Feast number 2

I feel like a marathon eater after this weekend.  Sunday was my second Thanksgiving in Southern CA.  This one was with Kyle’s fam and it was a bit more indulgent than Saturday because it involved an entire day of feasting.

To put it bluntly, at no point on Sunday did I not feel full. 

The day started with a 7:45 wake-up call because yours-truly wanted to get some form of exercise in prior to gorging my face.  Kyle wasn’t pleased, but wifey gets what wifey wants.  :)  It was raining hard, but Kyle’s parents’ place has an indoor gym.

Following 20 minutes of cardio, I got cleaned up and pre-gamed with the above.

Who eats Thanksgiving appetizers for breakfast?  Champions.  That’s who. 

I had two apples, carrots, and hummus hummus hummus.

You’d never know it by this photo, but this was only 1/4th of the day’s eats.  We still had to bring it all over to Kyle’s brother’s place where the football watching cooking was actually going down.

With so much stuff booze to shlep, it’s a good thing the kids toys were available. 

They were busy having a dance party (as we all are from time to time).

Once we had unloaded all the goods and the turkey was in the oven, the munchies came out.  For once in my life, football wasn’t the first thing on my mind.  Instead, Mary’s Gone crackers and Athenos hummus had my undivided attention.

Ok, ok, that’s a lie.  These cuties did steal me away from the food to play.

Being the good aunt that I am, I shared my years of insight about what Thanksgiving is all about…giving thanks gluttony.

And then we practiced for later…

Thatta girl!  Don’t waste time on the bread filler…you gotta go for the big ticket items…taters, stuffing, and roasted veggies…with pumpkin pie as the closer.

Kyle’s sister did all the decorating.

Ferrah did the un-decorating.

Still prepping…

While the food was in the oven…

We took some photos. 

Seems innocent enough, right?

Wrong.

Very very wrong.

Continuing the wall of shame photos…

Who spiked the apple juice?  Because these aren’t sober eyes.

And these aren’t sober antics.

Unless you’re 1 1/2 years old…oh.  I guess she’s got an excuse. 

It looks like I didn’t get the memo on the plaid theme.  What I lacked in matchy matchy attire, I made up for with food.  I may not be fashion coordinated, but I am coordinated where it counts…in the kitchen.

I brought a vegan soup to share with everyone, and as promised, here are the details.

The recipe is from the Real Food Daily cookbook that I received for my birthday.  Of course, I modified it a touch here and there because I can’t seem to ever follow a recipe to a “T”.

Curried Yellow Split Pea Soup

Ingredients:

• 2 cups yellow split peas
• 8 cups vegetable broth (I didn’t keep track of how much I actually used)
• 1 bay leaf (I used 1 tsp crushed leaves)
• 1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 2 large carrots, chopped (I used 4)
• 1 large parsnip, chopped
• 1 cup butternut squash, peeled, chopped
• 1 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• mint leaves (I omitted this and added a shake or coriander instead)

*I also added 1/4 cup Israeli couscous and a dash of fresh ground pepper, while I omitted the kombu (didn’t have any) and salt.  Also, aside from the onion, I left the veggies in fairly large chunks. 

Directions:

Combine broth, peas, bay leaf, and kombu in heavy pot.  Bring to simmer over high heat, occasionally skimming the film that rises to the top off.

Decrease heat and let the peas simmer on low until they are tender.  Add the chopped veggies, seasonings, and let it simmer some more.  Depending on how thick you want the soup, you may have to add more broth at this point (I did). 

 

When it comes to chopping onions, it looks like my O chem lab goggles are finally doing me some good!

 

 

Since it had been stored two nights in the fridge, all I had to do was reheat it on Sunday.  I was nervous it would separate or something, making the texture off, but it was totally fine. 

It smelled INSANELY yummy as the curry started permeating throughout the room.  I was sooooo excited to try it!

Can you tell?  [freak]

Everyone else got soup served in mugs, but I wanted a larger portion because I have an appetite that doesn’t quit. 

Soups on!

OH. MY. WORD.  Favorite thing I had all day week.  In fact, I can’t remember the most recent thing I had that topped this dish.  Guess I should check my blog archives…haha.  Anyway, this was truly fantastic.  The curry was perfect.  Not overwhelming, but definitely present.  And the split peas were soft with just enough texture so they weren’t total mush (which was a concern of mine being served after a couple days of stewing).  I purposefully chopped the veggies into larger pieces, so they didn’t disintegrate either, and it worked out exactly as I anticipated.  Basically, everything about the dish exceeded any of my expectations. 

The rest of the grub: turkey, rolls, spinach madeline, mashed potatoes, roasted brussels and leeks, roasted sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and carrots, salad, pearled onions, and jello.

Spring lettuce, granny smith apples, oranges, dried cranberries and a home-made balsamic dijon vinaigrette. 

 

Like I said, I started with soup.

Then moved onto the veg.

Ok, seriously, when I was plating this, I was already stuffed.  I kept adding food thinking “Elise, where the heck are you imagining this is going?”  And yet I kept on plating…

I could eat roasted veggies ‘til the cows come home.  And I don’t even know where these proverbial cows are, so I suspect I’d be waiting a while.  THAT’S how much I love roasted veggies.

I like salad, too, but on Thanksgiving it feels like an amateur option.  I still had some because it would be disrespectful for the vegan to pass on salad, right?

I was SO dang stuffed after polishing off my plate, I felt like I was about to pop at the seams.  Why oh why didn’t I listen to my inner voice telling me to stop while I was ahead?  Oh that’s right, because I’m a champion when it comes to Thanksgiving feasting.  

Earmuffs.  See?  I taught them well.  🙂

Yes, of course I had room for dessert.  Did you really need to ask?