Thanksgiving Day Disaster

[Go Go Goji]

Oh dear. Things are not going as planned at the Go Go Family reunion. Being the only vegan/vegetarian/raw foodist in my extended family, I wanted to be a good ambassator for the diet. I had carefully planned my contributions to the feast: no-bean hummus, veggie platter, huge salad, a nice stuffed collard greens dish.

Everything is going wrong! Even my best dishes are turning out so totally gross. I'm not in my own kitchen and the fridge here is up way too high (much of my produce was frozen.) I accidentally broke my grandma's mixer. My mom actually grimaced when she tried my dip, and then I overheard her tell my brother that it was "awful." (I'll admit that it's not the best outcome I've had, but sheesh! It's certainly not awful.)

So now I'm downstairs in a guest room gently weeping and typing on my iPhone. I'm so humiliated.

[debilana]

oh go go...I am so sorry=( I cannot come rescue you with raw chocolate, but I can hug you- I sure hope everything comes around and your family gives you some kind words.

[D'vorah]

Oh, dear heart, I can feel your sorrow in your words.

Accidents happen, and dishes don't always turn out. Nothing you can do when produce is ruined by accidental freezing.

When others use shaming words, that's about them, not you. Hang in there, your heart was good, you meant well.

Hugs, I'm sorry,

Deborah

[cara4art]

((((Go Go Goji)))) It's hard when you're not in your own kitchen where you know how everything is! Believe me, I know this from a lot of house-sitting, let alone being on the spot at a holiday gathering! I know you wanted to put a good face on the raw food lifestyle for your family, but it might have been a little too much pressure on yourself to do several dishes in a situation where you didn't know the variables. As far as your mom, she might be more traditional in her tastes so anything different to her might seem "awful". Since you're in it now, just collect yourself, and go back and tell your grandma you'll help with the mixer, and to the rest of your folks that you're disappointed yourself that things didn't turn out according to plan. If they truly love you they'll understand, and probably regale you with their own story of the Thanksgiving dinner that just went off the skids, if you know what I mean! It happens to the best of food preparers, cooked or not! How many other Thanksgiving disasters do you think are going on today even with people who are cooking! Plenty!
(((In the meantime, good luck - we're rootin' for ya)))

[Go Go Goji]

Thank you so much for your kind words, friends. I've had a good cry and now I'm headed up to rejoin the family.

And I'll be back online shortly looking for a replacement mixer for grandma.

[Crazy Healer Lady]

Aw hunny... I'm so sorry for your troubles. Don't worry. Remember their tastebuds are probably used to S.A.D. stuff. All your stuff sounds great! And like Cara4art said, there are thousands of Thanksgiving disasters going on right now, cooked or not. All you can do is laugh and say, "Well, that didn't turn out THIS TIME! Sorry guys! Guess I'll turn it into something good for tomorrow, and if not, hey, the worms get a good meal!"

Also remember that preconceived notions greatly affect how you taste something. If they came to the table expecting it to be gross, that's what they're going to taste regardless of whether it's of prize-winning quality. I'm sure your stuff was delicious anyway!

[lsadeseyens]

go go goji

So sorry things didn't go as planned. I remember many years ago when my sister was cooking (SAD diet) her first thanksgiving turkey and forgot to take out the giblets before she cooked it. She took the turkey out, set it on the table and part of it was still frozen~~there were a couple of other disasters that occurred that year. By the next year, she had it mastered. There will be other times that you will be able to, hopefully, change their minds about raw food. My husband still eats SAD and I try every so often to give him something to eat that I really like, and he turns his nose up at it:(.... I just shrug and figure it is a hopeless cause. I am NOT giving up my way of eating though, and I hope you don't either!!!!!!! I am convinced that there will come a future time when you are not under such pressure to perform, that you will make a dish that people will rave over....
Good luck and keep on rawwing...... I know, not a word ~~ha-ha

[Bananna]

Hey chin up! There is always next year...where you'll be even more glowing and healthy, and perhaps serve up atleast one winner.

