Monday, November 22, 2010

More November Meals as Thanksgiving Approaches...

November Brambles. Like my Brain! (But beautiful too.)

During the week, I am running on empty. Between a regular teaching load, professional development consulting, and teaching a graduate class, the prospect of preparing a meal is just one more exhausting effort.   
When it's busy, it's especially hard to want to cook, but time and again, if we get Chinese it's mediocre at best, and pizza is never consistent in this town.  There's only one place for Chinese, and while there are several places for pizza, it's never the same on any given night.  In the end, I eat too much of it even though it's not even that good.  So the other night after grocery shopping, I was extremely tempted to call in pizza.  There's nothing worse than doing all the shopping, coming home and unpacking all the darn items, and THEN having to make dinner! 

But I resisted, and we made our own instead.  We had tried this whole wheat dough from Hannaford that was pretty decent.  It's from Portland, Maine.  I got toppings I thought everyone would like, and busted out some frozen pesto from summer basil.  Everyone had fun making their own, and they turned out delicious.  But I still miss good old NY Italian pizza!
Bove's is my go-to jar sauce

Fresh Maple Brook Farm Mozzarella made right here in Bennington!

Another night I was going to make my traditional taco dip go-to recipe, but turned out I didn't have sour cream, which really makes it.  So I scratched my head, took a look at a bowl of potatoes from the CSA, and though...mashed....carrots...veggie crumbles...VEGETARIAN SHEPHERD'S PIE!  It's super easy, the key really is the yummy organic carrots and potatoes.  Here's a recipe, though I like to put about 1/2 a cup of shredded cheddar under the mashed.

Kira helped cook it, and was so excited, she even insisted on serving it.  Then she at an entire bowl!!  So that's what I'm bringing to our Thanksgiving meal with relatives. 


It's funny, the whole Thanksgiving meal thing just doesn't have much allure if there's not a focus on fresh, local, organic, and veggie.  I'm thinking we may have to start some kind of new tradition with the day, because really, I'm anti-Turkey industry.  Read why here!  There are some good ideas about humane meats here, and mail order humane meats in the NY area.  Why not take a look for a local farm that has fresh turkeys?

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