Thanksgiving 2007 in Oakland

For being over 3,000 miles from everyone we have known for longer than 10 months, Andy and I had a pretty lively Thanksgiving dinner at our house. We hosted 7 people for a vegetarian pot-luck. Rebecca and Matt came, as well as Liz, her roommate Meghann and their friend Greg. We also had the pleasure of hosting our friend Alex from Andy's RPI days and his girlfriend Béa from Switzerland.

Our gathering took place early in the day so that Matt and Rebecca could make it off to dinner # 2 at Matt's parents' house on time. It worked out just about perfectly: I managed to get all the prepping I could out of the way the night before as we waited to pick up Béa and then Alex from SFO. They stayed over at our house Wednesday night before moving on to a place in the Castro for a few more nights. I went to bed early while Andy went back out to pick up Alex. In turn, I got up early and went out for a run to let Apollo burn off some energy before we filled the house with people. Then when everyone woke up we took a leisurely stroll down to Cafe Di Bartolo for bagels and coffee.

We trekked back up the stairs and started getting ready for the party. We cleared out the coffee table and ottoman from the living room and Andy dug our Thanksgiving table out of the closet. I gave Alex, the designer, the job of decorating the table. It was the perfect job for him and the table looked much better than if I had decorated it. The leaves are authentic, straight from my parents back yard and sent to California via snail mail from my mom. Their beautiful colors brought East-coast Fall to us.

When Matt and Rebecca arrived, we put them to work, too. Matt set the table while the rest of us toiled in the kitchen...

This table is amazing. We only use it for big meals these days, so it typically stays folded down to its smallest size of about one foot wide by 3 feet tall. For this event, we expanded it to its largest size that easily fit all of us around it. If anything was too small, it was the room, not the table.

Once the things were set in the eating area, there wasn't much else to do but break open the wine. The kitchen was just too small for everyone to be working at once, so those that remained idle hung out in the "office" or on the balcony.

Apollo didn't see the use of hanging out amongst the wine drinkers, those of us laboring in the kitchen were much more likely to drop food for him to scamper to. And in order to encourage that, he made sure to be as under foot as physically possible. Meghann was a sport.

The brussles sprouts were done early, so they had to be nuked a little to warm up again. This didn't hurt them any. In fact, who would have predicted such a widely-hated veggie would be a favorite among our guests? They were my favorite part for sure.

I didn't take this picture, but I am including it here because I forgot to take a picture of the one I bought for Thanksgiving. Brussels sprouts are a traditional side dish of Andy's family Thanksgivings (or at least they have been for the Thanksgivings I've been included in there.) I had never roasted any of my own, but this year when I was doing my crazy day-before-Thanksgiving shopping at the Berkeley Bowl, I found myself tossing one of these scary looking, giant stalks in my cart. The uses for these things seem unending! Pop off the little leafy bulbs and begin roasting them while you go out in the forest and club wild animals to death for the rest of your meal, then toss your weapon in the compost. What's not to like?

Instead of putting all of the food on the table, we kept it in the kitchen and made the event buffet-style.

Andy and I made the apple sauce, squash, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts, stuffing and pumpkin "cake" that ended up pumpkin pudding with cream cheese frosting because I forgot an ingredient so key I'm too embarrassed to mention it here. Liz brought apple pie and a much-too-tasty sweet potato casserole with caramelized walnuts on top. Meghann brought canned cranberry sauce (because can lines taste so good) and mashed potatoes. Greg brought vegan macaroni and "cheese", vegan chocolate pie (both much better than most of you meat eaters are imagining) and a great bottle of red wine. And finally, Matt and Rebecca brought homemade sweet potato pie and green bean lyonnaise.

We sat down to eat close to the hearth, a souvenir from the NH house we're happy not to own any more. While he waited for the buffet line to shorten, Matt warmed himself by our portable fire. Andy and I know how to make Thanksgiving feel warm and inviting, eh?

If people didn't have a good time at our Thursday dinner, they faked it pretty well for the camera...

While we scarfed down our feast, Apollo enjoyed the only meat in the house in his room.