What I'm Bringing to Thanksgiving Dinner

When I was a girl we had turkey and baked potatoes and some kind of vegetable. I never ate those little white onions, or the cranberry stuff that jiggled. One year my dear neighbor made cranberry bread, which I had never tasted before, and I thought I had gone to heaven. In those days, everyone ate pretty much the same foods, and I'll tell you, there was no hummus, no tabouli, no stir fry, no garlic, no wild rice, no brown rice, and definitely no shallots. They were somewhere in the world, but not at my table. We are so lucky now when it comes to food, and we vegetarians are particularly lucky because there is such choice, such variety, and so many different flavors.

We are traveling about an hour to spend the day with friends, and the man's parents. They are lovely people, and this motherless girl always enjoys being with a mother on these special days. And everything is done. I just sit and absolutely relax. The only thing I do is make a couple dishes to bring down. This year I'm bringing the Cranberry Apple Crisp and Tara's shallot mashed potatoes. The only thing I do different from hers, is I don't add milk. I like them better with just butter and salt.

So, I wish my readers in the United States a Happy Thanksgiving, and may your day be calm and peaceful; full of good times and good food.