Monday, November 20, 2006

An early Thanksgiving

As some of you know, Daiku teaches philosophy at a small liberal arts college. For the last 2 weeks, his ethics classes have been doing a unit on animal rights. Happily, the discussion seems to have had an effect on some of the students, because they decided to cook a vegan Thanksgiving feast in their residence hall on Sunday and invited us along! We were happy to go and contribute dessert. All in all, the meal was a success. About 12-15 students showed up to enjoy the food, and everyone loved everything and was surprised that it was all vegan. Hopefully, this was a positive experience that left its mark on some students.

I want to apologize because I didn't have a chance to take really good pictures of the meal, the lighting in the dorm lounge wasn't that great.

Here's what the students cooked:
  • 2 different kinds of veggie and tofu stirfry with rice
  • stuffing from scratch
  • broccoli (so delicious steamed with garlic & lemon juice instead of water--I just learned a new technique!)
  • salad with tangerines and almonds (with a yummy ginger dressing)
  • bread
  • tea and coffee
We were so impressed that you can do this much cooking in a dorm!

We contributed:
We are very thankful to the students for taking the initiative and cooking up a vegan Thanksgiving feast.

Here are some photos:


before


after


Yes, I'm still using Halloween cupcake liners! It's marginally seasonal!




l to r: stirfry, bread, cranberries, stuffing, salad, apple blueberry crisp, cupcakes



Now we better get cracking for our Thanksgiving menu for Thursday!


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17 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is so awesome. I'm happy to see that Daiku has inspired others to re-think their eating and consumption habits. Everything looks delicious. I forgot how much I love salad with tangerines and almonds. Mmmm! That's definitely going to be on my mind now.

urban vegan said...

what lucky students! in moer ways than one.

Kati said...

Wow - that's so cool that the students were inspired enough to take the initiative like that. And homemade cranberry sauce - yum!

Ruthie said...

Cool. I think it's great that those students were so open minded. If someone had brought up animal rights at my university, I bet everyone would have laughed or groaned. :(

Amey said...

How fun! That looks like a super neat event. Daiku must be a great professor if the students wanted to include you two in their party! I can't wait to try that brocolli technique, it sounds good.
yum yum yum!
:) Amey

meesh said...

That is just the coolest thing. I guess those liberal arts kids are pretty open-minded and free thinking souls, huh? Very cool.

Now about the cranberry sauce...first of all I must have that spoon! lol What a happy little fellow to have in your kitchen. Second, you mean cranberries DON'T grow in jellied and shaped like a tin can? I'm from the midwest and am confused here. That's the only way I've ever seen them at Thanksgiving. I guess you learn something new every day. ;)

Thanks for sharing your wonderful weekend outing. It's always so inspiring to hear about people really thinking about animal rights and making changes.

aTxVegn said...

This post makes me miss college! How great that Daiku is such an inspiration. I wish you could find out how many actually eat vegan on Thanksgiving. I'll bet some do.

I love to pop cranberries and there's so many ways to flavor the sauce. I'm buying up lots of cranberries so I can make lots of goodies.

Your contributions to dinner look spectacular as usual. Did anyone say, "This is vegan?"

Sean Carter said...
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Candi said...

Very lucky students. I love your energy, and Daiku's too! These efforts you make can really impact people, and I bet you've got them all thinking. I bet some of the students will recreate some of those dishes for their own Thanksgiving and expose more people to vegan cooking! :)

wheresmymind said...

What a wonderfully progressive thanksgiving!!

Nikk said...

:) I feel like saying "Jinx!", but I won't. Great minds think (eat) alike, right? What a wonderful spread! I really can't wait to see what you and Daiku have in store for Thanksgiving. I'm still stuck on ideas.

Jackie said...

What a great Thanksgiving dinner and wonderful that so many students participated.

jess (of Get Sconed!) said...

That is so touching! And man, it looks like such a residence hall with the cushions on those chairs..it's the first thing I thought when I saw it~

Paulie said...

Mmmmmmm, cranberry sauce! Suddenly I'm looking forward to Christmas..

:)

Eat Peace Please said...

Awesome. The food looks great but the reasons for it is even better. Awesome again!

runswithdog said...

That is awesome that the students were open minded enough to a new way of eating. It looks like it was a great meal!

Carla said...

What a feast! Cute spoon with happy face.