Middle Aged and Living Well

Last Thanksgiving, we had a large crowd (by large I mean 30) at my sister-in-law’s house.  The meal included the Thanksgiving requirements of turkey, potatoes, cranberry sauce and gravy, but to feed the large crowd, we had multiple stuffings and multiple potato dishes.  By the time you got through the buffet, the mound of starch was tasty but after eating, so overwhelming.  My brother’s and I made a pact to streamline this year’s Thanksgiving meal and include the basics, but surround the basics with some other food choices that create a more balanced, fresher, more local and more sustainable meal.

It all starts with the turkey.  Over the last few years, I was buying a heritage bird from Heritage Food USA.  These farms started raising flocks of endangered breeds of turkeys and selling them to help preserve the species.  Most of the farms are in the Midwest, but over the years their farms have spread over the country.  This year I decided to go local to get my heritage bird and purchased a bird from Rainbow Ranch Farms located in Pinon, CA.  Its still an endangered breed, but raised sustainable manner and now semi local (70 miles away).  The fresh (not frozen) turkey arrives on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It will be a fun day prepping the bird for its stint in the smoker.

This weekend we are planning trips to the Farmer’s market to garner a bulk of the remaining produce that we need.  We can get pumpkin, potatoes, green vegetables, leafy greens garlic, apples, onions and other goodies we need for many of the side dishes.  For some of the dishes, a trip to Whole Foods or Mother’s will be in order (I don’t think there are any local growers of cranberries).  Not sure about the wine, but I am guessing an Oregonian Pinot.  We are not perfect but we try.

So here is our preliminary menu:

• Spiced Pumpkin soup with cinnamon croûtons (appetizer)
• Salt Rubbed Sage Butter Heritage Turkey
• Sourdough apple sausage dressing
• Apple cider gravy
• Garlic Mashed Potatoes
• Homemade cranberry sauce
• 2 green vegetable dishes
• spinach salad
• Desserts
• Home roasted coffee

We have divided up the cooking with my oldest brother’s family taking up the challenge of the green vegetable dishes, and my other brother’s family taking up the challenge of desserts.  So the plan is set.  Now all we have to do is perform.  I will twitter about the prep, and post some pictures on Flckr, and post a follow up to tell you if we were successful.

So tell me what foods are you preparing for Thanksgiving that are more local and sustainable?