Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

There was a chill in the air today even if last week it felt like summer. The grocery store ads are carrying discount coupons for turkeys. It's beginning to feel a lot like Thanksgiving.

At the Wednesday Santa Monica Farmers Market, the once a year $5.00-for-all-the-pumpkins-you-can-carry event was held in the middle of the intersection of Second and Arizona. Three and four year old kids were encouraged to pick out pumpkins too heavy to carry and "roll them down the street."

Adults were more ambitious. For $5.00, one person was allowed one trip to carry off as many pumpkins as they could manage, as long as they carried them 24 feet away from the pumpkin pile. No bags allowed. No help from associates. This was an individual effort. Everyone with a strong back, grabbed two, three and as many as four pumpkins and crab walked away with their treasure.

I managed to carry away three large pumpkins to use as house decorations and, ultimately, to turn into pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving.

We're working on our Thanksgiving dinner plans. We've invited our guests. We're figuring out the menu.

Coming back from recent trips to Morocco and New Orleans I've been looking for new ideas to use at Thanksgiving. Is there a way to make sweet potatoes in a tagine? What about Creole seasoning on roast turkey?

This weekend we've been invited to Localicious, the food and wine tasting fundraiser for Family Farmed, an organization that promotes local farming.

There's a good sampling of local restaurants including Tavern, Church and State, Rustic Canyon, Public Kitchen, Tender Greens, Joe's, The Curious Palate and FIG.

The event's this Sunday, November 4th from 6:00pm-9:00pm at the Annenberg Community Beach House in Santa Monica on PCH.

The chefs will be cooking with products supplied by farmers from the Santa Monica Farmers Market.

The Localicious web site has the full list of participants and details about tickets.

It's for a good cause. There will be food and wine. And I'm hoping to get some inspiration for Thanksgiving.