A vegan almost Thanksgiving ........... almost

 My mother and father met a man who was normally a drunk and invited him to Thanksgiving.  We never did that in the Midwest invite a complete stranger to a Thanksgiving meal.  The man they invited to the Thanksgiving meal was a vegan.  So, while I had my Thanksgiving meal with rice potatoes and corn casserole, we had to have some vegan food for this vegan.   We made buttery green beans for him and extra corn casserole for him.  He bought to the dinner red wine.   He almost ate the corn casserole , however he asked what is int the ingredients of the corn casserole?!   We told him and he asked us to go get the box of Ritz crackers.   He said out loud the ingredients proving to us this was not a vegan dish.  So, he just ate the buttery green beans and red wine as a vegan.    The word vegan came across my table once before in the Midwest before moving here in the Bay area.   My parents went on vacation and left my siblings for three days with this lady vegan.  She was dating a man who was a sworn vegan and he had invited her out on a date on a Saturday.  My parents had given her permission to go on the date and we could tag along.   We went to a restaurant where the lights were dim in the night time.   They served breakfast after 6pm.  I wanted an egg omelette with ham.  However, the babysitter lady said since she was paying at this restaurant, I was to have a vegan omelette instead.  I tried arguing with her on the topic but she won this time, as a Midwestern vegan.   So, I had spinach in my omelette instead of the ham.

In the Midwest in the early 80's a vegan ate eggs but they did not eat chicken.

However, when I moved to the Bay area a vegan was salad, fruits and vegetables.  I learned this with my friend Jenifer and her friend Bill (he worked at the White House with George Bush, and Clinton, now retired from that line of work as couriers)

Jennifer and Bill were big salad freaks not vegans when they were single.  They introduced me to a place called Fresh Choice and Olive Garden.    It is like a Woolworths kitchen buffet line and after choosing what you wanted you paid.  Then including with the payment of the salads was as much as you could eat dairy ice cream , chocolate or vanilla in a cookie cone or bowl and spoon. That was the fun part hearing there conversation about the YMCA and the type foods found at this place.  

A one day , almost a vegan.

Pumpkin pie needs whipped cream and two to go

 So, if you just ate a Thanksgiving and now it's dessert delivered fresh from the oven.

Or the Pumpkin Pie was made during the big cookout for Thanksgiving and was stored someplace where your hands are not permitted to go except for the mother who cooked it.   

So, it comes in a pie plate and everyone is waiting.

There is a special sign that everyone knows about, you receive a slice of the pie and then you raise two fingers upwards and say, "two to go". Meaning you want two more of the same on the plate.   

Whenever Thanksgiving was over a pie plate with pumpkin pie showed up and a bottle of whipping cream was their for our pleasure to put on top of the pie.  Also, we had vanilla bean ice cream which we had on the plate with the pumpkin pie.  

In 82 or 83.  My aunt Maime suffered a medical problem.

So, no more valley road Thanksgivings.,  instead my father cooked the turkey in the oven and the last 30 minutes, he put a blanket over it and drove to aunt Maimies house.  You could smell the turkey from the car in the year 82.  The following year he made it at aunt Maimies kitchen.  It was my aunt Maimies tradition to eat raspberries sherbet in a glass and pour 7up on top of it, using a spoon. Then we had Thanksgiving including my rice potatoes.   We did this once a year even after her passing.   

Thanksgiving in the 80's-----Homemade

 My father would start the day out by going downstairs to the kitchen and take the turkey out of the refrigerator.  Then he would look for all the ingredients and equipment to coo the Thanksgiving Turkey.   The lights were on in the kitchen and the stove was on and so was the oven.   My mother would interrupt my father and make bread rolls with brown sugar on top.   She would make corn casserole and green bake beans in mushroom soup with onion crisp on top and mashed potatoes.   She would make extra potatoes because I liked taking the potatoes and putting them into a ricer and make rice potatoes.  She would boil three potatoes for me, so I could peel them and then place them into the ricer pot and press it down on top of the potatoes to have them come out of the ricer into the shape of rice potatoes.   I was the only one who ate this dish.  I don't remember who taught me this but every Thanksgiving on Valley Road I would do this using a metal/plastic ricer.  Basically it looked like a cup and a potato cut in half is placed inside.  Then a handle with a flat metal thing comes down onto the cooked potatoes.  The cup has tiny holes where the potatoes come out in the shape of rice.  I use a reason able size bowl.  I really loved mixing the gravy with the potatoes rice.   Everybody in my family liked mashed potatoes with butter and sour cream.     You have to understand in the summer time there something near where the circus comes to town a place called Summer Fest and they have a huge tent where they only make potatoes and you have choice of sour cream and butter or just butter and salt.  My family would be there once a summer to have this.  Sometimes they sold a donut with whipped cream. The donut looked like a bread but it tasted sweet.  A cream Puff.

Thanksgiving. Was everyone working in some team and by enjoying a Macys parade then eventually the football game in the afternoon.

The Thanksgiving atmosphere was laughter and good talk.  Dessert was always the same every year.

A pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

There was also chocolate cookies.

Homemade.