Well, I know where MY spark is.
Ok, it's not as hard as you might think.
First of all, I have a complete feast on the table without even doing the Traditional Turkey foods because our family eats Lebanese food WITH the Turkey Day stuff. I know, we're gluttons. But I'm truly perfectly happy with feasting on just a handful of really flavorful favorite dishes that we always make.
Not only that but my family also knows that the 4 of us (Mary, Sean, Alison & Connor) don't consume dairy at all so all 'main' dishes are made without cheese or milk, etc. I am extremely grateful that my extended family goes out of their way to bring items that comply with the no dairy thing. I'm the only one of the 4 of us that's completely vegan.
So here's what I eat in no particular order with the Leb food and the Gobble food items side by side - note that it is a very heavy starch meal for me butt (leaving the typo, ha!) that's the whole point...
tofu ranch dipI've been making this forever - it's tofu and garlic and herbs and spices blended with soymilk and a touch of vinegar and a scoop of Vegenaise (vegan mayonnaise - no egg and all good oils, but still fatty so I go easy on it.) This is part of the appetizer round before the actual meal but it's got lots of protein and it's sooooo fresh and flavorful. I eat it with crudites (cut up veggies) to get some fiber in before my hunk-o-starch dinner. Plus I can easily pop bites in while I'm still cooking the meal and not be starving (because, ironically, when you are the one cooking all day, you often forget to eat!)
stuffed/rolled grapeleaves Lots of good long grain rice, onions, lemon juice, dill, mint - rolled into grapeleaves and cooked to perfection; I can live on these things and the whole family fights over the last ones in the pot. All the fun is in making them (right, Carly? LOL) but all the true joy is in gobbling them up.
mashed potatoes, vegan-styleCook red potatoes (skins removed) and mash with plain soy milk and some Earth Balance (vegan) margarine, salt and pepper. Add a pinch of California-style garlic powder if your Mom is standing over your shoulder and insists that it needs it even if you think it doesn't but she won't go away and she "did the whole turkey" for you and she's your Mom so you gotta do it (optional, obviously). When your arm gets tired of mashing (because I use a real old fashion hand-masher not a mixer) get your dad to come over and finish off the work. Top with vegan "brown" gravy (I make my own with veggie broth and a packet of vegan gravy mix from the health food store but it's about as easy to use flour and spices) and if you're really feeling frisky, drizzle some olive oil in a pan and saute up some mushrooms and onions to throw on top of the potatoes with the gravy. Yummmmm.
Orange YamsI have no idea how my aunt makes this, but it's supposedly very simple and it's made with fresh yams, organic sugar and the juice of oranges from her neighbor's tree so Mary was loving it.
Hello, is that enough starch?
No?
Ok...
TabboulehThis is a meal-unto-itself salad and a standby at every family meal. My mom makes it the best because she grinds the onions up just right. It's got bulgar (cracked wheat = starch!), a collander-full of parsley finely chopped, tomato, cucumber, white and green onions, lemon juice, olive oil and garlic. It sounds like 'eh, green and red and white stuff' but I'm telling you it's the bomb. I heart Tabbouleh.
Hummus with pitaThis is really more of an appetizer but I save some hummus room for dinnertime, too, because it has lots of protein (and starch!). It's made with garbanzo beans, tahini (sesame seed paste), a bit of olive oil a hellalot of fresh garlic, salt, pepper, and lemonjuice from the weird hybrid lemons on my mom's tree that think they're really oranges. Plop it all in a food processor, call your mother-in-law in the northern half of the state to say Happy Thanksgiving while it's running and then use the running noise in the background as your reason for getting off the phone because you can't imagine what all that ruckus is about and you must go check it out, bye. You cut the pita in little wedges and dip it into the hummus. If you're really experienced you also take your pita wedge through the pile of tabbouleh on your plate and you make little humouleh sandwiches. I would not recommend doing this on your first try eating tabbouleh because you'll probably drop bits of tabbouleh all over the place and wish you could use a fork but it's considered rude to eat Lebanese food with a fork so no.
cranberry-orange relishOpen a bag of Oceanspray crans, measure 3 cups into the food processor, juice 3 of Mary's Mom's weird oranges and add that juice and then one whole orange, too. Blend. Call the other Mother-in-law who's originally from Maine and will tawk yawr eahr awf and use the same blending noise as your 'out' right after you get your Happy Turkey day wishes in edgewise. Tell your husband HE will call the father-in-law. Pour into bowl and 1/2 cup organic sugar. Stir lightly and let sit at least 30 minutes to sweeten through. OMG, it makes your tongue dance. I want to eat it on everything.
'this stuffing rocks' stuffingNamed by my brother, I just use a cornbread-based box mix (one without hydro-oils if you can find it - I had to go with good Ol' Mrs Cub's this year because I couldn't get my act together and make it to Whole Foods before the big day and I certainly didn't have time to make homemade cornbread and work from scratch this time like I have in years past) and throw lots of celery and a mixture of sweet Vidalia white and red onions, chopped, in a huge mound of Earth Balance margarine in a large skillet to saute/soften and stir it all up. I added some veggie broth to the final stir to keep it (I hate this word) moist. (ugh) Sprinkle with the lightest touch of ground sage and thyme and make sure you salt and pepper it enough. Lightly grease a large casserole dish and plop the stuffing (which rocks, remember) into it and keep warm in the oven until serving. Tell your little brother to stop putting his mangey hands in your rockin' stuffin' oven and just wait like everyone else. When you put this on your plate it must be next to the cranberry relish and the taters and gravy. Must.
