Thanksgiving Dinner

Our friends Candy & John from California left on Saturday morning after a terrific week of wine, food, and fun. On Thursday, we did our traditional holiday meal of roast leg of lamb and flageolets (beans). I don't have a photo of the beans for some reason (it might have been the wine).

A starter of pumpkin and goat cheese ravioli.

The lamb came from a local St.-Aignan butcher who skillfully trimmed it all up to order and even told us how long and at what temperature to roast it for the best outcome. He was right on; it was tender and just barely pink inside.

The leg of lamb is served with roasted garlic.

As an appetizer, we ate pumpkin and goat cheese raviolis topped with sage butter and ground toasted hazelnuts. This is the third time I've made raviolis since September. I made this batch on Wednesday afternoon and cooked them halfway, then stored them in the cellar overnight. All I had to do on Thursday was to finish them off in boiling water then add the sauce.

Fresh apple tart for dessert!

We had an apple tart for dessert, which is standard fare around our house. This time I put ground almonds and applesauce under the sliced apples and glazed the pie with apple jelly.

While we ate lamb, we did have a turkey on the table. Candy brought this guy all the way from California.

There was a lot of home grown stuff on the table. I grew the beans in our garden this summer. We dried the last harvest and shelled them for Thanksgiving day. Ken added some of the whole green beans that we had picked and frozen during the summer.

The pumpkin for the ravioli was also grown in the garden, and the apples that went into the pie, applesauce, and apple jelly all came from our trees. The sage and rosemary that went into dinner also came from the back yard.