Happy Thanksgiving

All of my friends are so good about including pictures along with their blogs but not me... I'm going to try and get better. I still haven't posted the pictures from Rosty's birthday party.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We were with Lee's family this year. Grandpa B fell the Sunday before and broke his hip so he was not able to be with us. We were missing a few others due to sickness and having to work but we had a great meal.

Anyone who knows me & Lee knows that we are into "eat local." This year for Thanksgiving we raised turkeys. We processed a total of 22 and of that we kept 4 of them. We kept a bigger one for our family meal (30 lbs) but Lee's mom just cooked the breast and legs. I made a sweet potato pie with sweet potatoes from our garden and cooked collards (supplied by KC Farms- friends from the Farmer's Market) seasoned with smoked pork jowls (the pig was raised by us). Our neighbors went to Massachusetts in October and brought me back 4 pounds of cranberries so I canned all of that into cranberry sauce- if you need cranberry sauce let me know, we'll never eat 18 jars!! We also provided a summer sausage which me & Lee made from some of our beef. We had several other delicious dishes too. I also made a peanut butter pie (I got the recipe from a friend) and that was definitely a big hit with everybody!

So lets fast forward to the week-end.... Since we do have a garden and are blessed with lots of fresh vegetables I like to preserve them when I can. We still had some potatoes that we had dug so I decided that they needed to be canned. I have a waterbath canner so I borrowed my neighbors pressure canner and went to work. Potatoes are very time consuming to can. First, I had to pick through them, then wash them, then peel them, them chop them and then boil them for 10 minutes and then FINALLY I get to can them! Lee helped me chop them up- thank you honey! So we now have potatoes.

Well, our good friends the Correll's had given me a few pumpkin pie pumpkins. You guessed it I could not let them go to waste. If you thought potatoes were time consuming.... With the pumpkins you have to wash them, cut the tops off and scoop out all the seeds and membranes, get the rind off the best way you can, boil them and then FINALLY can them. And of course I could not let the pumpkin seeds go the waste.... I hope to make pumpkin pies for Christmas.

I'm not done yet- I've been busy! I bought a box of oranges from a local school. What can I do with oranges??? Let's make marmalade. I did. Another time consuming project. I had never made marmalade before so I was very careful to follow all 17 steps. But somewhere along the way I missed a somewhat important step.

First you wash the oranges (and lemons), then peel them in quarter sections, then you need to scrape about half of the white fleshy part off, then you should have cut the rind into small strips combine with water and baking soda and simmer for 30 minutes. I somehow missed the cut into strips and I got to end of the recipe and was like why do I have these big strips of orange and lemon peel..... So after doing all the other steps- I won't bore you with the details. I reread the directions and realized- 'Duh!" So I took my kitchen shears and started snipping away. So I may not have the prettiest looking marmalade but I did it!!!! I tried a little of it and it wasn't bad. I was hoping to give it as Christmas gifts but it will probably just go to my mom and granny since it isn't very pretty. They have to like it since I made it!

I have more oranges left so I need suggestions??