Gapers Block published from April 22, 2003 to Jan. 1, 2016. The site will remain up in archive form. Please visit Third Coast Review, a new site by several GB alumni.
✶ Thank you for your readership and contributions. ✶
Monday, October 14
Ugh...no meat, thankfully.
We are going to do our third annual vegan friendly meal.
There are so many wonderful resources out there for recipes for those that wish to remove meat from this holiday.
Champagne and a cigar.
Doesn't get much better than that. Then again, the cigar will be in my mouth, most likely. And not when I'm sitting at the dinner table.
My man and I are going to Lake Geneva to stay at an inn. I cannot wait...No family, no arguing, just us. We are having fruit, cheese, shrimp cocktail, ribs, champagne...delivered to the room.
Two wonderful, quiet nights. I'm really thankful for that!
Meat...Thankfully.
I think it will be a fairly traditional meal. If some relative has gotten zealous about it, perhaps a wild turkey, freshly harvested. The rest of the fixin's.
I am always so bothered by the moral smugness of a sizeable portion of the non-meat people. If you choose to be vegetarian or vegan, great, more power to you. It is certainly possible to get some health benefits from that diet, and if that's what your moral compass tells you to do, fantastic! I'm not going to beat you over the head with a drumstick and try to sell you on meat, so please shut the hell up and let me enjoy my dead bird, as I have no qualms about killing and consuming.
i will also, thankfully, be eatin some meat. although i will probably go heavy on the stuffing and cranberries with just a side of turkey. i am looking forward to my tryptophan induced nap!
Fried Chicken! My father in law tries to eat healthy and on holidays he likes to live it up a little. I wonder what the sides will be, something equally fattening perhaps. I'm sure it will be tasty...as far as the nephews behaving...who knows, that is always the trick bag with lots of kids in a small house. oh, the holidays.
At the in-laws, it will be turkey, 3 kinds of stuffing, potatoes, veggies, salad, pecan pie, the usual.
At my parents' house, it's an ultra-traditional sit-down dinner with the good china and silver. We'll be having turkey, stuffing, potatoes, squash, sweet potatoes, corn, green beans, 3 kinds of cranberries, etc. And for dessert, pumpkin pie! I've been waiting all season for pumpkin pie...
Dutch, i agree. i hate it when people say things like "thankfully, i'll be feeding the homeless/sending food to Sri Lanka/rebuilding New Orleans" - those people and their moral compasses are so damn righteous. really, i can't believe the nerve they'd want to flaunt that kind of lifestyle choice. i'm with you! - i'd also prefer to wallow in ignorance, crack me another PBR, bro
tofurkey
butter nut squash soup
green beans
salad
black eyed pea salad
sweet potatoes
stuffing
red wine
all veggie friendly
Meat, and lots of it. To honor all of the meateaters I'm stuffing a chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey inside of a deer inside of a moose. Can't beat a mooveniturkducken.
"There are so many wonderful resources out there for recipes for those that wish to remove meat from this holiday."
There have ALWAYS been "wonderful resources" out there for those that don't eat meat. One is called "Just don't eat the fucking turkey." Very rare is the Thanksgiving table that just has turkey and nothing else.
Six Chippendale dancers, five bowls of Wheetabix, four cups of tap water, three French hens, two Pay Day candy bars and a Partridge Family recording.
Our upstairs neighbors have a big to-do every year -- both apartments open to family and friends (and dogs), with one couple providing a huge traditional turkey day feast, and the other offering up a mix of Southern cooking and European fare (he's African-American, she's Polish-Sudanese). Plus, whatever everyone else brings. We ate ourselves silly last year. Good times.
Oh dear...just the mention of turducken ewww. I also find those wierd injection things that are a huge syringe equally disturbing. Of course my buddy in TX sent me pics of both last year. He sent a pic of himself injecting a turducken with garlic cloves lol. Good times.
While I am looking forward to my little getaway (and ribs!) I think I will end up with turkey envy this year :(
I'll be gladly cooking and feeding friends who also aren't able to get home to family at Thanksgiving. Traditional bird and sides, some family favorites from the south, plus I always try to do something new each year. I think I'm going to introduce some new delicious carb, but I haven't decided which.
