I think I've settled on what I'm taking to this vegan/veggie Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, and as usual, I'm going a tad over the top.  I'm contributing one dish for every course! 

* curry chickpea hummus from Eat, drink & be vegan

* autumn root salad with warm maple-fig dressing from Veganomicon (possibly minus the figs, since I don't think I can find them here, but I'll go on a department store mission tomorrow morning) 

* tangy lemon pudding (silken tofu base) from Sinfully Vegan

I've discovered the perfect time to go to the supermarket: between midnight and 1am! homeplus was nearly deserted, and I wandered slowly down the aisles, no annoying shopping carts with terrible drivers to bother me.  aah, it was blissful.   and during my hunt for the tofu (too many kinds of tofu here!!), I found a very friendly and helpful English-speaking shop assistant. 

And then my taxi driver on the way home was pretty awesome too.  Once he found out I was from NZ, and we'd had a quick geography lesson (New Zealand IS NOT the same as the Netherlands, thank you very much), he had a million questions for me, most of which I could not understand.  One which I could understand but couldn't answer was the GNP and GDP of New Zealand.  oops.  

There are several pairs of things that I have big trouble remembering which is which (does that make sense?  clearly my language skills are also in trouble!)

* sunflower seeds vs pumpkin seeds.  if there was a "who wants to be a millionaire" question  on this, I'd just take the money.  every time i am cooking with these, I have to do a google image search.  I love both kinds, and I always have both in my pantry, i just can never remember which is which. 

* left and right.  no joke.  when I took my driving test, I wrote "left" and "right" on my hands to help me remember.  I think it's genetic, since my mom and sister are the same, but my dad insists that it's a 'woman' thing.  

* scallions vs shallots.  again, google image search comes in handy.   it doesn't help that "shallots" mean different things to Americans and Aussies/Kiwis, or that we never say 'scallions' in NZ (do we?) 

I'll leave you with two pics of Clyde the foster cat being cute.  of course, he is still in my bad books for peeing on the sofa and my bed.   

edit: i've just found a yummy looking recipe for a tofu and vegetable loaf which I might try... but it would mean sacrificing one of my dishes, since I don't think I have time to make 4 things... oh, but which dish to sacrifice?