Update:  The Winner is. . ..

Nerissa Maldonado 6 days ago

Please contact me in the next 48 hours at [email protected] to claim your prize, or another winner will be chosen.

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November 4th, Friday.
6:30pm Family arrives at our second JCPenney of the night (apparently the one closest to our house is too small for Mr. Woo), on the hunt for jeans for the 11 year old. She grew over night and refuses to wear high waters.

Also on the hunt for junior sized Christmas dress for pictures. . . .that will be taken in 3 days.  None spotted. Apparently if you’re 5’1″ and 11, you should be wearing hoochie clothes.

6:35 pm.
Mr. Woo forgot the stroller. He goes to retrieve it from the Yukon. Meanwhile, the girls and I roam around the Christmas section. So pretty. Bella spots a dark brown Santa. Rosy cheeks with a bowl full of jelly. She says, “Now that is the Santa I believe in.” My heart goes pitter patter.

November 5th, Saturday
I remember. I have no clothes. I rush back to JCPenney (they were having a sale and it’s two minutes from my house) and buy two dresses. One very cute, black, and sassy. Very mod. Euro style. Cut above the knee, a little leggy. The other, black but a bit more dazzling and definitely more va-va-voom, but still classy. I try on both for Warwick. He likes the second. I buy the first. He wonders why I even asked his opinion.

November 8th, Tuesday.
2:15 pm. The girls arrive home from school. They are rushed into separate corners, their legs sloshed into tights, bodies adorned with frilly dresses, and bows tied crookedly. All bows and fanciness are removed from the 11 year old because she does not want to look cute or anything remotely resembling her sisters.  We are on schedule. Looks like we may be early.




She grabs a book for the wait.

 



Foreshadowing a Christmas pose. I think so.



3:55 pm We’re late. I’m not sure what happened from here to there, but we are late. We rush out of the car, stampede into the photography salon and announce we have arrived. And not a moment to soon, because the photographer says our appointment is at 4:20. We are 18 minutes early.

4:22 pm
The children are becoming restless. They hate each other and their mother and father. Bella hates her dress. Soledad hates me and my no candy rule. Shelbi hates everything, Warwick may or may not hate my dress, and I hate this feeling that my underwear are up my butt. Oh, and Phoebe hates pictures, as she has told us this 29 times.

6:00pm
It’s over. And the photographer might hate us. We cleaned her out of lollipops and as she was waving and shoving us out the door, sweat was dripping from her brow. Merry Christmas.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

I complain. But I shouldn’t. I really do love all the hustle and bustle.
Right now, I’m planning our Thanksgiving menu. Must have all the favorites, and some of the new.

This year, because we’re southerners, we’ll have the traditional cornbread stuffing and dirty rice.  But I always like to add a new flavor, something familiar, but done in a new way. So I just may add

Butternut Squash Whole Wheat, Wild Rice, and Onion Stuffing.
 It is as good as it sounds. I tried it out on Monday with baked chicken. Perfection.

It comes from my new fave Cookbook, Vegan Holiday Kitchen by Nava Atlas.

Beautifully written, it puts into the readers hands,  all MY favorite parts of Thanksgiving, the vegetable loveliness.

I mean  I’m carnivorous and all, but really, there is only so much meat I can eat. The book walks you through over 200 festive recipes for special occasions ranging from Thanksgiving, Christmas, Passover, Rosh Hashanah, Hanukkah, Easter, Independence day, summer and all other entertaining. Main Dishes (replacements for meat that aren’t weird), side dishes, soups, desserts, salads, EVERYTHING. And all Vegan.

The dishes are not only for holiday fare, they can easily be used (as most are uncomplicated) in your everyday life. The Hearty Lentil and Mushroom Shepherd’s Pie is next on my “to make list”.

Anyway, if you’re like me and you want your guests to think you are the best cook in the universe in hopes that they’ll leave tips, give this lovely colored hard-back cookbook a try.

And just because I know you’ll love it.
And really it is time to get ready for the holidays.
And because I think you’re the gravy in my boat. . . . .

I’M GIVING AWAY ONE COPY OF The Vegan Holiday Kitchen, to one lucky reader of my blog.

TO ENTER:
Just answer the following question in the comments section of this post.

What is your favorite Thanksgiving (or holiday) Dish?

THE RULES

One entry per person, please. Or I will get a great big CARNIVOROUS Lion to eat up your Thanksgiving Turkey and see how you like it. I’m not sure that makes any sense, but just know I mean business.

The Vegan Holiday Kitchen GIVEAWAY will end Monday, November 14, 2011 at midnight CST. Winners will be announced on Tuesday, November 15, 2011. Entrants limited to US and Canada. They will be chosen randomly using http://www.random.org/

Good Luck!

Update:  The Winner is. . ..

Nerissa Maldonado 6 days ago

Please contact me in the next 48 hours at [email protected] to claim your prize, or another winner will be chosen.

Oh. . .and now for the Recipe for your Decipe. I really like this. . .not making sense bit.

Butternut Squash Whole Wheat, Wild Rice, and Onion Stuffing
A few things need to be said here. When I made the recipe, I adapted it to what I had in my kitchen, because I needed to make it for dinner, in like 40 minutes. Please forgive me. But, that being said, the recipe bodes well for adaptions, ease and accessibility. Anyway, I used sweet potatoes instead of squash, therefore it was not presented inside a squash, which damn. would have been pretty.

It still was pretty. Just not as pretty as it could have been. And ummm. . .one more thing. . .I finished it off with a little honey. drizzled on top. it was quite nice. that is all.

Here is the recipe, as printed in the book. enjoy.

Reprinted with permission from Vegan Holiday Kitchen © 2011 by Nava Atlas, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc. Photographs by Susan Voisin