Tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we’ll have (most of) the family together - my parents are in Mexico this year. I’m thankful for my kids, they bring joy to me every day. My daughter reminds me to be creative, thoughtful and kind. My son reminds me to play and be loud and proud. I’m thankful for a wife who is my best friend - together we’re more than a marriage, we’re an enterprise - there’s nothing we can’t do as a team. I’m thankful for my health - more so than I care to admit. I’m thankful that I can do what I enjoy doing every day and that together our family carves out our own little place in the creative universe. I’m grateful to be here now and look forward to a happy holiday season with family & friends.
But tomorrow is all about food! We buy our vegetables at one of our local farms, Four Town Farms. They have a full range of veggies, an you can count on Asparagus in the spring, then leafy vegetables, then berries, then corn and tomatoes and peppers. Later on it’s root vegetables like rainbow carrots (love them!) and half a dozen potato varieties. Now we’re picking out different types of squash - that’s carnival squash I’m cooking above, it tastes a little like Butternut.
Over the summer Faye, Ilira, Ian & I picked wild blackberries. There are -secret- spots around Rhode Island we visit. We picked about 40 pounds this year and made lots of blackberry syrup - very yummy on Vanilla Ice Cream and whole wheat Pancakes!
This was the summer of food for our family - we made weekly trips to local farms and farmers’ markets. Our blog here is mostly about paper, so I didn’t post much about dinners and local food. We had a wonderful dinner party at our friend Rogers house - everyone was asked to bring food found within 50 miles of their house. That was an eye opener - there are so many different farms hidden around New England - so many we didn’t know about.
In October we harvested Honey at my parents house. They have one hive but were able to get 80 pounds of honey. No one wears protective gear, but their bees seem to be pretty cool with the harvesting, no stings.
Have a happy Thanksgiving everyone!
We’re leaving tomorrow morning, driving about an hour away for dinner at Ilira’s brothers house.
Where are YOU going tomorrow?
Lovely post, best friend!
: )
Comment by Ilira — November 26, 2008 @ 10:52 am
what a wonderful post, Jason.
There’s so much about a good life and a good relationship in what you wrote!!
I could thank you with a Luxembourgian recipe for a squash-spinach-mushroom-pie, but you’ll have to wait a bit for the translation ;).
Happy Thanksgiving to you and Ilira!
Comment by Uschi — November 27, 2008 @ 2:46 am
Jason -
Very sweet post. I hope you all had a nice day. We are up in NH and the kids actually went sledding today. Lots of snow up here. Hello to everyone!
Comment by Nicole — November 27, 2008 @ 8:38 pm
Here we are! Enjoy it!!
Quiche with squash
We need:
800g squash ( the one on your photos lookes good!)
300g fresh spinach
250g mushrooms
200g Feta
100g rapped cheese (Emmentaler or sth. Similar)
ready-for-use puff-pastry
100g cream
100ml milk
1 egg
1 onion
4 cloves of garlic
fresh basil, salt, black pepper, nutmeg
peel the squash and chop it into small pieces. Let it cook in saltwater for 10 minutes ( depends on the squash, you use).
Blanch the spinach for 2 minutes.
Stir-fry the chopped onions with the sliced mushrooms.
Lay the puff-pastry onto a baking-tray. Put the squash and spinach onto it, and spread Feta and Emmentaler over it.
Mix the cream, milk, egg, chopped garlic with black pepper, salt and chopped basil and spill it over the quiche.
Bake it in the oven ( 200°C) for 50-60 minutes.
Comment by Uschi — December 3, 2008 @ 8:25 am
Uschi - YUM! I’ve never had Squash Quiche - will have to try your recipe when we finally get an oven - we haven’t had an oven since we moved in , about a year. Just ordered it today and it should be in next week. Thanks for sharing! Jason
Comment by Jason Thompson — December 3, 2008 @ 10:56 am