Vegan Mofo Day 9: thanksgiving in photos

I'm spending the weekend visiting my parents in scenic Kemptville, and enjoying plenty of down-time and the uncanny combination of changing leaves and unseasonably warm weather. Dare I say best Thanksgiving weather ever? We had our big family dinner at my stepmother's family's cabin, which was nice because a) we didn't have to host, b) I managed to avoid spending a lot of time around a turkey carcass, and c) I could bring all my own food and because they're used to my dietary peculiarities they don't ever bother commenting anymore! In fact nobody even voices curiosity about what I'm eating, they just let me go my merry vegan way while descending into their own food comas. Because yesterday was beautiful and I actually had my iPhone in alert, today's post is going to be a mini photo journal.

(breakfast: "Scottish" [aka steelcut] oats with banana and pumpkin seed butter)

(walking to the "island" with Elvis [the poodle])

(local flora given a helping hand -- or stick -- by my father)

(Elvis enjoying the lookout)

On the way to the cabin we stopped at a little roadside vegetable stand and bought some produce for Sunday night dinner. Nobody was tending the stand: a sign asked up to use the "honour system." Love it! Almost as much as I love a giant $0.50 zucchini...

(Elvis enjoying the foliage)

(a little Thanksgiving campfire action)

(dogs and a lake? Thanksgiving win!)

And now here's my personal Thanksgiving feast (I came nowhere near finishing this plate, but it sure looked special all heaped up like that). I made wild rice with kale and portobello mushroom gravy (just portobellos sauteed with garlic and a little olive oil until they get juicy, then simmered in veggie broth and thickened up with corn starch and plenty of nooch), and half a baked sweet potato topped with diced pear, walnuts, and cranberries lightly dressed with maple syrup and cinnamon.

Dessert (not pictured) was fresh pumpkin puree (SO MUCH better than canned, it's barely the same food) blended up with soaked dates and cashews, a little maple syrup, and pumpkin pie spaces, then topped with raw cashew cream. It was basically pumpkin pudding or uncooked pie filling, and it was absolutely divine.

(Look at those shamefully muddy paws!)