How our Thanksgiving is different

Let me list the ways:

We raised and killed our own goose. The day before Thanksgiving, we had foie gras and crackers - my homemade crackers with Parmesan and pepper, some with just butter and a few whole wheat crackers.

On T-day, there's no sports, unless you want to include herding the goats into the long driveway to eat what remaining grass there is. Oh, and avoiding the geese (the six remaining ones). It is the lean time of the year for the goats.

Mike made me Parker house rolls - which I haven't had since I was a kid. And they're delicious! Even though dinner's not ready, yet, we each had one to try them. MMMmmmm...

We're having potatoes - layered with a layer of yam in the middle of it -- this way of prep looks very cool and we have goose fat to put in it - fat that Mike rendered this morning. Beans, spinach salad with mandarin slices in it (and pecans) with goat cheese medallions.

With this, a bottle of Newton unfiltered that we had for a while. It is a celebration of a debt paid that has been going on monthly for the past 11 years (minus one year).


I made a pecan pie yesterday, one that came from my Grandmother on my father's side that was given to my mother and I put it into our 'recipes we actually use' notebook. That notebook is getting quite full.

We sat in the front yard and watched as a tiny finch-like creature graced us with its presence. Yesterday, I was working in the garden (getting it ready for next year) and an armadillo strolled through the main part of the garden on its way to the creek.

And I was driving around picking up firewood and saw a killdeer again - this time hurrying in and out of the tree area I was driving around in. They lay their nests on the ground in the rocks, so I just turned the cart around and made sure not to bother them. Today, Mike and I wandered out there to see if we could find the ground nest, but no luck. They hide them really well and it could have been that this bird was scoping out a place for a nest and didn't already have one.

All the goats that are pregnant seem more so this week. Maybe that's because we're home to spoil them. We bought some cheap, cheap beet greens for them a few days ago.

While wandering around the garden today with Mike to find the armadillos, He stumbled upon a rotting watermelon that I'd forgotten was there. I took it back and threw it high into the air into the chicken gulag and it splatted nicely. The chickens love the fruit and the rind... leaving the very thin outside shell (until they get desperate and eat that, too).

It's been a good day. And in a few hours, the goose will be cooked and dinner will be served.

I bet your day wasn't like this one.