were a little dry, but now that we've had some leftovers there are plenty of really moist pieces as well.  Colin found a way to dramatically reduce the cooking time by spatchcocking the bird and cooking it on the grill.  It only took between 1.5-2 hours to fully cook our 17 pound turkey.  And it left the oven available to cook all the side dishes.

Most of our recipes came from the Food Network's Thanksgiving pages.  I thought the stuffing was by far the best I've ever had. It was so flavorful, with the spicy sausage giving it a little kick and the apples, cider, sausage, sage, and walnuts provided a wonderful balance of sweet and savory.  I've been eating the leftovers for breakfast and this weekend we stuffed it in some peppers and an acorn squash and baked them.  The mashed potatoes also came out nice and fluffy. We didn't keep these as healthy as we could have, choosing to add bacon for some added flavor.  We also added bacon to our baked vegetables, comprised of sweet potatoes, brussels sprouts, and green beans.

My plate with turkey, roasted veggies, stuffing, and mashed potatoes

We made our desserts in the days leading up to Thanksgiving.  Colin was so excited to make what he called a blucherpepple cheesecake, a name and idea he created after seeing the cherpumple cake online.  He bought a pie from the store that was made up of 4 parts - blueberry, cherry, peach, and apple.  He then made a cheesecake with pecan crust and added a section of each pie to the cheesecake and voila!, so he created a blucherpepple cheesecake.  He also made his signature black bean brownies, adding chopped mixed nuts to the crust for a new twist and I made a banana bread.  Everything came out very good and completed a delicious meal.

The blucherpepple pie (bottom) and black bean brownies (top)

During the rest of the afternoon, we enjoyed watching football, checking out online deals, chatting, playing some rockband, and indulging in a little more food.  One of our friends is a Cowboys fan and the other is a Patriots fan.  It was exciting that the Cowboys made it close, but it was a bit too late.  The Patriots, on the other hand, had no problem dominating over the Jets.  While I do like the Pats to win, I prefer to watching closer, more exciting games.

During our brief Rockband session between games and and halftime, Colin rocked the vocals, I kept my usual role on the drums and our friends played the guitars.  After a few 2nd attempts on a song or two, we were playing like pros!  The game pretty much sits unused from March until November and then we rock out during the cold, dark winter evenings.

I didn't take a picture of our "evening meal," which included our appetizers from earlier in the day and some chocolate fondue with fruit, marshmallows, and twinkies (the non-Hostess kind called Cloud Cakes).  It was difficult not to over-indulge, and I'll admit that I did eat beyond being full.  I'm glad these holidays are only once in awhile!

Like most Thanksgivings, I was (and continue to be) grateful for the many wonderful blessings I have in my life.  In these times when many are without work, without love, without health, and without dreams for the future, I am blessed to have them all.  To all those who read the blog, may you also share in many of life's greatest gifts.

Date Night Goes Vegetarian

Colin and I are always looking for good vegetarian meals.  We subscribe to the philosophy of eating better quality meat and less often. As a result, we end up cooking vegetarian meals pretty often.

So much of the meat we find in the grocery store has come from animals raised in horrible conditions on factory farms, where the animals are fed grains to fatten up quickly.  Because cows are not meant to eat grains, but rather to graze on grass, their man-made diet causes ulcers in their stomach and so we humans medicate them with antibiotics.  I'm not going to get into the health concerns that raises in humans, or the environmental impacts - you can research that on your own when you are ready to connect with the reality of where your meat comes from.

I will say that I care about my health and I care about the harm that is done to the environment in the name of capitalism.  I recognize that Americans want their meat on the table and agriculture has done what is necessary to meet demand, but I know that the amount we now consume is not the process of natural selection.  

I could get into the science behind the fact that most Americans only require 50-100 grams of protein per day and that some burgers at fast food joints provide a whole day's supply of protein in one burger (and excess calories and fat).  But, I'll spare you ... this time.

Instead, I'll focus on our experience dining at one of WRAL's five fave vegetarian restaurants.  We started at the top of the list with "Remedy Diner" in the heart of downtown Raleigh, around the corner from Moore Square.  Their menu of "remedies" and "prescriptions" offered variety for diners spanning the spectrum from vegan, to vegetarian, to omnivorous.  

I enjoy vegetarian options at restaurants because I don't have to stress about where my meat came from, but I am frequently frustrated by the fact that many vegetarian restaurants primarily offer soy substitutes for meat.  I suspect I have a slight allergy to soy, so I try not to consume it in large quantities.  And, I want to eat a plate full of vegetables that taste good and are satisfying.  The frustration I have with soy substitutes is that people (myself included) have become so conditioned to a solid mass on our plate, that we require vegetarian equivalents to meat.

The Remedy Diner's vegetarian menu was typical - offering a variety of soy entrees, and a black bean burger and portobello mushroom sandwich for the non-soy eaters.  They also offered real deli meat sandwiches, informing patrons that they "only use Boar's Head meats which contain no fillers, gluten, artificial colors, flavors, or trans fat."  But, that doesn't tell us anything about how that animal was raised.  As far as I know Boar's Head does not source local, sustainable meat, and actually has a link to the "American Meat Institute's refute to the myths provided in the movie Food, Inc.

Colin ordered the "tempeh tantrum" sandwich, which was marinated tempeh with vegan pesto, vegan bacon, avocado and lettuce on sourdough.  I had the black bean burger, because I was not going to get meat or soy at a vegetarian restaurant and Colin makes really good portobello sandwiches.  The item I most looked forward to was the chickpea soup we had as a side. 

 Above: Colin's tempeh sandwich and chickpea soup

Below: My black bean burger and garden salad

The food was very flavorful, though we both wondered if the soup taste came from a high-sodium bouillon cube.  The pesto, avocado and "fake" bacon on Colin's tempeh was delicious (I just had a bite).  And my black bean burger was also delicious and maintained a good consistency in the bun.

We haven't mastered the art of making a good black bean burger at home ... yet! 

I realized later that the diner offered vegan cheese, which I always assumed was another "fake" cheese made from soy.  When I looked up Daiya cheese on wikipedia, I found out that it is actually made from cassava and arrowroot.  I'll have to try it out sometime.

Since our dinners were not too over-indulgent, we decided to split a dessert.  The "chess pie" - a pie that looked and tasted like a cookie, was really good!  The soft consistency of the cookie and very rich flavor were likely a result of lots of butter - but I did enjoy every bite.

Chess pie for dessert

Overall, the meal was tasty.  We were able to eat a few servings of vegetables between the salad, soup, and sandwiches, but I'm sure the calories, sugar, fat and salt outweighed any benefits from the vegetables.  We certainly could have gone without the dessert to cut down on some calories, fat, and sugar.  I would have preferred more vegetable based entrees, but the menu was to be expected for a vegetarian diner.  The atmosphere was very laid-back, with a college feel that brought me back to UVM.  

Stay tuned for more posts about Miller adventures! The weather is getting warmer, which means we should be getting back to outdoor activities - which we need after all this going out to eat!!  I expect there to be a weekly, or biweekly semimonthly fortnightly post about our date nights since I will be traveling for work much of this month and will be eating on the road during the day.  I'm not a fan of dining out for lunch AND dinner!

But I wonder - have you ever had daiya cheese?  If so, is it good?