Dark Days week 17

Well, the mud oven plan was a bust. We woke to a forecast of freezing rain, and decided to postpone. Actually the day didn't turn out so bad, but with wood-fired baking you need to start 4 or 5 hours ahead, so we had to make a plan early. That's okay, I still baked a big batch of sourdough bread, and made a nice meal--just indoors instead!

As our roasted half-chicken was not quite done when we started to carve (and take photos), we had to pop it back in the oven for a few more minutes. So, we started with a first course: Salad, bread, and a bottle of Botham's Uplands Reserve. Salad was market greens, topped with homegrown sundried tomatoes, some barely thawed red pepper slices, and backyard hard-boiled eggs (plus an organic carrot and a few mushrooms, non-local). The greens are so sweet, I can't wait to plant a few of my started plants outside!

Second course (not pictured) was some mashed market yukon potatoes, with the chicken, which was roasted with homegrown seasonings (thyme, sage, garlic, rosemary) and our last meyer lemon from the nearly deceased plant in our living room. It made for some tasty gravy!



All in all, a nice meal for a grey early spring evening. And I promise to try and squeeze a real mud-oven meal before the end of the challenge.