I posted earlier about the Quorn meatless roast and the Gardein Holiday roast mushroom gravy (just the gravy) that I brought to Thanksgiving at a farm in Kansas USA. I have lots more to post about Thanksgiving . This is Part 2 of several Kansas / Missouri posts coming up.
First I’d like to show the things I brought to the Thanksgiving feast. The white square plate is the Quorn meatless roast. I bought it by mistake, thinking (assuming) it was Vegan, at a Whole Foods grocery store in Kansas City.
Now that I tried it, I’m so glad I did.
The Quorn roast was very easy to make, just puncture some holes and pop it in the oven on a foil-lined baking sheet. While baking, it filled the house with something that seemed like an authentic turkey baking aroma!
For those who want just a plain meatless roast, without stuffing or cranberries or anything inside, this is a very good option. Yes, it does include dairy products and egg whites as ingredients, but for sure, no turkeys were harmed to produce this.
To the right of the Quorn roast is the meatless gravy from the Gardein celebration roast.
The two round dishes on the left are sweet potatoes. The one that looks like regular (ivory color) mashed potatoes is Japanese sweet potato, mashed with Kite Hill vegan butter. The circular bowl that has the orange sweet potatoes is two different kinds of sweet potatoes (jewel and garnet) mixed together and mashed with the Kite Hill vegan butter.
Below is a photo of the Thanksgiving turkey that was the highlight of the meal as well as the other sides. Two different types of sweet potatoes with brown sugar and marshmallows, traditional green bean casserole with Parmesan cheese and bacon on it, mashed potatoes, stove top stuffing, brussels sprouts with Parmesan cheese, cranberry sauce, gravy made from turkey drippings and a frozen strawberry banana fruit salad.
A very traditional USA Thanksgiving. The frozen strawberry banana fruit salad came from a tradition of my brother’s wife’s mother. I have never seen a frozen fruit salad like this, so I wonder if it might be a family recipe or tradition that comes from New England, which is where my brother’s wife’s mother was from?
Regarding the sweet potatoes, I only brought those because I had seen them at the grocery store the night before. I had picked up five different colors of sweet potatoes, out of curiosity m. These were my leftovers… since I had them already, I brought them along.
How did the food that I brought go over? There were 10 people at the Thanksgiving dinner. I told people that my items were there and they were free to have some, but my nephew said, why would I have fake turkey when I can have the real thing? I said “I don’t know, maybe just for a taste, to compare?” But he didn’t respond to that.
As it turns out, I believe I’m the only person who tried any of the four things that I brought. No big deal… As they say, “more for me.”
Honestly, “more for me” really was a good thing. I ended up being able to eat all of the food that I brought, as I took everything as leftovers and brought it with me to the next people I was visiting.
Come to think of it, my relatives probably didn’t eat any of the food I brought, out of kindness toward me, so that I could eat more of the food that I liked. That makes a lot of sense, as I definitely did enjoy all of it.
Everything worked out well,
Something else I want to clarify: for the sake of the turkeys, I didn’t HAVE to bring a meatless roast. As a symbolic gesture of support for the turkeys, could have simply eaten the side dishes and been satisfied, Nonetheless, I wanted to bring something like this … a turkey alternative.
Why? Two reasons … first, I wanted the other people at the dinner to become more aware that such things exist, and secondly, I wanted to give them the opportunity to try it if they wanted to.
If I do go to Thanksgiving with these relatives again in the future, I think I will probably bring some type of meatless roast again. Maybe they will try it at some point in the future. Regardless, I enjoyed everything I brought, and there was enough to share, so I definitely felt like it was all good.
More USA Thanksgiving posts to come. Stay tuned.
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