Wheatsville Co-op Austin, TX

[Dan Gillotte <gm AT wheatsville.coop>]

Hi folks!

We are in the thick of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday and enjoying it! Hopefully you are staying calm and collected as you prepare. This e-mail is mostly about Thanksgiving (including some suggestions for Thanksgiving recipes, check out the vegan Pot Pie recipe!), but at the end there is some other stuff about the upcoming Artsfest, the election and survey.

We are told that shopping for Thanksgiving at Wheatsville is actually comfortable and relaxing. So, if you usually go to the other guys for Thanksgiving shopping, consider making the switch this year!

The Deli is baking up sides and pies for Thanksgiving!
We'll have Mashed Potatoes, Festive Yams, Roasted Root Veggies, Cranberry Relish,
Rosemary Biscuits, Green Beans with mushrooms, Vegan Cornbread Stuffing and Gravy, too!
On the sweet side, look for Traditional and Vegan Pumpkin Pie at the special price of $9.99! We will also have favorites like our Traditional Pecan Pie, and delicious Vegan Coconut Cream Pie and Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie.

We will be featuring Mary's free range organic and natural turkeys. These have been very popular for the last few years as people have enjoyed them each holiday! We have some available for first come first served pick-up.
Mary's Organic Turkeys for $3.49/lb
Mary's Natural Turkeys for $2.19/lb

A note about Tofurky:
We have some Tofurky Feasts on hand right now, but we have been out of stocked by our distributor again this year. This is as upsetting to us as it is to you. We are trying to get our hands on Tofurky roasts (and more feasts) and we hope to, but we won't have as many as we thought we would. Apparently, all the stores got shorted today. See below for some alternative vegetarian Thanksgiving possibilities...

We have some really amazing deals for a natural Thanksgiving in our
November Co-op Advantage Flyer with lots of great Thanksgiving-y items
to help customers save some dough while they celebrate!
Here are just a few of the items...
Organic Pumpkin for $1.69
Imagine Foods Organic Soups for $2.49 (These make great stocks and
bases for quick and hearty soups and stews)
Organic Valley Organic Butter for $4.49
Arrowhead Mills Cookie Pie Crust for $1.69. These crusts make a
delicious base for chocolate pies! Just make pudding (or mousse) and
add it to the shell, chill and eat!

This is just a small sample of the available items. See the CAP flyers for more as well as some really cool holiday recipes including a recipe for chocolate truffles

Recipe and menu ideas including accommodating vegetarians and helping kids appreciate nature!
Mary's web-site will give you the info you need for roasting their turkeys: http://www.marysturkeys.com/roastingtimes.htm
This web-site has a ton of Thanksgiving-y information on it. (Forgive
the McDonalds banner ad!)
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/holidays/thanksgiving/turkeygravy.html

From a somewhat dubious web-site ( http://hotmomsclub.com/index.php?page=issue )comes this excerpt from a pretty good article about helping kids to appreciate nature on Thanksgiving:

1) Take walks with your children and talk about the sights and sounds of nature.
2) Go out with your children to collect flowers, twigs, nuts, fruits, vegetables, grass, and seeds.
3) Collect colorful leaves together and place them on a piece of wax paper once they are dry. Then press them between the pages of a big book.
4) Paint or draw with your children the things you've discovered in nature or take pictures and form a collage.
5) Let your children cook with you and talk about the source of the food as you cook.

Vegetarian and vegan Thanksgiving options!
Sometimes, it can be a bummer to be vegetarian (or vegan) around Thanksgiving. If you are having a vegetarian come to your omnivorous spread, here are some suggestions for making it a nice one for them, too:
Vegetarians will appreciate it a lot if you use some of these ideas:

* Bake some stuffing outside of the turkey
* Make a small portion of vegetarian gravy
* Keep cooking utensils separate to prevent "cross-contamination" between meat foods and vegetarian foods
* When recipes are adaptable, use substitutions like vegetarian broth, soy margarine (the formulations without whey are suitable for vegans), soy milk, and "EnerG" brand egg replacer (again for vegans).
* Use vegetable oils instead of animal fats for frying, and
vegetable shortening like Crisco for pie crust
* Read ingredients lists carefully on pre-packaged foods, being
aware of terms like gelatin, whey, sodium caseinate, and "natural
flavors" that can be animal-derived
* Go crazy with the side dishes, but leave them plain
* Offer plenty of breads, beverages, fresh fruits, and non-gelatin
desserts, which are suitable without modification for most vegetarians
* Ask your guest if a product like the "Tofurky" brand vegetarian
dinner would be welcome, or if the guest would like to prepare and
bring one

