I and three of my neighbors get together once a month or so for an afternoon of food, conversation and perhaps a movie or a card game. Two of them are vegetarians, so a couple of years ago when we started this, I had to partake in my first vegetarian meals.
Much to my surprise, they weren’t bad. Barb, Dorothy and Jan can cook up really nice and tasty meals that are filling. I’ve even prepared some myself and have done alright. Even so, if I have a choice, I’ll take something with meaty goodness.
This past Thanksgiving, my neighbor Barb said she would be home and would like to host us for Thanksgiving dinner. I first declined because I thought I’d be on a road trip, but that got delayed, so as it turned out, I was home. But, I had a standing invite from my other friends Ken and Barb, whom I’d spent other Thanksgivings with and they were always a good time. So, I told my neighborhood girls, I wouldn’t be able to attend. I even made fun of the situation gesturing with my hands as scales as I verbally weighed my options; turkey Thanksgiving with all the trimmings vs. vegetarian Thanksgiving. Turkey Thanksgiving with all the trimmings vs. vegetarian Thanksgiving. Hmmmmm.
Well, turkey won out. I even stopped by my neighbor Barb’s place to visit the girls for a few minutes before heading over to Ken and Barb’s place. I rubbed it in Jan’s face, the only other meat eater amongst us, that I was having turkey, neener neener.
So, I headed off to Ken and Barb’s house and we enjoyed each other’s company for awhile and started in preparing some of the food. Barb’s daughter Erica was there as well and it was fun seeing her again. About an hour into the visit, it dawned on me that I hadn’t smelled anything cooking and so I queried about that. Barb looked at me real funny and said “Maggie, you know what we’re doing right?” I said no. She and Erica are looking at each other funny and Barb said “Maggie, I’m sure I told you what we’re having”. With a puzzled look on my face I shook my head and said nope.
Just then, I looked at Erica and it hit me. All of a sudden, I remembered that Erica is a vegan. OH NOOOOOO! I felt the heat rising in my face as I realized what was ahead of me. At that moment, I remembered how wonderful it smelled over at my neighbor Barb’s place.
Not able to hide my surprise and disappointment, I just went with it, overly making fun of the situation and we all laughed about it. I even called Jan, Barb and Dorothy to tell them what happened and gave them the opportunity to rub it in my face, which they did royally.
So, I settled in for the duration with my friends and my first vegan Thanksgiving dinner of tofu and peanut stirfry something or other. Yeah… uh…. mmmmm? Uh huh. Classic backfire. Love ya Erica.
