Sunday, November 18, 2007

A PEACEful Feast

On Saturday night John and I got a head start on expanding the capacity of our stomachs for Thanksgiving day. We attended a Vegan Thanksgiving Feast, hosted by the Society of PEACE (People for the Earth, Animals, Compassion, and Enlightenment) at a local vegan-friendly restaurant, Field of Greens. Greeting us at our seats was literature on having a compassionate Thanksgiving, Tofurky coupons, a 2008 calendar, and S.O.P. Go Vegan! pens (I love using these in business meetings). A literature table was also set up and stocked with vegan starter kits, recipe booklets, and postcards. Over 75 places were set... in Houston! And what's even more impressive was that over 100 people had responded, but the venue didn't have enough room. was such fun to be sharing a meal with that many like-minded folks.

Dinner began with a simple garden salad with cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, and sprouts. We were lucky we all ate the same super garlicky dressing, I can still taste in on my breath today! To warm us up (from the air conditioner that is), we sipped on carrot ginger soup. Sorry in advance for the poor quality pictures, I didn't bring my new lighting toys with me :-)
The main course totally exceeded my expectations... I almost asked for seconds after that huge plate of food! There was a cornbread stuffing, roasted potatoes and eggplant, green beans, kale, wheat roast, faux turkey, and a mushroom gravy. John was so excited about the faux turkey and is determined to find out what it is and how we can get it. My favorite was the cornbread stuffing and green beans.
For dessert, as if I had room for it, was a slice of pumpkin pie and a piece of fudge. Mmmmm, pumpkin pie! Oh how I love fall flavors!

After the meal there was a door prize drawing, and John actually won! He got some faux cheese coupons, a TryVeg.com bumper sticker (which I think I'll steal for my car), some veg recipe booklets, and Howard Lyman's book Mad Cowboy (which I plan on reading as well).

Professor Alan Clune (from Sam Houston State University) then gave a presentation about the various philosophies of animal ethics. I have never had any sort of philosophy course, so it was very interesting to learn about the different views and the reasonings behind them. Makes me want to pick up a book and learn more....

Kristen, the S.O.P. president, did an amazing job setting up this event. Seeing how passionate and dedicated she is about veganism makes me want to do more. As Tamara mentioned on her blog the other week, sometimes vegan activism is a focus in our lives and sometimes it is just in the background. This event has inspired me though to be more active in promoting veganism in my everyday life. Tomorrow I'm going to post some of the gentle Thanksgiving literature I picked up from the event on my office door. And I'm going to bring in some treats I made (I'll post those tomorrow). It's a start.... to hopefully a more PEACEful world.

11 comments:

Pink Theory said...

That sounds like it was such a fun event and the food looks outstanding! Yes, do read Mad Cowboy. It is a very inspiring book and one of my favorites!

Melisser; the Urban Housewife said...

Wow, that sounds like an awesome event!

Jo said...

Oh my gosh, that looks amazing. Looks like someone had quite the feast. ;)

Ruthie said...

Gr~ I'm so jealous!

Anonymous said...

What an awesome event. I'd never have guessed Houston would be that veg friendly. Glad to hear you had a great time and your bellies are nice and full from all that terrific food.

julie hasson said...

What a great event. The food sounds so good, and now I'm so curious about that faux turkey.

I love Thanksgiving!

bazu said...

How wonderful! That plate of food (and the garlicky salad) are seriously making me drool right now. I'm sure you met tons of interesting people, as well! You know, Houston's such a big city, and a college town as well, so I'm not surprised that there's a growing vegan community there. I mean, when I moved to Syracuse, I didn't expect much, but it has exceeded my expectations at every turn. Yay for unexpected vegan enclaves! I really think this reflects a sea change in society.

LizNoVeggieGirl said...

words cannot describe just how incredible that event was - I STILL can't believe that 75 vegans in TEXAS were there!! how lovely!! wow, the main course and dessert DO look delicious; and congratulations to John for winning the door-prize drawing!! :0D

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

Why oh why don't they have something like this in Dallas?! Well, I'm glad someone (or 75 someones!) got to enjoy it, even if I wasn't one of them!

Kayla said...

all the food looks so delicious! I was thinking about coming in to town for it, but I had to work :( I'm glad everything was so good, and I'm excited that so many people came! Kristen is my hero.

Sheree' said...

How awesome! I would love to have something like that here. Did John find out the faux meets that were served. My omniman may like them too!