{Vegetarian} Thanksgiving

I have really come to appreciate Thanksgiving over the years.  As a child, it seemed sort of boring, nothing more than a dinner.  No presents, no special songs, no real decorating.  But now that I'm an adult, I really love the simplicity of the holiday.  Maybe it could use a special carol, but I would add nothing more.  Getting together with family and loved ones just to have a simple meal and give thanks.....it's just perfect as is.

We had DH's family over at our house this year, but it ended up being a smaller group than expected.  But it was a lovely day, and after the meal we all just ended up sitting around, chatting for hours.  It was so nice!

This was my 2nd Thanksgiving as a vegetarian and I must admit that Thanksgiving Day is the only day of the year where I re-think eating veggie and consider getting a big 'ol plate of turkey.  My DH is a wonderful chef (no really, that's what he does for a living) so he is always in charge of the turkey when we host the holiday.  And it smelled wonderful!  However, I didn't budge, and still enjoyed a fantastic, vegetarian meal.  I think the key is to have lots of delicious veggie options - and we did!  I made a tasty walnut-herb stuffing that everyone seemed to love - it got a lot of compliments.  The recipe is from Martha Stewart  (I modified the recipe & used vegetable stock instead of chicken).  I usually skip stuffing altogether, but this year I had a second helping of it!  We also made mashed potatoes (DH made them and they turned out way better than mine ever do) & cranberry sauce.  Our family brought Brussels sprouts, green beans and onions and sweet potatoes with marshmallows.  Everything was so delicious!

Our 6-year-old was especially helpful, setting the table and doing little tasks for us to help get ready.  As her reward, she got to eat her meal on one of the "fancy" plates:

Little Dude found a quiet moment to sit by the fire and look through a book:

Here's a shot of the best pumpkin cheesecake ever.  I think it's going to be my Thanksgiving staple from now on - wherever I go, it goes.  The recipe is from The New Best Recipe and it is soooo good.  In fact, I had a piece for breakfast this morning (blush).

Isn't that one of the best things about having Thanksgiving at your own house......the leftovers!

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!
-Cheryl