The Aroma of Thanksgiving Day

Ahhhhh. The whole house smelled amazing. My mom is a fantastic cook, and the preparation she does is intense but sooooooo worth the effort because our appreciation is boundless.  🙂

So it’s day 25 of my 30-day vegetarian trial, and it’s Thanksgiving, one of only two days a year my family has turkey (though it’s a heavy meat-eating family all year). The aromas were fantastic, but I was glad to realize it wasn’t just turkey that smelled so good. Mom’s dressing in particular has a fabulous aroma.

No Turkey . . . and No Dressing 🙁

We sat down to Thanksgiving dinner and said our thanks and started passing and serving the food. Mom had put the turkey next to my brother, as far from me as possible so it wouldn’t even come around to me, actually, since she was to my left and could stop the turkey there. So the first thing next to me was mashed potatoes, easy. The gravy was in front of me but I like gravy on both the mashed potatoes and the dressing, so I reached behind me to the side tray table for the dressing. As I set it next to my plate to take a serving, Mom leans over to me a bit and says “it has sausage in it.” My mouth fell open, I kid you not. “What? Aww, man! That’s my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner.” And I passed the dish on to Hannah, my neice. My Thanksgiving dinner ended up consisting of mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and a dinner roll. I don’t think anyone even noticed though.

It’s not that we’re all so self-centered we don’t notice each other, but things are a little weird when we’re all here. The three-year old has fairly frequent “meltdowns” now, and she and her brother do not behave as well at Mom & Dad’s if their parents are also in attendance. There are some old scars between some of the adults, and so our conversation and entertainment focuses on the kids. The day went well overall, everyone enjoyed the meal and the company, we played some games and my brother’s family left to make the 90-minute drive back home.

At which point it was actually our regular 5PM wine time, so Mom, Dad, and I sat down with the “Sunday” wine glasses (about 2x the regular ones) to relax visit, and talk about the day.

Thanksgiving Night – no Sneaking Bites

Not eating meat at the Thanksgiving dinner table really wasn’t that bad, I realized turkey in and of itself doesn’t have a lot of smell, and I certainly didn’t leave the table hungry. I stayed out of the kitchen chatting with my niece while the turkey was being carved, because I’m usually the one sneaking little quick bites of the juicy little pieces along the edge during the carving. So that particular temptation was avoided altogether. But later in the evening, that’s when it was kind of hard. The best thing about having turkey for Thanksgiving is having leftover turkey for quick snacks, good sandwiches, casseroles . . . and when I went to the ‘fridge to get my desert salad that I hadn’t finished earlier, that was the hardest part of the day actually, because my hand automatically reached for the tupperware full of turkey.

I Made It

But, I made it. I didn’t take out any turkey. And now there are just five more days of my first 30-day trial left and I have no concern that I’ll slip up and break the vegetarian diet.

Will it be a permanent change? I’ll have to think about that, actually. While I had great energy early in the month, as the time wore on I wore down and the last few days I’ve actually had a bit of a cold or something. Some of my vegetarian friends have recommended certain vitamins or supplements, so I’ll probably give that a try if I continue to not eat meat after the 30-day trial ends.

The thing I liked most about the vegetarian diet in Vegas was that over the course of the first two weeks, my jeans started to fit better. 🙂  But now I’m in the Midwest and the meals are bigger. I’m not sure that I’ve gained weight since coming home, but I definitely have to watch the portions more carefully here than when I’m eating alone on the road.