simple sustainable thanksgiving

This was the first year that manthing and I have been on our own for turkey day. I gotta say it was the most laid back and relaxing thanksgiving I have ever had. We are not big holiday celebrators anyway so we have always stayed home and had either the kids or friends over for the day. The last couple years we have been getting back to basics with our menu and eating more of what the pilgrims and first settlers would have typically eaten rather than much of the fanfare we associate with it.

With it just being us this year I decided to take it one step further and only use what we have grown here on the land or foraged for. The only exception I allowed my self was for the wee bit of flour I used for thickener and pie crust, a couple tbsp of liquid smoke , salt and pepper. Ohh, i almost fibbed. I did purchase a can of cranberries a while back and I just had to have some. I also decided that everything was going to be cooked on or in the wood stove.

Since we didn't have a turkey to fix this was really much easier than it sounds with the exception of the pinto bean pie. I decided to save time on turkey day and I would cook it the night before on top of the stove. I have done this before , it works I swear. The problem this time was that the stove had not had a fire since the evening before and we had just started the evening fire when I had the bright time saving idea . I got it all set and put her on to cook. Bedtime came and went, manthing went to bed, I gave in at 1 am and since the stove wasn't all that hot to begin with (a small brief fire to keep the chill off is common in the fall months). I decided to check it when I had to get up in the night. 4:13 am it was done, WOOT. I do believe I have the longest pie cooking record EVA! I must add that it was very tasty though.

our menu of the day was

"hickory smoked" bunny
mashed potatoes n gravy
stuffing
twice baked sweet potato squash
cranberries
pinto bean pie