Almost-vegan Thanksgiving dinner

Dinner
Originally uploaded by Maria in Toronto

As loyal readers know, it’s been discovered that the milk protein makes me really sick. So now I am on a restricted diet in which I can’t have any milk products including butter, cream and cheese. Thanksgiving is a difficult time since almost everything involves a ton of butter. We decided I would cook Thanksgiving dinner for us. I made a delicious vegan carrot soup with a hint of ginger and curry.
This is one of the most delicious soups I ever made.
First I chopped onion and garlic and fried it in olive oil, then I added the carrots and potatoes.Then I added two cups of vegetable bouillon, salt and pepper, one teaspoon curry powder and half a cup of chopped fresh ginger. I let it boil for about 30 minutes and then I pureed it in the blender. It was so delicious.
I also made an applesauce cranberry Jello (that’s the only non-vegan thing in the whole menu). I made my own applesauce, with no sugar added.
As a main dish I made baked butternut squash in cashew sauce. It was more difficult than I thought to chop the squash (it was really really difficult). It took about 45 minutes in the oven to be ready.

And as a side I made a “stuffing” with fried onions, garlic and celery and bread crumbs. I baked it for 20 minutes as a roast.
Our vegetarian almost vegan Thanksgiving menu was delicious, but it took so long to make that when I asked James what he was thankful for all he could come up with was “I am thankful that dinner is finally ready”. Hah!

La Traviata

I’m so excited, I got tickets for me and my mom to go see La Traviata at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. It’s a production by Franco Zefirelli and I’m really looking forward to seeing it. I have a DVD of Carmen, produced by Zefirelli, and it is amazing. I’m sure we are going to enjoy it live.
I’m also glad I’m going, since no one ever wants to go to the opera with me. A lot of people think it’s boring. I insist it’s because they’ve never been and don’t really know opera. Opera is dramatic, opera is romantic, it’s a predecessor to musicals. I love it. Plus Verdi is light, anyway (I probably wouldn’t want to go to a Wagner opera either).

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Going on vacation

Finally I am taking the 3 vacation days that I carried over from last year. I just bought my ticket to go to New York City. My mom will meet me there and we will hang out and take over Manhattan!
We are going to hit the Guggenheim and catch the Spanish painting exhibition. This is the main reason why I wanted to go to New York before March 28. This is the exhibition where a Goya painting was heading before it was stolen. More info about the stolen painting here (link). The painting has now been recovered and is now showing in the museum.
We will probably go to the Radical Lace and Subversive Knitting exhibition at the Museum of Art and Design. I am so looking forward to that one.
We are going to see one or two Broadway musicals, we love them. I still don’t know what we are going to see. Any recommendations?
Finally we are hitting at least 3 yarn stores in Manhattan. This is where I need help from my readers. Where do you recommend that we go?

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And Willie says… EARLY SPRING!

Groundhog Day is one of my favourite “holidays”. It is midway between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox. It means half of winter is gone and we are heading into spring.

This morning Willie came out. It is a rookie Willie, since the previous one died during the summer, so they had to find another albino groundhog to do the job. But he was very well-received and he did not see his shadow.

This means that we will have an early spring. Yaaay for Willie!

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