Pie, potlucks, and a butter question

Barbara S. in Vancouver, Washington, is joining our email circle this time. Welcome, Barbara!

Let's celebrate apple season --- here is a delicious Raspberry Apple Pie I discovered recently. The raspberries add extra spark and the crust is a wonderful blend of almonds, maple syrup, and brown rice flour --- very special: Raspberry Apple Pie

I'm still working on a write-up about the Mindful Cooking potlucks we have here in Portland, Last time I wrote, I asked whether others might be doing such potlucks in other places. I was delighted to hear from Ellen in Texas who told me:
I have one vegan friend. We had a vegan thanksgiving last year but I wouldn't call it a potluck. Anyway, we made interesting food that we both brought to the table and enjoyed it with family. Isn't that what its all about? It was a mix of American & Asian dishes. All very good!

Two families sounds like a potluck to me! Gail in North Carolina has a bigger group:

Our sangha, the Community of Mindful Living-UUFR, here in Raleigh, North Carolina is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. We gather on Monday evenings, and we have a mindful potluck whenever there is a fifth Monday in the month. We follow Thich Nhat Hahn's guidelines for mindful eating, and we are largely vegan, with an occasional vegetarian dish. After eating silently for a few minutes, we share in mindful conversation.
We very much appreciate your recipes and contact!
Sending love and joy to all of you,
Gail
(True Wonderful Jewel)

Thanks from all of us, I'm sure, for that love and joy! So glad to hear you have such a long-lasting potluck tradition. If anyone else is doing mindful potlucks, I hope you'll let me know.

Changing the subject here, Betsy in California wonders what we are doing about butter:

What brand of spread do you use? I have been using earth balance but when closely looking at the ingredients one is palm fruit which of course comes from the palm tree thus palm oil. Just wondered what your group uses. I have seen recipes for making one's own spread but they use lecithin which I think is heavily processed. Just wondering.
thanks betsy

We have a butter recipe on our website -- Better Butter -- and it does use lecithin, but not very much. Does anyone have thoughts about lecithin? What are you all using for butter?

One more news item: Linda here in Portland is helping me get a page on the PlantPure Nation website for our group. I hope this will be a place where we can talk to each other easily. I expect to have it figured out by the next time I write, though if you want to browse that website for Mindful Cooking, you may be able to find our page sooner. Thanks, Linda, for connecting us with plant-based social media!

This would be a good time to think about Thanksgiving recipes or holiday recipes in general. Please send in your holiday favorites!

Happy cooking,
Eve