Some of my favorite holidays have been vegan Thanksgiving, so if you are vegan, don't despair! Thanksgiving can be awesome! You can certainly go with a Tofurky. They're simple to make and pretty tasty. You can add quartered potatoes, onions, carrots (and other veggies) to
the roasting pan when you cook it to have a simple one-dish Thanksgiving spread! Just add cranberry sauce!

But, even if you don't do the Tofurky, it can still be pretty simple to do a vegan holiday. This looks like a cool and relatively simple vegan Thanksgiving spread.  http://www.tazarat.com/thanksgiving.html The sky is the limit on menu possibilities, but honestly, one of my nicest
meals ever was a simple stir fry with cashews and wild rice blend stuffed in a baked squash!
How about a vegan quiche for Thanksgiving? Or Tofu or seitan pit pie? We've got some really nice Whole Wheat pie crusts that you can use. They're flaky and rich!

Here is a delicious Vegan Pot Pie recipe from my wife, Rosie, that is extremely tasty and not very hard to make!

Optional: Cut 1/2 lb firm tofu into bite size squares and freeze it overnight. Thaw before cooking by pouring boiling water over them and soaking for 5 minutes. Drain. Press out the water by placing tofu on a dish towel, covering with another dish towel, and pushing down gently with your hands or weighting with a plate. Proceed with recipe.

You'll need a pie crust - I like a top and a bottom crust, but some people just like to cover the top of the pot pie.

Preheat the oven to 350

Dice two small or one medium potato, cover with water and boil until almost tender.

Chop and sautee over medium heat: 2 Tblsp oil, 1/2 onion, 2 stalks celery, 2 medium carrots, and 1/2 cup chopped fresh or frozen green beans until onions are translucent. Add 1/2 cup frozen peas and, if you like, some frozen corn. Stir and cook for another minute.

Reduce heat to medium low. Sprinkle 2 Tablespoons white flour or 3 Tblsp  Whole wheat flour over the veggies, and stir for 2 minutes. Don't worry if the flour sticks and browns a little. Slowly, slowly pour in 1 to 2 cups of soy milk, broth, or water, stirring constantly.  Stop adding liquid when the sauce is a nice gravy thickness. A few small lumps are okay. Add 1/2 cup nutritional yeast, 1 tsp braggs liquid aminos or soy sauce, 1/4 tsp thyme, 1 boullion cube (unless you used broth for your liquid) and salt and pepper to taste. Keep stirring until sauce comes to a gentle boil. Add more liquid if it is too thick. Remove from heat. Mix in 1 Tbsp margerine or butter. This should smooth out any little lumps. Adjust seasonings.

Place tofu (you could use seitan, instead if you want) in bottom pie shell (if using) and pour veggie/sauce mixture over it. Cover with top crust. Cut slits in top crust to let steam escape. Bake at 350 until bubbly hot and crust lightly browned - about 30 - 45 minutes.

Artsfest
A quick heads-up to save the dates! Our annual Wheatsville Artfest
extravaganza takes place on Saturday and Sunday Dec. 1st and 2nd!

Have you heard of the Buy Handmade pledge? http://www.buyhandmade.org/
If possible, but handmade this year. The Artsfest can help you out with
this! There's more info about the Artsfest at our web-site and in the
Breeze.

Election and Survey
Our annual Board/ Community Action Wednesday and Boycott election is in
full swing. If you haven't voted yet, please do on-line at
http://wheatsville.coop/election/index.html
We are also conducting an extensive Owner survey. We want to know what
you think. If you fill out the survey, we'll enter you into a drawing
for one of four $250 Wheatsville GIft cards!
Go to our web-site and click on the big red button.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving and that we can play a part in
your holiday planning!
We're open all day on Wed., closed on Thanksgiving Day and then opened
back up for normal business on Friday. I'll see you soon!


Dan
Wheatsville GM and e-mail guy and Thanksgiving enthusiast!