Our vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner and weekend plans

[davidfcooper]

Our siblings and parents all had other plans this year, so we hosted our own vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner. We served baked pumpkin stew

Baked pumpkin stew.jpg, originally uploaded by shoshndavid.

, honey glazed tofu

Honey glazed tofu.jpg, originally uploaded by shoshndavid.

, couscous pilaf

Couscous pilaf with edamame and carrot.jpg, originally uploaded by shoshndavid.

, pumpkin cookies, and our guests' culinary contributions.

Our guests included Jane (a friend from our old shul) who brought salad and chocolate chip cookies, her 15 year old son Daniel, and Bella (a friend from our new shul) who brought a broccoli casserol. Jane told us about how she earns $ playing music in the subway, selling crafts at flea markets, substitute teaching, and as a landlady. Bella told us about her new job as a social action coordinator for a very large shul in Manhattan, and about how as a college student spending a junior year in Israel she had to deal with government bureaucrats regarding her status as a former Israeli who is now a US citizen (her family left Israel decades earlier, but the bureaucrats were upset that she entered the country with a US rather than an Israeli passport). It was very pleasant, not an overwhelming amount of work, and less stressful than meals with relatives (which await us soon; new research indicates that “friends substitute perfectly well for family.”)

Tomorrow we will ransom our car from our mechanic, drive to my in-laws in Connecticut, and on Saturday have dinner with my family at my sister and sister-in-law in New Rochelle en route back to Brooklyn. On Sunday we'll visit a friend in Brooklyn Heights who is recovering from surgery.

Comments

[davidfcooper.livejournal.com]

Be sure to use a cooking pumpkin not an ornamental one (which lacks taste), or substitute a kabocha squash (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kabocha).

1 can chickpeas
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 large tomatoes, chopped (I used 1/2 a can of chopped tomatoes)
1 large green pepped, chopped
Salt substitute and pepper to taste
1 tsp. raw, natural sugar
1 cup dried apricots (I cut them in half)
3 small white potatoes, cut into chunks
3 medium sweet potatoes, cut into chunks
2 cups broth (the original recipe calls for this amount, but you may want to use
less.)
1 large pumpkin
1/4 cup sherry
1 lb whole kernel corn (The original recipe calls for canned corn. I used
frozen corn. I did not have room for the entire amount.)

Brown the onion and garlic in 3 Tbsp. of oil in a large pot. Add tomatoes,
green pepper, salt substitute, pepper, sugar, apricots, potatoes and broth.
Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for one hour. In the meantime, cut a lid
out of the pumpkin. Remove the seeds and stringy membrane. Moisten a paper
towel with oil and rub the outside of the pumpkin. Season lightly with salt
substitute and pepper. Place the pumpkin in a large, shallow pan.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. When the stew is finished simmering, pour it
into the pumpkin. (Note: be careful to leave a little room for the corn and
sherry.) Cover with the lid. Bake 1 hour or until the outside of the pumpkin
is shiny and brown. Lift the lid. Stir in the sherry and corn. Bake another
15 minutes. Do not let the pumpkin get too soft or you will not be able to lift
it out of the baking dish. Serve directly from the pumpkin. Add some of the
cooked pumpkin, if desired. Serves 12.

Adapted from Today"s Living November 1989