Turkey via Whole Foods from a Michigan farm
mashed potatoes
green bean casserole
cranberries
spoon bread
corn pudding
roasted sweet potatoes
rolls
wine and cider
3 kinds of pie
I've cooked 5 out of the last 8 years for a vegetarian with a wheat allergy and one of those years also for a vegan. It was easy to make some changes in a few recipes for each of them, neither were offended by us enjoying turkey (or dishes with gluten in them) and everyone went home with full bellies. It always felt like a real Thanksgiving.
I'm not sure... this will be my first Thanksgiving at my uncle's place in San Francisco. I know there will be 20 of us there, so I assume there will be turkey, potatoes, traditional stuff, plus some Greek stuff like hummus, grape leaves, etc.
FYI, I've been a vegetarian for twenty years, and I've never thrown a hissy fit over what other people eat.
Well this year I was thinking about not slaughtering a turd bird for to stuff my face with all night. I might gets me a torfutti bird or maybe bust a pork chop tofu spigget with organic crunberry sauwce, The only problemo is that all that soys based stuff gives me a case of the fart something awful and no one in my family will be thankful for that shit. Why everybody have to eat that same corny food every year for? I much rather have for me a cheeseburger or spaghetti and meatball.
FYI, I've been a vegetarian for twenty years, and I've never thrown a hissy fit over what other people eat.
Thank you for that. I don't scrunch my face all up with I hear someone order seitan so don't give me an "ugh" when I say I want the drumstick.
Oh dear...just the mention of turducken ewww.
I was kidding about that, you know. I wouldn't want to a turducken either. Well, to eat anyway. I'm going to stuff all those critters one inside the other just to see what it's like...
KIDDING! (again)
I'm hosting the Losers, loners + Legends dinner at my house for all thosw what don't have/don't want to be near a family.
I'm making a standing Rib Roast, a grilled turkey breast, some cornbread chorizo stuffing, Cherry Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Au Gratin Potatoes, Mashed potatoes, Both kinds of Gravy, Fresh baked bread, glazed carrots and whatever else I can think up.
All for about four or five people.
Food comas will ensue.
"vegan," i have long believed, is the saddest word in the english language. but perhaps i become too smug in my omnivorousness.
omnivorosity?
some communist friends are doing their version of a traditional feast. it's a potluck (duh), so i'm bringing a cheese platter and wine. i assume we'll wear berets, smoke clove cigarettes, and listen to woody and arlo.
Jon, I don't get what your saying? How did I disparage samaritans in my post? Or people with a moral compass? I think I expressed my disdain for the way it was phrased, as though our vegan friend here had suddenly been made privvy to some sort of universal truth that the rest of us are missing. I heartily encourage people to do good deeds, or to follow their moral compass, i just don't like the smugness that some people attach to a refusal to eat meat.
Also, is that an offer to buy me a PBR, because I would love one.
Gaigen, did you base your recipe off of this perhaps urban legend, perhaps real dish?
A mish mash of everyone's favorites. For the majority we'll have turkey. But for the 1 to 2 vegetarians, they'll bring and cook their own tofurkey. We then send around a list noting what's vegetarian and what's not so they can decide what they'd like to bring for themselves. Problem solved.
Our vegetarians are not the smug kind, but I totally work with some. They'll stand there in the kitchen telling us how bad for us our food is (though a low-protein, high-filler diet seems to be considered healthy. AND, may I add, they all seem to be perpetually ill).
I also love the "do you know how many chemicals are in that?" lecture while the talker chugs her Diet Coke.
Janaynay I totally know what you mean about smug vegetabletarians. They sit there right in front of the microwave around lunch time on purpose so they can make smug comments about the non-vegetabletarians food. They make me so self-conscience. Yeah, and not only are they sickly they always seem to be flatulent or have spinach in their teeth. I almost went out with a vegetablearian but I knew it wouldn't work out 'cause you have to like meat in your mouth to be with me.
Bailey's and other assorted intoxicants.
This place has saved my life: www.gobblegobble.com
Every year my folks come into town and I have them and friends over. Everyone brings something. The smoked turkey is delivered, ready to eat. I make stuffing and a couple potato dishes. That's it. The furniture and place settings don't match and I borrow my neighbor's plastic outdoor table to fit everyone. Casual and fun. I love Thanksgiving.
