thanksgiving eve dinner

Tomorrow we are heading down south to have Thanksgiving dinner and games night with Shawn's family, so today was a cooking day. The day outdoors has been steadily rainy, so it was really an ideal day to stay indoors and cook delicious savory things! We're bringing the cranberries, sweet potatoes and brussels sprouts, and while I was cooking I decided to make us a Thanksgiving Eve dinner, since Thanksgiving dinners are so tasty!! I made a lovely cranberry sauce from Oregon cranberries featuring ginger and some grated zest of satsuma. Sweet potatoes I couldn't resist making, they are perfectly sweet and tasty just on their own, roasted in their skins and then lightly mashed.

The co-op here has what I consider a paucity of locally grown veggies, which is kind of crazy after being in Maine, which is way colder but still featured local produce basically year round...sigh. Our garden will be going again some day! Anyway...the kale is a nice healthy black kale grown right down in Mount Vernon area, which was nice to find. Very fresh with a lot of good color. I diced onion up and sauteed it with some of our Maine garlic, added leftover mushroom stock I made this morning and cooked up some good kale. A super stuffing, my best yet, I think, was made and thoroughly enjoyed. I cut up half a loaf of bread this morning, one I made that was loaded with cooked wheat berries and came out deliciously. I added a few tablespoons of olive oil, sage and a little oregano, some sauteed celery, garlic and onions, diced some almonds and threw in some raisins and also added about a cup of Whatcom County wild harvested chanterelles...they are getting a little ratty this time of year but have wonderful flavor and made a really awesome addition to the stuffing that we both loved. I had some mushroom ends in the freezer to make up a nice mushroom stock and mixed this in and sprinkled with a little salt. Baked, it turned out just beautifully. Yummy!!!! Lastly, a pumpkin pie. I sweetened it with rapadura and a little barley malt and it came out nicely. Only one pumpkin left in our Maine squash stash...they came a long way. :-)

This was a wonderful dinner! We loved it and had tree trimming to enjoy afterwards. I love this time of year!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! May your dinners be delicious and loved ones be near...