Saturday, November 28, 2009

Hold the Turkey

Thanksgiving with it nickname of Turkey Day isn’t exactly my best holiday since I’m a vegetarian. I’ve been a one for twenty-five years and no one else in my family is a vegetarian, so long ago we realized that going to a restaurant was the best option.

The first question people usually ask is what I eat. The answer is simple. I eat everything except meat, fish or fowl. And no I’m not a bean freak or a tofu nut. I don’t worry about what I’m going to eat either. It does turn out that Thanksgiving is usually carbs on parade for me. Salad and vegetables seem to get short shift on holiday dinners.

One year we went to a restaurant that had a vegetarian option. It was located in Topanga Canyon and the outdoor tables were built into a hillside overlooking a creek. Very picturesque, but very small portions. My son ate his turkey dinner and then ate most of my not turkey dinner. I’m still hearing about that Thanksgiving.

Lately we’ve been going to a place at the beach. Yesterday they offered a buffet with turkey, shrimp, fish ham and roast beef, along with stuffing, rice, mashed potatoes, green beans, carrots, and caesar salad. Like I said, my dinner ends up being a carb fiesta. But who cares. The company was good and watching the sun sink into the ocean was serene. I had a great view of Catalina and was on the lookout for dolphins swimming by. I didn’t see any this time, but there were lots of pelicans swooping into the water picking up their dinner. The window next to me was open and I thought one of the sea gulls was going to step in and join us.

We took Malibu Canyon to get there. It goes from through open meadows dotted with California oaks and then between tall rocky mountains before the ocean opens in front of you. It was dark and mysterious on the way back.

I don’t have a favorite Thanksgiving recipe to share, but then by now everybody is probably fooded out anyway. Christmas/Hanukkah are my favorite food holiday. They're about cookies, holiday bread, donuts and potato pancakes with a yule log cake thrown in. If we share Christmas recipes, I'll have one to share for sure.

6 comments:

Mason Canyon said...

I'd love to hear about the potato pancakes.

Camille Minichino said...

A sweet recipe, please, Betty!

Betty Hechtman said...

I'll look through my recipe file and when we do our Christmas blog, I'll post a recipe. For now, I'm down to the last week of my rewrite and getting a little crazy.

Julie said...

Love that drive from the 101 to PCH. When my daughter was little, we had to honk the horn whenever we went thru the little tunnel. Good luck with the rewrite!

Linda O. Johnston said...

Sorry to hear that you didn't see any dolphins, Betty, but pelicans are fun to watch, too. And I agree that going over Malibu Canyon is wonderful! Good luck from me, too, on your rewrite.

Betty Hechtman said...

Thanks for the good wished Julie and LInda. The tricky part with the rewrite is change one scene and suddenly the next one doesn't make sense.

And Julie, I thought about honking the horn, or telling my son to since he was driving, as we went through the tunnel.