Dark Days Challenge: Thanksgiving

Once again, I'm behind. While I haven't been posting at all, I have been cooking.

Thanksgiving came & went... It is my favorite holiday & this year I was lucky to have five of my friends join my little family for dinner. No photos - too much chaos & wine (Washington state wine!) for that. I did manage to include quite a bit of SOLE foods without much effort. Heritage Turkey from Bernie Nash at Mad Hatcher Farms, potatoes, corn, onions, and apples from Pleasant Ridge Farm, hazelnuts in the stuffing from Holmquist Farm, cream and raw milk from Pure Eire Dairy, and other produce from various Washington state growers purchased at PCC Market.
Was it 100% local? Heck no. But I would estimate 50-75% of it was and that's pretty darn good. And no way am I giving up homemade chocolate pie on Thanksgiving! (Hey, I did make the pie crust from Shepherd's Grain flour - also used for rolls - and lard I rendered myself.)
The biggest hit of the night was my pickle tray; pickled blueberries and blueberry ketchup, pickled Sweetheart cherries and sweet preserved cherries, and an assortment of cucumber pickles. One of my friends helped make the blueberry ketchup with me in August; it was her first time canning. It was fun to watch her get excited when people remarked, "Wow, you guys made this!?" My friend Scott made us promise to take him blueberry picking next summer and he wants to learn to can now, too.
So never mind that I forgot that I don't own a carving knife and Scott's husband had to pretty much tear apart the bird with his bare hands. Good friends, good food, good times AND I brought two more people over to the dark side of canning. I'd call that a success.

Mid-November

Already? How did that happen? I'm a bad blogger. (Am I even allowed to call myself a blogger with only one post up? See, this internal monologue is why nothing ever makes it onto the blog. Also, I just went back to school this semester after many, many years and it is seriously taxing my middle-aged brain.)

Anyway. Autumn. My favorite season and it is nearly over here in the northwest. We may even get snow tomorrow, which will cause me to curl up in a fleece covered little ball and cry into my cocoa. Which truth be told, hot cocoa was the extent of tonight's "cooking." Another reason I don't have children; hot chocolate & toast isn't exactly a balanced meal. But tomorrow, there will be soup making, and pot roasting and picking up of my Thanksgiving Heritage Turkey. This will be the first time I've made (or eaten, for that matter) a heritage bird so any tips would be greatly appreciated. 

It's nearly that time of year again...

Went to my favorite nearby farm recently & stocked up in preparation. In lieu of actual cooking, photos of the farm.

(I just realized I can tonight's sad non-dinner could be used in the Dark Days Challenge. Theo peppemint sipping chocolate, made with Pure Eire milk, bread made with Sheperd's Grain Stone Buhr flour, and homemade blueberry jam. Yeah, I'm trotting that out come January when I can't muster any more enthusiasm for winter squash.)

And with all the heritage that, grass fed this that I've been throwing around, I would like to admit the countdown to the arrival of TJ's Peppermint Jo-Jos is on. I'll be the crazy lady piling them in my cart the second they hit the shelves. And I don't share.