Bits and pieces.

Of course I forgot to get pictures of all the food when it was finished. But that is life. It was good. And we have lots of leftovers so we shan't have to cook for a week! Yay!! Well, that is the plan anyway. It was a wonderful afternoon/ evening enjoyed with friends and family. We have much to be thankful for.

Whew... that was exhausting!

Bread , the staff of life..

I'd always had great plans for our Thanksgiving feasts. Like actually making the dinner rolls... among other things. But when it came down to crunch time.... I usually ran out of energy and those plans went out the window. BUT, this year... Elly May was doing most of the work as I was sort of side lined with health matters . Good thing too because this way we got actual , home made , delicious rolls. She spent hours making them... but it was so worth it.
The dough, made the night before. A double batch , which she decided to combine into one bowl despite some peoples voiced concerns about future rising issues and overflow. No matter, it all fit at the time.

Of course, this is what greeted her the next morning. I think it was worth it just for the wow factor. The blob is out to get you!!!

Deft hands make rolls.

Lots and lots..

And lots... of rolls.

Only so many will fit in the oven at a time , so they were done in batches.

More rising..

Think we have enough ? They were grand . And there are plenty for leftover sandwiches.

The Pie Saga

Elly May is a master pie baker. They are the best ever. Pie day was Wednesday , well , among other things. We were doing a lot on Wednesday. Well , Elly May was anyway.
Blueberry..

Ahem.. are those teeth marks? No.. it couldn't be... J. B..... we won't tell anyone. And we shall keep things pushed a little farther in from the edge of the counter in future.

You have to see this.. I could never figure it out when I made pies. I think it has something to do with straight lines . I can't do straight lines ... but Elly May does straight lines very very well.. and can weave too!

The first layer..

Isn't that cool?

It is like fabric.

The work of a fine artist.

Baked to perfection.

Apple pie.

Crust for Butternut Squash Pie. We grew the butternuts.. In our opinion , butternut makes a FAR better pie than pumpkin. But that is just our personal preference.

We ran out of milk so this ended up with some cream in it and it was very very decadent.

The finished apple.

Decorations for the squash pie.

Aren't they cute?

Ta da! Now on to the rest of the stuff.. she made a lot of bread too. More on that later.

Pre-Thanksgiving prep..

We usually start working on things for Thanksgiving days beforehand.

Elly May's famous bread for stuffing..

Chopped and drying in the oven..

J. B. doing his cat impression chillin on the back of the couch.

What I've spent a lot of time doing of late.... Punker Man is happy anyway.

Cider Pressin' Time

We get apple seconds from our local farmer's market and they had enough for us this past week that we could do a cider pressing to have fresh cider for our Thanksgiving meal. We did the pressing earlier in the week because it is a rather labor intensive project and we were going to have enough to do later in the week.
Being seconds.. we have to cut out the bad spots and so forth..

The giant apple.

J.B. wants to see what is happening .

Let's go bobbing for apples!!!

Ready for pressing.. How about that table cloth eh? Actually it is an old sheet someone gave us from the 60's or thereabouts. I can't imagine waking up and looking at them on my bed. I think it would give me nightmares.

My prized possession

Some are not usable.....

Poor Punker Man injured his shoulder somehow and has been limping this past week. So he was watching from the porch and being miserable.

Liquid gold!!

Mmmmmm... if you've never had fresh pressed cider... you've really missed out in life. It is like nothing you have ever tasted and absolutely NOTHING like apple juice from the store.

Me hanging out and resting with Punker Man because I was supposed to be taking it easy... I did try.

Finished product. It went over really well at our Thanksgiving celebration. As apple season goes on and there are more and more seconds , we ferment a large portion of it into hard cider and then turn in into vinegar. We have about 20 gallons of the stuff turning (hopefully!) into vinegar in an oak barrel right now. We shall see how it turns out. We've never put it in a barrel before , just fermenting it in jars. But I had the barrel.. so we are now using it. So there.