It's just been a little over a week since I last posted, but feels like much longer ago! Christmas has come and gone and lots of new memories have been stored up among these walls. But that is for another post. This is just a quick one to note two recent highlights! It is appropriate that while I type Alida and I are engaged in a game of "Spot It." We now have five different variations of the game - what good stocking stuffers they made! Now often one of the first things out of Alida's mouth in the morning is, "Would you like to play a round of Spot It?" Very hard to resist! The other morning just for fun I asked her if she wanted to play a round of Spot It. She looked at me and said, "Are you the Spot It asker?" I guess that is her job. :)So we fit in rounds of Spot It here and there throughout our day and she is getting quite good at it. Soon I won't be able to do dishes and play with her, or do a blog post for that matter! She was happy to have lots of additional family members around this past weekend and was usually able to find someone who was up for a round!
The other big non-Christmas event of our week was getting a huge load of spinach to freeze on shares from friends who are organic farmers and have an abundance of greens still remaining after the end of the season. Jason spent a few hours picking a huge bin of spinach (probably holding 2-3 bushels) and then was my hero washing and sorting spinach for at least 8 hours. We wrapped up the freezing operation around 11 p.m. and had happily tucked away over 35 containers of spinach and had a lot for fresh eating remaining.
It is interesting for me to note how much harder it is for me to gear up for a large food processing project in the winter. I'm just out of the groove! I really look forward to the time when we have a small greenhouse or another method for growing fresh greens in the winter. However, I'm not sure I want to be producing large amounts of things such that we need to put up a lot of stuff during this time of year. I'm pretty sure I'd still be washing spinach if Jason had not been available to help. It was A LOT of spinach. The ducks were happy to get the large amount we determined not up to snuff for human consumption. I do like having animals who are eager to eat the leftovers!
As much as I'm not into large food processing projects in December, I'm also enjoying immensely the bounty of food in our root cellar and freezer and thrilled that we could make a large Christmas dinner for 24 without going to the grocery store. Because I think it will be fun to remember down the road and because I neglected to photograph the colorful meal, I'll note here what Jason and I made for the Benner Christmas feast this past weekend. And hopefully I'll get around to a Christmas post later on, but if I don't shift my focus to Spot It, Alida is going to "cream" me again (her word after she beat me this last round)!
- Roasted Chickens - from our flock of course
- Mashed Potatoes - from our garden
- Gravy - made with our chicken broth
- Garlic Roasted Sweet Potatoes - garlic and sweet potatoes from our garden
- Cranberry Relish - WV cranberries harvested by my parents!
- Green Rolls - with amaranth and lambs quarter from our property
- French Bread Rolls - made with homemade ricotta whey
- Butter - homemade from our local milk share
- Jam - strawberries and autumn olive berries from our property and cinnamon jelly from a neighbor
- Applesauce - from the huge load we made from apples gleaned from a local abandoned orchard
- Turnip Souffle - with freshly dug turnips and eggs from our chickens
- Spinach Ricotta Quiches - spinach from the aforementioned bounty, homemade ricotta and eggs from our chickens
- Salad Greens with toppings/dressing - greens from the same organic farming friends, hardboiled eggs from our chickens, shredded carrots from another local farmer friend and my favorite salad dressing made with some of our onions (which are starting to sprout so need to be used!)
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