I'll be at my Mom's house and she usually makes an overcooked dry turkey with salty lumpy gravy and mashed potatoes. We drink a lot. But my favorite meal is the day after, when she makes turkey enchiladas. oh, so Mexilicious.
Standard Thanksgiving fare at my folks' house.
Fried turkey, mashed taters, stuffing, some other crap, a sprinkling of guilt and hurt feelings.
I'm vegetarian, but I can't stand any fake meat stuff. Tofurkey? Sounds like the devil's creation.
I'll be feasting on tons of home-cooked Indian food (none of it cooked by me, thankfully, though I may whip up some truffles or brownies for dessert).
oh, there might also be a nice helping of family fighting this year....
I shall be slaughtering a lamb and be heading a turkey in my backyard for the traditional feast of MEAT and lots of it. Humans weren't created so that we can only eat vegatables and feel sorry for animals.
2 hungry man xxl dinners - 1 traditional turkey and 1 backyard bbq. backyard bbq is the king - 2 grilled chicken patties and 2 grilled pork patties with mashed potatoes. was thinking of subbing the traditional turkey for the hungry man mexican-style feast, but it's not an xxl (only 1 lb. of food) and it'd go against everything the holiday stands for. look out cleveland!
Vegans, whether they are smug or not, bother you because your meat-eating behavior is cruel; you aren't just eating meat, but participating in torture. Righteousness scares you and your heart knows it.
Vegans like carrots in their butts. Or so I've heard.
you aren't just eating meat, but participating in torture.
Yes, torture... sweet, juicy, Mesquite-smoked, grilled torture...mmmm.
Yes, torture... sweet, juicy, Mesquite-smoked, grilled torture...mmmm.
*snicker*
As an ex-veg, that cracked me up. I've come back over to the dark side. And it tastes good.
"torture, sweet, juicy..." -- Gaigen is just plagiarizing a widespread joke printed on t-shirts, not being clever.
No one claims meat doesn't taste good. Running around groping people would probably feel good, at least for the groper. Killing seems like it would be satisfying and thrilling for the killer. Having slaves would make life easier. Exploiting has benefits. Alas, ignorance is bliss.
Alas, ignorance is bliss.
And char-broiled!
I may or may not be plagerizing a t-shirt but you're wasting valuable electricity typing tired stretched-to-the-breaking point cliches.
And I hope that's a hemp computer you're using or else you're a big fat hypocrite.
Traditional Thanksgiving stuff: Turkey, stuffing,mashed potatoes w/gravy, some kind of veggie hotdish, my Mom's homemade pecan rolls etc. etc. Plus, the Mrs. and I are bringing a chocolate mousse cake from Selmarie, which will either go mostly uneaten or be a big hit depending on how well my sister does cooking the turkey and stuffing.
It seems to me that the reasons why humanity should be (and is) evolving toward a more vegetarian lifestyle are:
1. It just isn't healthy to eat huge amounts of meat.
2. A mainly carnivorous lifestyle simply isn't sustainable for a human population that will hit 10 billion plus real soon.
Other reasons put forth such as cruelty, torture, species-ism etc. etc. display a "disneyfied" lack of understanding of the natural world and actually work against the shift toward vegetarianism.
Of course, our farming/livestock industry is unnecessarily cruel and should be massively reformed, but to say that meat eating is inherently "unrighteous" seems unbelievably myopic and childish. I'm waiting for the next frontier of animal rights protests; when people start travelling to the Wildebeest migration in Africa to throw themselves between the crocodiles and the Wildebeests; or winter in Patagonia to dive in and save the seals from the sharks and orcas.
Not trying to start a flame war, just procrastinating getting back to work. Happy Thanksgiving to all and sundry!
I would only be a hypocrite if I relished the fact that my used computer would be burned in China. Instead, I strive to reduce my footprint's damage by being conscious of it. Where's the harm in trying to make sure that animals aren't sick and suffering in tight cages before one stuffs his or her face? Do you prefer eating animals that endured brutal lives? It is not possible to eat meat and be kind about how they are raised and killed. And, it is not possible to be thankful to their sacrifice instead of mocking their suffering? You are behaving meanly. Lucky for you meat eaters, they actually taste better if they are raised with compassion, instead of scared full of adrenaline.
