Most of us are spending the day with family and friends (or, at any rate, spending the day trying to avoid them and spiking our cokes with rum), watching football (or catching up with what's new on the Daily Loaf), and of course, digging into a big ol' Thanksgiving feast, complete with all the fixins: turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce (or, depending on the skill level of your Turkey Day chef, perhaps some lovely can-berry sauce).
But Thanksgiving should be an opportunity for all sorts of folks to get together and stuff themselves without recrimination. Why discriminate against people who shun the bird for more esoteric culinary fetishes? Join vegans, vegetarians, raw foodists and the veg-curious at the fourth annual ThanksVegan Feast on Thursday, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa. It’s a potluck, so you’ll need to bring a covered dish that’s free of animal products (even bacon), a massive appetite and a willingness to buck traditional foods while maintaining the true spirit of the season: gluttony, in all its cruelty-free glory. Thurs., Nov. 26, Unitarian Universalist Church of Tampa, 1:30-5:30 p.m. 11400 Morris Bridge Road, Tampa, $5 (with a dish), $15 (without a dish), vegtampathanksgiving.com. —Brian Ries
p.s. If you're still searching for the perfect, CL-approved addition to your holiday table, check out the Creative Loafing Cookbook for mouthwatering last-minute recipes.
This article appears in Nov 18-24, 2009.