Friday, November 25, 2011

Thanks Given

The day before Thanksgiving,  Brendan and Bethany (our summer interns) arrived to pick up several turkeys their family members had reserved.  We were so happy to see them and I think they had fun seeing how much the calves had grown, picking greens out of the high tunnel, bonding with the chickens and feasting on a farm lunch with us.  Having these two as interns on our farm is definitely one of the things things we are most grateful for this year.
On Thanksgiving, we were hosting a bunch of dear friends.  Our week had been too hectic to do anything ahead, so we had a lot of last minute preparations. As soon as I finished chores, I started the dough for our traditional dinner rolls. I use a recipe from the dilapidated 1956 Betty Crocker cookbook my mom won when she was named "Homemaker of Tomorrow" in high school that year.   I mix the dough in the big "Rhythm Rose"bowl that my grandma got as a wedding gift and always made bread and cookies in when I was growing up. Tradition.
One year when our children were young, I had a Martha Stewart moment and invented "Thanksgiving Fortune Rolls."  I printed messages stating things we were thankful on paper, cut them into strips which were then folded and inserted into the rolls before rising. During dinner, whenever somebody ate a roll they had to read their message aloud. By popular demand, I have now made fortune rolls for most of the past fifteen Thanksgivings.
While the bread dough rose I made  the pumpkin pie. The filling was actually made from  a blend of  sugar pie pumpkin and  buttercup squash from our garden.
Gotta love farm eggs--the yolks were even more orange than the pumpkin.
In the meanwhile, since it was a remarkable 60 degrees on  Thanksgiving Day, Rog was grilling the turkey. In comparison, last year my parents couldn't get here for Thanksgiving because of a snowstorm.
The finished pies.
Rog with the grilled turkey, ready to carve.
We are especially thankful to have had some of our favorite people in the world here to feast and fest with us!

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