Thanksgiving has always been a quiet holiday for us. In the Hawaii years, it was generally a holiday we spent on our own – sister and fam came for Christmas. It was when we started eschewing the gut-packing food fest and instead would eat sushi or soup after a hike in the ancient Hawaiian forests or along the rocky coastline overlooking Mahaulepu. We could see Mahaulepu from our kitchen window. The tradewinds blew right over the beautiful, treacherous, beach and into our home.
In the small moments when I think about Hawai’i nei, I still tear up a bit. I guess I will always miss it – for lots of reasons. It was before I was sick, it was before my family was in need of restoration, we had lots of friends – we were just cooler then.
So we were going to continue the tradition of refraining from turkey and all the food and go for a walk in the forest and eat at one of the state parks – they serve a Thanksgiving buffet. But I couldn’t bring myself to eat stinky restaurant food. Gross. What am I, a peasant? 🙂
So I cooked. It was easy. I just made things ahead while I chatted on the phone. I do a lot while chatting on the phone. And the really funny part is that I had everything on hand already. We had a chicken, not a turkey.
I think the best thing was sweet potato casserole. I learned how grandmas make theirs so good and parlayed that into casserole instead of pie. Sugar free – the sweet potatoes just needed a touch of xylitol to sweeten them a bit.
We bought a tree from a local church Рit was close by and easy to do. Christmas decorating makes me nervous for reasons I cannot state here, so Eric does a lot of it. Bless him. He is so awesome. He understands why Christmas d̩cor makes me jittery and takes care of it.
And back into the garden. Lettuces continue to do well under cover. I am on a program of continuous sowing – so we will have lettuce ready at different times. And I have enough starts to give away which makes me quite happy.
Finally decided time was right to plant garlic! I bought some from Territorial and from Renee’s Garden. The Territorial heads were far superior – the RG heads were already sprouting even though they had been in the fridge. The Territorial heads were also comprised of big, healthy cloves. I also planted shallot bulbs. I love shallots.
Harvested – if you want to call it that – potatoes from the great potato experiment. There were no Adirondack Blues. Well, there was one tiny one. But I got a handful of Kennebec potatoes – which seem to be preferred here. So well, there ya go.
Ok. Tired of hearing my own story. Ta.
