A Thanksgiving everyone can equally get down and grub on

I took on an exciting challenge this Thanksgiving - to throw a full on dinner party (only part of the challenge) where everything except for the turkey (obviously), the turkey gravy (still obviously) and the bacon popcorn (should probably become a Thanksgiving staple for us all...) would be vegan (the rest of the challenge). Also in a separate, but more serious challenge, I had to avoid the use of nuts because of allergies.

And you know what - it turned out pretty fricking fabulous. I speak in the past tense, because my Thanksgiving dinner already happened three days ago, ushering in the first annual of my hopefully new family tradition - big ol turkey dinner party the Thursday before Thanksgiving, followed by turkey burgers, sweet potato fries and chillin' on actual Thanksgiving. And also, maybe some scavenging on the Thankgivingses of other on actual Thanksgiving, too.

Perhaps you are looking for a way to satisfy vegans (thanks to the miracle power of vegan buttery sticks), carniwhores and everybody in between, too?

Here's the (super awesome) "Farmer's Market" themed menu I came up with:

Bacon Popcorn
Pumpkin Hummus with chips and red pepper strips

Sunshine Brined Turkey

Savory Veggie Stuffing

Turkey Gravy

Onion Gravy

Oven Roasted Beets with Maple and Brown Sugar

Cranberry & Fruit Bounty Sauce

Cranberry Grapefruit Sauce

Truffled Mashed Potatoes

Brussel Sprouts with Shallots and Fried Onions

Apple Jicima Salad

Rainbow Chard with Lemon and Olive Oil

Spaghetti Squash with Coconut Milk

Chocolate Mousse with Graham Cracker Crumbs

Pumpkin Tart

Bourbon Sweet Potato cupcakes and Chocolate Chip cupcakes

Sparkling Apple Pomegranate Cider

Crispin

No doubt an ambitious menu. I'll admit that even more, given the fact that I didn't quite finish some of the things on time, so we just ate allllllll weekend looonnnngg - just like it's supposed to be, right?

So long soy milk?

As I was literally cramming bites of leftover soy chocolate mousse with graham cracker crumbs into my mouth this morning (how dare you judge me...), I read an article that basically said we might all be collectively killing ourselves by eating too much soy in our diets, specifically soy that hasn't been fermented yet - fermenting in this case being a good thing.

Most horrifically included in this story was this little blurb:

"While there was much news about the American Heart Association endorsing soy in 2000, there was little attention given when the AHA changed its mind and quietly withdrew its pro-soy claims in 2006". Whoa...I must have been watching a satisfying repeat episode of "The Nanny" (how dare you judge me....) instead of dutifully watching the news the day that news came out.

Yes, I will keep eating my chocolate mousse right now, I'm just going to fret about it. A lot.