Now, we get all old-school vegetarian....
Kiss SaladBecause we keep it simple. Tons of organic greens- the springiest ones you can find (we are spoiled in Cali, of course) shredded carrots, thinly sliced red onion, chopped yellow peppers, a little celery, and a heaping bowlful of caramelized pecans. (Earth Balace marg in a skillet, throw in handfuls of fresh pecan halves, stir and brown then add a very light sprinkling of organic sugar over low/med heat and stir continuously until the nuts carmelize - remove to cool immediately on a parchment-lined plate and they'll get all crispy. Watch your dad closely because he's been known to wander off with fistfuls of them while they're still cooling.) Toss all this with a homemade vinegrette that's garlicky and slightly sweet due to a generous drizzle of pure maple syrup in it and just the hintyest hint of basil.
green beansWe don't do "the casserole". Nobody likes it because we're so used to actually seeing and tasting our veggies, I guess! I get a couple pounds of fresh green beans, snip the ends, clean them then let.them.dry.completely before sauteing them with sliced onions and a combo of olive oil and a bit of Earth Balance over very high heat. They are pretty much like stir-fried beans, so you only need a little oil. Once they turn a beautiful bright green color, add a 1/2 cup or so of veggie broth, reduce heat and cover to steam them until tender, several minutes (but don't overcook them). So simple and everyone raves over them.
There are other things I don't eat, which either fall under the 'extras' category or the 'meat' category.
- This year, in place of any jello dish, my mom made some evil pistachio pudding pineapple concoction that other people enjoyed. No thanks for me.
- Of course I don't do the turkey - or the turkey-made gravy that my aunt was nice enough to stand at my stove, stirring for an hour, to make.
- There were yeast rolls which were way too white for my blood. Pita is white, too, but at least I know it's only made from 3 simple ingredients and I had plenty of starch anyway (don't you think?!)
- Kibbe Naye is a Leb meat dish which is, uh, raw ground beef (yes, really - some people use raw lamb, though) ground superfine and mixed with supercold soaked bulgar and finely ground onion and traditional Leb spices. You mush it all together and make it into a round ballish mound on a plate (kibbe=ball, naye=raw), serve it cold and scoop it up with pita wedges and eat it with your hands (the things we do with pita, I tell ya!). I haven't eaten that since I was about 10. It's a family favorite, but not for me now.
So let's recap Mary's plate:
-A small pyramid of grapeleaves (I like to put 6 - 3 on bottom, 2 on that, 1 on that- see? a pyramid!)
-A big ol' pile of vegan taters with vegan gravy
-A smaller but still sizeable pile of the rockin' stuffing
-Cranberry-orange relish in a chunky, statuesque pile
-Tabbouleh scooped in the middle of the plate (so the lemon juice kind of stays in the middle.)
-Hummus plopped next to the tabbouleh and a few pita wedges on the side for scoop-n-eating.
-Orange yams in a small cornery spot next to the stuffing and relish.
-Green beans (and I try to take extra onions because I love onions) next to the yams.
-Kiss Salad all stacked up high and falling all over the place with the nuts getting everywhere
-Red wine (in a glass, of course, not on the plate!)
Thank you, God, for food and mouths and tummies all created by you in Your image, and that you brought my mother here to cook the cold dead turkey for me so I didn't have to touch it, Amen.
Dessert, you ask?
For dessert, I do this:
I run upstairs to brush my teeth and put fresh lipgloss on, get a look at my butt in the full length mirror behind me and say to that lady it's attached to: "Holy Hell, woman, dessert, your ass!"
Then I eat some anyway.
My sis brought some horribly sinful Caramel Apple pie and I had a tiny sliver of it knowing it was loaded with sugar. I stayed away from the caramel topping but devoured the apples and crust with my coffee. Yum.
There was also a regular pumpkin pie, a pecan pie and some lemon bars and brownies, all of which I don't touch. Egg, butter, sugar, ick.
If I had time and if I WASN'T hosting Thanksgiving this year, I would have made my famous vegan pumpkin pie. It's like a custard pie and it's very rich and yummy and flavorful. I truly missed it. But alas, SuperMary™ could only be so super this year.
So now tell me how thankful you are for me obeying the law here.
I have some random, unorganized photos of all this stuff. Maybe I'll post them later.
Hope that helps!
PS- to answer some questions in your post:
- regular cream of mushroom soup is horrid. Staaaay away from it! The veganized options still aren't that great - very processed. Remember, things in can = not best options. However I've made my own creamy mushroom soup with soy milk and wild mushrooms and it's awesome.
- stuffing isn't required to have meat in it, no. LOL
- marshmallows, smarchmallows. Make a flavorful and sweet sweet potato or yam dish and top with chopped carmelized nuts and you won't miss the white toasty fluff stuff.
!!!)
You don't have to go without gravy when it's so incredibly piss-easy to make. (Goes wonderfully with spicy coconutty silverbeet 
)
Doesn't taste any different. Butter? MARGARINE! It's all good. And it all produces the same result. Fabulous.