Righteousness scares you and your heart knows it.
Actually, self-rightousness does scare me quite a bit.
How 'bout everyone take a step back and recognize that ridiculing someone for what they eat -- whatever it may be -- is just as disrespectful as mocking someone's religion. We all have to eat, and we have the luxury in this country to choose what our food we want to eat. Veganism, vegetarianism, carnivorism and omnivorism are irrelevant in places where there's little to eat at all.
Thanksgiving is supposed to be about being thankful for what we have, right? So let's all be thankful that we have a choice in what we eat and what we don't.
1. It just isn't healthy to eat huge amounts of meat.
2. A mainly carnivorous lifestyle simply isn't sustainable for a human population that will hit 10 billion plus real soon.
Well, speaking for myself, I don't eat "huge amounts of meat". In fact, "huge amounts" of any one particular thing can be bad. But personally, I eat "meat" (poultry and fish pretty much exclusively) about three times a week. I eat more vegetables now in my (ahem) later years more than anything else.
2. Again, depends on what you mean by "mainly". At least in my circle, no one "mainly" diets on meat.
To be clear, I don't disagree with Cetus Warhol. I was confronting Gaigen and others not for what they eat but for their cavalier attitude towards meat eating. Why not be thankful to the animal as they are raised and as you discuss their life?
Where's the harm in trying to make sure that animals aren't sick and suffering in tight cages before one stuffs his or her face? Do you prefer eating animals that endured brutal lives? ... You are behaving meanly.
Where in this entire thread did someone say they only eat turkey that has been tourtured? How am I behaving "meanly"? All anyone has said is that they want to eat turkey this Thanksgiving. You're inventing new points to prove your "superiority". So if I eat free range chicken and beef from cows grown on self-sustaining farms that OK?
I'm almost done reading "The Carnivore's Dilemna". I'll loan it to you if you want. I think you need to read it.
Tofurkey's not that bad actually...
Oh hey veggie folks this looks really good. It was posted in the food section recently.
Deconstructed Green Bean Casserole
Oh man I'm gonna make that
What will be on my Thanksgiving dinner table this year?
I don't really know, but I'm sure it had...parents.
Veggie, had you taken more than 1 second to read my post, you would have noticed that I never said ALL vegans are smug. For the record, you are.
Is that high-horse you're perched upon free-range?
- Andrew, read my whole post and don't fixate on the word "righteous." I disagree that I am being "self-righteous" because I claim one who participates in animal torture (i.e., factory farming) would feel conflict from this un-righteous action and, thus, "bothered" by being confronted.
- Janaynay, have kind assumptions, please, as my comment wasn't directed at you; others used "smug," to which I replied. I don't tell you what is good for your health; I request that you reduce suffering.
Folks may attack me for defending animals from the disrespectful way that we treat and discuss them, if folks would like; I can take it or I wouldn't have confronted this issue in the first place. :-) Please apply kind actions/thoughts towards creatures, especially the ones you eat.
Consider this my middle finger to the self-righteous evangelistic vegan activists. (Please take note, I never welcome evangelism, whether it be of the religious variety or otherwise.)
On my table this year will be the traditional turkey (Butterball, from Aldi’s, indeterminate origin), cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, collard greens, and a pumpkin pie.
Veggie, if you are vegetarian, or vegan, that's fantastic. But using loaded words like "torture," "cruel," and "righteous" is no better than an anti-abortion evangelist using words like "murder" and YOU should realize that. I was vegetarian for three years, but for me that diet didn't work out so hot, so I now eat meat. I try to make informed and generally enlightened decisions about what I buy (or kill myself) to eat, why don't you just let me live the way I want to, and I am happy to let you eat the way you want to. Seems like most folks here just don't like your anti-meat proselytizing. Amen!
Thursday @ my beau's aunt's house = Turkey. I'm bringing rice pilaf.
Friday leftovers @ my sister's = Ham. Yum.
