As the holidays approach, we urban yuppies must make the controversial decision: to travel or not to travel.
My family always expects me to be home for the holidays – especially Christmas, which I have never missed. I find this expectation quite unrealistic. After all, I live in America, land of the two-weeks-vacation-per-annum. Most people don’t have enough vacation days to burn a week of them over Christmas in the suburbs where they grew up, much less want to use half of their vacation days sleeping in their parents’ house. Luckily for my parents, I have worked mostly freelance since college, allowing me to travel whenever I please. However, I draw the line at Thanksgiving.
Since I left college and moved even farther away from my family’s town, I refuse to travel over Thanksgiving. For those of you residing in Mother England, Thanksgiving is the busiest, craziest, nastiest time to travel in America. The flights are outrageously expensive and almost always overbooked; the airports and freeways are delayed and packed; poor weather conditions compound the problems. Basically, it’s hell. Hell and a half if you have a layover. So I say no.
I will not travel at Thanksgiving, but I do always return at Christmas for several days. This is a practical choice, but also a somewhat selfish choice. I love love love Thanksgiving – mainly because I love cooking for other people. By staying home, I can guarantee that I can cook the bounty I please, and be surrounded by friends with whom to share the delights. That’s my compromise: Thanksgiving for friends, Christmas for family.
Despite never hosting Thanksgiving myself, I always make a cornucopia of vegetarian dishes and end up amongst a diverse, motley crew of friends and new acquaintances. Luckily, feeding people delicious food is a great icebreaker. I used to cull most of my recipes from November’s Gourmet magazine, but since that legend’s unjust demise, I rely on archives and farmer’s market inspiration. Last year saw a rather ambitious, kosher, vegan menu of roasted root vegetables, roasted brussel sprouts, pumpkin-squash soup, zucchini-parsnip latkes, mushroom gravy, and sweet potato dumplings, which were an epic fail. Those last dudes didn’t even make it out of the pot.
I am just starting to formulate this year’s menu, and I welcome suggestions. Mushroom gravy is my only constant. Got to have gravy.
How are you celebrating the holidays? Are there any vegetarian recipes I should try?
Image via orijinal's Flickr