Happy Thanksgiving - It's All About The Veggies

Maybe it's because I am a vegetarian but Thanksgiving for me has always been about what goes with the turkey - not the poor bird itself. I just read in the newspaper that now that people are eating healthier (which I am not sure is TRUE), they eat turkey year round. So, maybe the big bird on the table isn't as special as it used to be. I think that people like to eat the stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes and gravy anyway.

I gave a speech (of sorts) at The Rotary in Sonoma (CA) last week and said that I was the one who brought color to the Thanksgiving table. I am bringing Fruited Wild Rice with dried cranberries, cherries, other dried fruit and spices, Wild Mushroom gravy (with locally harvested mushrooms given to me as a gift), Roasted Root Vegetables, Curried Pear and Squash Soup and Pear and Toasted Walnut Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette which are all recipes from my cookbook The Veggie Queen: Vegetables Get the Royal Treatment which is available from my website at www.theveggiequeen.com.

I'd cook more veggies but this family (my husband's) just wouldn't appreciate them. My own family back east is feasting on all the veggies inlcuding Brussels Sprouts which I wrote about and called "The vegetable we love to say we hate." Yet when I make them in my classes they always disappear. Oh, now to head to the oven and get those roots roasting. I can't wait.

I hope that your Thanksgiving is filled with fine veggies, family and fun.