Memphis Vegan Thanksgiving!

As I mentioned in last night's post, this past Sunday was our annual Memphis Vegan Thanksgiving Potluck. Our little (okay, it's actually quite large!) vegan social group gets together every year about a week before Thanksgiving for a totally vegan celebration. We first started the tradition when we had an active animal rights/vegan meetup group called Food Awareness, and organizer Vaughan would host a catered Thanksgiving meal at a local comedy club. That group eventually fizzled out (after nearly a decade of monthly meetups!), and the comedy club is long-closed. But for the past few years, friends Barbara and Vaughan have taken turns hosting the event, potluck-style, in their homes. And while Food Awareness no longer has regular meetups, most of the original members (and a bunch of new faces) show up every year.

There's always a ton of amazing vegan food here. Check out my first plate! I went in for round two (more savories) and round three (desserts), but I failed to photograph those plates.

In yesterday's post, I blogged about the dishes I brought, which were both from Kris Holechek Peter's Bringing Home the Seitan cookbook. But I'll show you again. Here's my Seitan & Mushrooms En Croute.

And the Jellied Crockpot "Meat"-balls.

As for everything else, there was Vaughan's hearty Millet with Cashews & Sundried Tomatoes.

Brussels Sprouts!

Kale with Cranberries & Cashews.

Stuffing (just FYI, I typically refer to this dish as dressing, but this was the kind made with torn bits of white bread, which in my mind is solidly stuffing. Dressing involves cornbread).

Nicole made some excellent Sweet Potatoes with Pecans. She broke out her homemade vanilla extract for this one. Delicious!

This Coconut Risotto was amazing! So creamy.

Butternut Squash Home Fries!

Barbara and Ken brought Spicy Lima Beans with Tomatoes. The heat in these was just perfect.

Amy has perfected the art of Roasted Carrots and Asparagus.

And Ashley's Fennel, Clementine, & Pecan Salad was super fancy and refreshing. I'm not even a fennel fan, but I loved it in this salad.

Of course, there was also dessert! Stephanie made this perfect (seriously, everything she makes is perfect) Orange Cranberry Bundt Cake. Just the right level of sweetness.

Cassi went all out and made a Candy Cake. The inside cake was all rainbow tie-dye, and the outside was decorated with vegan-friendly candies, like Twizzlers, SweetTarts, and Skittles.

Shay brought the Chocolate Pumpkin Bread that she made for my birthday potluck last month. This stuff is seriously out of this world. So moist, so chocolate.

And finally, Amy's Raw Key Lime Pie was a welcome taste of the tropics on a chilly November evening.

As always, I failed to take many pictures of actual people. I'm always too focused on the food to remember to take pics of people. I did, however, get this great shot of Nicole and Vaughan's cat, Henry.

And at the end, after Pam and Stephanie and many others had already left, I managed to get a few party pics. Here's Vaughan (one of the hosts), me,  Steven (photobombing behind me and Vaughan) Alex, Cassi, Nicole (the other host), Barbara, Beverly, and Rita.

I'm so grateful for my awesome vegan community in Memphis!