That sounds like how it would go if I did that, quite honestly...I could just picture the whole thing, lol.
Now that you've cried, you can laugh ;)

[HolyGuacamole]

OMGosh, a million hugs to you.

I am at my family's place, too, and my stuff's been coming out fine all day despite my mom's AWFUL Rachael Ray food processor that's practically useless, and they STILL refuse to even taste it. *eyeroll*
I made the most amazing green smoothie this morning, but it wasn't green. It was a rich brown chocolatey color even though it was cacao-free, 'cause it was full of cherries and greens.
So I poured some for my mother's husband (they got married a couple years ago in their 60s & it's her 4th marriage, so I have a hard time calling him anything like "Dad") and he tasted it and thought it was yummy - until I sprung the surprise on him that it was full of greens. I thought I was going to get the "No way, wow, I can't even taste them, that's so delicious!" response, but no. THEN he wrinkled his nose and pushed his glass away (even though seconds before he'd been saying how good it was) and hasn't done anything but sneer at my food all day since. *another roll of the eyes*

They're acting like they're scared of it. I'm like, dudes, it's fruits, nuts and veggies, it's not very exotic.
Whatever.

Sorry your food didn't come out as you wanted it.
I can imagine how upset I would have been if it'd been me.
You poor thing. :( I wish I could give you a hug.

Sometimes I really wish we could all run off together to some fabulous raw commune where everybody understands.

Sending you lots of love and good vibes.

Happy Thanksgiving! :)

[Sugar Snap Pea]

You know, whenever I would go to a raw restaurant w ANY of my SAD friends or family, they always turned up their noses, or at best just tolerated it!! All of them! I gave up ever trying to get anyone to "taste this" or "try that"! So you know what? I had to just look at it as their loss, bring my own stuff to eat, and let it go at that!!

[Aleesha Sattva]

and... when i first went raw many of the things i tried were yucky and now i loveeeees em!

(((hugs)))

[spicyfull]

Things WILL get better. I just let them eat their food and I eat mine. Its just Human Nature to try too hard and it hurts when after all your trying you get hit in the face but things WILL get better.............

[Go Go Goji]

Thank you all so much for your kind words. I think you're all totally right about their taste buds being unaccustomed to the pure and simple goodness of living food. My brother even made the comment that my food tasted "like dirt, but it has a nice finish." If I had added about a cup of sour cream or butter to my hummus, I'm sure mom would have thought it was just great.

(The hit of the feast was a sweet potato dish from my sister whose main ingredients included butter, more butter and marshmallows. I mean, seriously people, marshmallows? See what I'm up against?)

If they weren't all so naturally healthy to begin with, I think they'd be much more open towards other diets. Even though their diet is SAD, they're all thin, they avoid smoking, alcohol, fast food, and overeating. They all are in good shape with clear skin and healthy teeth.

Still though, marshmallows? Crazy.

[Jenifae]

It seems the more we try; or the more I try I should say to do something because, I really really really want to impress someone/'s the more I goof up. I don't know why that it is. It's the same with putting clothes in the dryer from the washer; the more I try to not let any clean wet clothes drop on the floor........well, the more the fall. Darn it!

I made a Huge Veggie packed salad and I was the only one who ate it. Wow :eek:
Needless to say I have lots of leftover's for me.

[raweater]

I'm sorry to hear it went bad. I've always been very difficult with what I eat so I only like the best tasting raw recipes, and as a result 100% of SAD eaters love the things I make.

Next time try some more SAD-like recipes like milkshakes, zucchini pasta, meatballs, pies, etc.

I very rarely have raw-like dishes like you mentioned, I probably have less than 6 salads per year, and in my 3+ years raw only had a veggie platter once (with raw ranch dip). I'm quite sure making some SAD-like recipes would be much better accepted, as I said, all SAD eaters love the raw food I make and it gets responses like "This is amazing, I could eat this all day! And it's healthy!?".

I'm sure you can get responses like that at your next attempt, don't give up.

[Asian Pear]

That is too bad, I'm sorry it came out that way.

It is really hard to compete with all the rich SAD food on Thanksgiving. I made a couple of great salads which weren't critiqued, actually complimented because I put pom seeds in one of them, and made a nice waldorf salad.

