Thursday, November 24, 2011

Our Second Very Veggie Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe we have now been vegetarian for over 1.5 years.  We have been exploring some great new recipes and our veggie fare has really expanded.  The Thanksgiving menu was as follows:

Stuffing (recipe modified from Giada)
Mashed Potatoes with Vegan Gravy (recipe from www.vegkitchen.com )
Zucchini al Forno (recipe from Giada)
Rosemary Bread
Steamed Green Beans with REAL butter
Stuffed Celery (I am not sure if my family created this; I seem to be the only one who likes it!)
Cranberry sauce
Corn (from a can, requested by Gina)
Cassada Cake (lovingly prepared by Jerry)

As you can see, we pretty much had standard Thanksgiving food sans the turkey.  I never miss the turkey.  Yes, it smells great, but it always made me sleepy and did strange things to my stomach.  We are just fine without it.  After we ate, we took the dog and went for a wonderful walk around Hudson Springs Park.

My blog has been quiet.  I have not had much to say.  The fall was not the happiest time around here.  It sort of sounded like a country music song:  my neighbor died, the car broke down, the days got short, the money ran out, etc etc.  And on top of it all I did something strange to my knee/leg back in September and am just now starting to feel comfortable running again.  I saw an ortho guy who looked at me like I was crazy.  We could not reproduce the pain in his office so apparently I was just imagining the whole thing.  Whatever.  I will slowly come back and thoroughly appreciate every step I take while doing so.

Abby had an amazing cross country season for her freshman year of high school.  She earned her Varsity Letter and PR'd at 22.18.  The season was super muddy. 
Gina offering support after the Woodridge Race at CVNP

Gina modeling new boots in the middle of the course

Muddy but relieved to have THAT over!

Gina has decided to not swim for the high school this year.  It was a difficult decision for her.  She really did not enjoy last year at all.  She made a pro/con list and it became pretty obvious what she should do.  Now she has embarked on a new path and is happier than ever.  She is volunteering at the Humane Society and tutoring younger kids after school.

Jerry will run a 50K in January.  After that we will make our plans for spring and summer.  So far we have college visits, a trip to Florida to see the Harry Potter stuff at Universal, and a return to the Adirondacks to look forward to in 2012!