Saturday @ my Mom's second "Thanksgiving" = Pork. I'm bringing green beans toss with a mustard vinagrette.
Bases covered, I'd say.
not sure exactly what will be on the table (as I'm going to my boyfriend's mother's home for the holiday), but am sure it will include turkey, some sort of stuffing/dressing (the difference anyone? it's just about the location where it is baked, no?), some veggie, some cranberry, some potato, some pie.
although I am a pescetarian throughout the year, thanksgiving is the one day that I relish in the eating of turkey. I really enjoy how eating small bites of everything together (a little turkey, mashed potato, and stuffing...mmm....) reminds me of being younger and celebrating with all of my sisters and grammy. it helps remind me of how thankful I am for all of them. and that's what is really important, isn't it?
Dutch101, you invoked the veggie debate in this thread. Whereas Frannie respectfully answered the forum question with gratitude that no meat would be on her table, you chose to respond how bothered you were about non-meat smugness. I took the bait to publicly debate. I assume you don't want the government telling you what to eat. For now, you are stuck with a free society with free speech where I can proselytize all I want. In fact, I can even organize to get the government on my side. Reference California's Proposition 2:
it's not thanksgiving until someone whips out prop 2, course that's just how we roll in my family. quoting stuff, eating stuff, and drinking stuff.
Just had to weigh in here and say that The Omnivore's Dilemma is a brilliant book.
Now that somewhat cooler heads have prevailed...
The problem I had with your "attacks", veggie, was your evident assumption that everyone who choses to eat meat wholeheartedly endorses the torture and cruelty to the animals involved, giving little thought to the possibility that at least some of the people here may eat meat that has been raised and processed in the most humane way possible. What is one supposed to think about someone who bursts onto the board with a statement abuot meat eaters like "your meat-eating behavior is cruel; you aren't just eating meat, but participating in torture." Thanks for the whitewash generalization.
You've adjusted your argument with each post going from a general assumption on meat-eaters ("cruel" ... "torture.") to one that singles out those who partake of meat from " factory farming". That's fine. Hopefully, that means that some of the meat-eaters here have shown you that they are not knuckle-draggers with baby calves blood dripping from their lips.
I'm sorry my glib "jokes" went over like a lead baloon with you. Contrary to what you may think, I am NOT going to stuff a deer inside of a moose. But I will be eating turkey at the home of a friend who is as conscious of organics and cruelty-free farming as they come.
Could the meat industry as a whole do a better job of processing meat? Hell yeah! Could we do a better job of developing tolerance of those who chose a different dietary lifestyle than us? Evidently.
I respect your decision to become a vegetarian as an informed one. Give that same respect to others.
Maybe we can sit down and drink a cruelty-free beer one day (that's another joke).
i love this. it's almost like a real thanksgiving at someone's parents' house. (or perhaps parent's house, to increase the dysfunction.)
fwiw, i am as apathetic and oblivious to the suffering of animals raised to be food as they are to mine. i think that's fair.
Turkeys taste best with an extra special ingredient: fear.
And yes, this is exactly like a dysfunctional Thanksgiving. I never really thought of it that way!
Luckily, my vegetarian and carnivore friends alike are able to sit around a table and not argue or push our self-righteous crap on others.
Animals are here because they are meant to be eaten by us. You can look at it in several different ways but animals must be consumed, I don't care what kind of lives they live or condidtions, they don't care either. What I do care about is medium or medium rare.
Well, now that that's settled... anyone for fois gras? Madachode? Janaynay? Flange? C'mon, dig in, veggie...
Gaigen, if you really are offering me up some fois gras, i's gladly trade a pie for some of that action. I may even offer up some dressing, but You'd have to decide early, cuz that shit ain't gonna hang around long...
GP put me in a queue, so excuse second post...
Janaynay seems stuck in yesterday's argument.
Gaigen, earlier I meant to clarify that it is a type of meat-eating behavior (disrespectful in the way we raise, kill and aren't thankful for creatures) that I deemed as immoral in my first post, which wasn't specific and purposely provocative. I am being consistent and not changing to suit the argument--read on...
I do think complete vegan-behavior is the most moral (i.e., reduces creature suffering) and most sustainable for the planet (i.e, eating meat is the least efficient transfer of calories from land to human).
