Thanksgiving 2010

What an awesome Thanksgiving I had! I attended the Tampa ThanksVegan Feast and met some really wonderful people. Honestly, this event was, for me, more about the people than the food. Above, you can see my plate, which held some pretty yummy foods, but I can barely remember it. I was just having so much fun chatting with so many new people.

(But I know you want to know what's what on that plate, so starting at 12:00, you're looking at: mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy, a dollop of shepherd's pie, broccoli "quiche," baked mac & "cheese," roasted veggies (mostly beets), wheat berry "Waldorf" salad, tabouleh salad, curry tempeh salad, a little chunk of Tofurky, a little chunk of Celebration Roast, and a little dollop of cinnamon-cranberry sauce.)

In fact, let's just do a quick roll call on some of the potluck dishes.

To start, there was a Sheese and crackers spread.




It was very popular.

Now on to the dishes.



















Lots of chatting and picture taking caused me to miss out on most of the dessert table. I was able to nab two little pieces of "cheese"cake, one NY style and the other gingerbread, and I added a little strip of Rice Whip, just for funsies. (NY style was my favorite of the two.)


There were a lot of other interesting desserts included in the spread.


What's a vegan potluck without a chocolate tofu pie, amirite?!






There were also piles of So Delicious Neopolitan ice cream sandwiches, chocolate-almond ice cream bars, and cotton candy!
Though this ThanksVegan feast was much larger than last week's potluck, I paced myself very well and didn't overindulge. (However, between this event and the next day's event, I definitely ate more wheat than I ever normally would, so I'm feeling a little out of whack and am ready to get back on my mostly-wheat-free diet.) Since I became the designated picture taker for the day, I was kept busy, trying to make sure I took pictures of as many people as possible (and usually, my focus is on the food, so this was a fun little challenge). I believe the grand total of attendees was 206.

Even a news camera man showed up!


So many great people came together and volunteered their time and talents and made this a really fun event. I can see why it's so popular - this was their 5th annual ThanksVegan!