The semi-disaster was the "pumpkin" persimmon pie (there was no pumpkin but tasted like it from the spice got the actual recipe from this site)...it just didn't compare to the rich cooked pies. Surely if it was standing on its own it would have been great. I guess 2 out of 3 wasn't bad, but I learned my lesson not to have a raw copy dish next to a cooked counterpart.

[HolyGuacamole]

There is NOTHING 100% of people like, and everyone is fallible. Recipes sometimes work out differently than we planned. In this case, you truly had "technical difficulties."
You didn't do anything wrong, Go Go. You just wanted to "be a good ambassador," as you said, and things didn't turn out like you planned. It happens. Hopefully your efforts will be met with gentle compassion in the future, even if they don't come out as perfectly as you'd hoped.

Oh, yeah, and marshmallows are de rigueur in my SAD family's holiday dishes, too. :D

[oceanee]

I'm so sorry you had such a rough time. We do tend to get so attached don't we and it reminds me of what my skinny, non raw friend w/o emotional eating issues often says. "It's just food" or "It's only one meal in the lifetime of many meals".

I bet you just happened to be the one to use your grandmother's mixer when it was ready to break!;)

And I bet you'll wow everyone another time when you aren't so worried about it.
Oceanee

[saxmaam]

I'm sorry to hear it went bad. I've always been very difficult with what I eat so I only like the best tasting raw recipes, and as a result 100% of SAD eaters love the things I make.

So ... is your recipe book for sale yet? ;)

[Green_Woman]

*giggles*

I feel bad now for telling my Mom that the SAD ham sandwich and brownies she offered me sounded YUCKY!!!

;)

To each their own... if your family would rather please their tastebuds today and watch their body suffer for it tomorrow, that's their deal... but your choice is for LIFE and VIBRANCE.

So... commend yourself!

*hug*

[MelissaO]

I am so sorry your day was not so good. I made a raw peacan pie that turned out pretty bad, salad and veggie tray went ok. I look at it this way - even when I do cooked foods things do not turn out always as planned. Christmas is coming up so I will try again.

[JennaBoBenna]

Hey Go Go,

My first raw Thanksgiving was a disaster too! I bought beautiful rainbow chard to impress the family. I made a green smoothie with it, but the smoothie ended up chunky and wasn't impressive at all. Then I made a green salad with the chard and discovered that I do not like chard at all! I hardly ate any of the salad. The only other thing I had to eat was a fruit salad that I had made. I can't remember why I was so unprepared for Thanksgiving that year...hmm...I think I remember snacking on some of my bf-at-the-time's roll and potatoes.
*hugs* don't worry, there's always next year!

[kaybee]

OK, not a raw story, but one thanksgiving my mom cooked the potatoes, drained them ,and then put the pot with ten pounds of potatoes in it back on the stove just for somewhere to put it before she mashed them...and forgot to turn off the stove burner...soon we smelled "burning". uh oh.. the whole fam LOVES potatoes, and mom was exasperated and just about in tears. me and my brother fixed them up and made "smoky ranch mashed potatoes". :) they were actually pretty good (never mind the carcinogens from the smoke, but whatever.) and noone complained and we were able to salvage the meal and fixed moms unhappiness... but point being, even COOKED food turns into disasters. so no worries. i know it was discouraging for you though, so better luck next time :) the first time i made "cauliflower mashed potatoes for one of my housemates, we were staying in a house owned by this really great generous lady whom I loved... however, i got asked to dispose of the "mashed potatoes" out of the fridge becasue even in tupperware, they were stinking up the whole fridge and freezer...another time i took some of the SAME offensive dish to school for lunch. the empty tupperware was in my bag... all through class that night everyone near me kept saying "what stinks" "ick" "gross" "who farted" lol. they kept saying it was coming from my bag. i kept denying it as i didnt think my empty bowl could be that stinky..but my rooommates confirmed on the bus on the way home that Yeah, it was my bag stinking up the lecture hall... so yeah, we all go through it :)