Here's my calorie consumption behavior axiom hierarchy. (I think people shouldn't define themselves, but their behavior.)
1- I don't to keep creatures in the wild from eating one another, as they have no choice. (Animals are meant to be consumed by each other or people who don't know better. If you think animals are meant to be consumed by us, how about I come eat you, since we are animals in your logic?)
2- I try to eat vegan as often as I can;
3- I try to eat vegetarian next often;
4- I try to support compassionate meat eating, for example when I care for other animals and need to feed creatures to them;
5- I believe in negotiation and compromise, so I seek any settlements that result in less suffering, even if it makes me look inconsistent or that I'm changing my argument;
6- I try to be kind to people with Janaynay's attitude and behavior, while also confronting it. Plus, she exists in my world, in part, to test my compassion, for which I can reduce my own suffering! :-)
I understand that some here think animals are objects and have no moral rights and that we can't even talk about the topic, even when others bring it up. The interesting thing to me is: when does society get to tell you that you can't do something with your "property" when some of us (apparently not many folks here) think what you are doing is morally wrong? Some of the attitude represented by me and many of you here parallels the abolitionist movement (and animal welfare is a movement, like it or not).
GB putting me in a queue is like getting a timeout from you mom when you go home for Thanksgiving dinner! Now that reminds me our youth :-) I'm going to throw green beans from over here.
I for one think that this argument is much better than the usual "off topic Thanksgiving thread argument," which is normally about mistreatment of Native Americans and the validity of Thanksgiving as a Holiday (before that starts up again- Let's agree that T-giving has become a general harvest time feast where we reflect upon the bounties of the natural world and upon those people whom we love and are thankful for-- and its significance has grown far beyond the Colonialist Squanto Myth we were indoctrinated with as children).
Perhaps next year's argument can be about whether it's inappropriate to spend Thanksgiving with your family if you are supposed to be with the people you are most thankful for. Those that hate their families are perhaps better served by spending it with their friends, since they are the ones they really love and cherish? The eternal rootless urbanite question.
Hold Off Everybody!!! Save it for next year! ;-)
Seriously? You really think I enjoy eating frightened animals?
Mom, Janaynay is teasing me. Can you either put her in a timeout or release me?! :-)
(i.e, eating meat is the least efficient transfer of calories from land to human
The efficient transfer of calories... now THAT'S what Thanksgiving is all about! I'm about to transfer some calories over to the couch and watch me some football! Let's (not) go, Lions!
(kidding again, veggie. God, why can't I stop myself?)
OK, I'll admit it, Gaigen; that made me crack up a bit.
I'll check into the moderation queue, Veggie -- you either added more links than our spam filter would allow, or you forgot to add the letter in the box below.
OK, I'll admit it, Gaigen; that made me crack up a bit.
What? veggie laughed???? Everytime a vegetarian laughs, an angel gets his wings...
"that's right zuzu... way to go Clarence."
Oy,
TG, for me, is really all about the carbs.
Sure, I eat some turkey (that was tortured, forced to go to public school, and slaughtered) ... but GOD DAMN, my stuffing and potato dishes are The Best.
My stuffing does not go in the bird, but it tastes like it did, bitch. My "Potatoes Gourmet" recipe (basically shredded potatoes with a lotta sour cream, chives, cheddar, butter) always gets totally demolished, whether I double or triple the recipe.
I *will* gain 5 pounds this weekend.
Next week: Alice and Friends.
Urban Ethos [26]
What is Chicago's "urban ethos"?
Cool Glass of... [16]
What're you drinking?
Supreme Decision [22]
What's your reaction to the Supreme Court's decision on the Affordable Care Act?
Taking it to the Streets [20]
Chicago Street Fairs: Revolting or Awesome?
I Can Be Cruel [9]
Be real: what is the meanest thing you've ever done?
Andrew / November 24, 2008 12:26 AM
We're having Thanksgiving with my aunt and uncle for the first time, and I think they're going fairly traditional -- turkey, mashed potatoes, all that. But knowing my uncle, he'll find a way to put a twist on the tradition. I'm looking forward to seeing what that twist turns out to be.