mostly local

this year for thanksgiving, we decided not to travel.  we were able to spend time with mr. h-s’s parents last weekend, so we didn’t feel totally deprived of family connections.  instead, a large group of friends gathered to share a meal together.  in the tradition of this group of friends, of course, we couldn’t just have a simple potluck.  nope, we chose this year’s challenge to be:  local food only!  we defined this so that 90% of the weight of each dish had to come from within a 250 mile radius of where we live.  it was an interesting and eye-opening challenge.  i took the opportunity to visit the local food store for the first time.  i had been hoping to find local pecans to put on the top of my streuseled sweet potato casserole.  i found a bag of chopped nuts that looked like pecans to me, but when i went to buy them, i was told that they were hickory nuts.  i asked if they were similar to pecans and they gave me a taste of one.  wow!  they taste great!  (maybe even better than pecans?  or maybe they just taste so good because they’re so fresh…)  i also bought some heavy cream from a local dairy (in a glass bottle with a solid cream top.  mmmmm….).  the only non-local ingredients that i ended up having to use were salt, brown sugar, and vanilla.  i also whipped up some dinner rolls at the last minute.  i only had some locally-ground wheat flour and my recipe was for all-purpose, so they were a bit odd, but considering their handicaps, they weren’t half bad!  the entire meal was scrumptious and the only “cheating” happened in the pie crust where the coarsely ground whole wheat flour just didn’t quite cut it.  good food, good friends, good times.