Thanksgiving

 I was a total slacker with the camera over the weekend. Thus, I have but two photos for the blog this week, both of which were taken by Nancy.

So yeah, it’s been a rough year, but I’m thankful that my chosen family—in this case, Terry, Jane, and Nancy--can get together and have a fun day. I’m also thankful that these particular people are the types who will hop up and help get dinner on the table. Jane made gravy; Nancy got out dishes and put food in serving dishes, and Terry opened the champagne. I carved the turkey, which was perfectly cooked, if I say so myself.

The first cut on the turkey

Taking off the wing

It was a nice day with good food. My innovation this year was to bake the herbs (fresh from the high tunnel) in the bread for the stuffing. Jane declared it a success. It made the flavors infuse into the bread in a way that took it to the next level. I got the last of the Brussels sprouts out of the high tunnel. I have mentioned that they didn’t grow right this year. I managed to salvage enough for dinner, but threw out about three times that volume. We had mashed Caribou Russets. To finish up, we had “pumpkin” pie made from BetterNut Squash, a new variety Terry tried this year. I loved it! The flesh was so firm and smooth. Not like watery, fibrous pumpkins. The only thing not from the farm (other than staples like salt and flour) was the turkey. I get such a kick out of that!

I suspect the cliché of turkey fatigue is from a time when all turkeys were 25 pounds and no one had freezers. Our turkey was gone long before I was tired of it. Jane and Nancy took some leftovers home. Terry and I ate turkey, gravy, potatoes, etc. until last night. There was barely enough turkey left to make turkey soup from the stock that I made from the carcass. We finished Jane’s legendary gravy with toast for lunch today. And that’s it. All gone, except for two more dinners of turkey soup in the freezer.

One holiday down, two to go. Then we settle into winter and wait for spring.