Turkey Day

The baton has passed. It was rather strange to not be a player in the organizing and cooking, shopping and cleaning. This year, Carrie took on the whole production, start to finish. She planned, purchased, cooked and baked, and ably moved onto the Hostess with the Mostess throne!
With the table loaded, the punks were asking "When can we eat - aren't you guys ready YET?"

One of the joys of the dinner was talking about how much of the food was produced by their own hands. The creamy 'taties were grown in the garden, harvested by gramma and Jayden and Max. Beaten into submission by Brent! Aren't they pretty? We also had green beans, which had been planted, weeded, picked and snapped, blanched and frozen, by the whole family. The eggs used in the rolls were from Collin's Cluckers, and the whole milk came from the farm next door. The cream skimmed from the top starred in the whipped potatoes.

Amanda, celebrating her 2nd year of vegetarianism, enjoyed Stuffed Tofurky rolls with Vegan gravy, plus all the rest of the goodies.

Even though not all the family appreciate acorn squash, those of us who do were very glad we had included one plant in the garden - it produced a dozen of these tasty, nutrious squash. Baked with some butter and brown sugar, what's not to like??

Carrie whipped up some awesome Cloverleaf rolls, with enough dough left to make a couple pans of really lucious cinnamon rolls for dessert. The whole wheat flour was freshly ground - it makes THE best bread and baked goods! Love our grinder and Bosch mixer!

The frozen strawberry jam for the rolls was made with strawberries from the garden, picked by the slaves, brought to jammy perfection in the farmhouse kitchen. Family tradition called for sparkling cider to toast the dinner ("to the Wrights"!), and a dish of dressing rounded things out. Only a few of us like dressing, so it's a SMALL bowl, in case you were wondering...

Amanda did a fine job on a pumpkin pie, using a new crust recipe - Saucepan Pie crust. So easy: bring to boil 1/3 c. vegetable oil, 1/4 c. water. Remove from heat, quickly stir in 1 c. self-rising flour. Dump into pie dish, let cool a few minutes until you can spread it with your fingers to form the crust. Proceed as usual with fillings and baking.

I arrived in time to see the picture-perfect cinnamon rolls before the frosting fairy came along.

Carrie had a right to be pround, those rolls were awesome!

Of course, a slathering of frosting makes it all better. Carrie sprinkled the top with Pampered Chef Caramel bits. I suggested it might be gilding the lily, but she was right, it was the perfect touch.

We had a wonderful day, filled with fun and laughter, food and games. We celebrated being together, and thanked our Heavenly Father for this time to be a family, on a farm, in a beautiful free land.