Dark Days Challenge Week Two

On to week two of the Dark Days Challenge of eating locally... Thanksgiving offered the perfect opportunity, but I didn't quite have my act together to pull off an entirely local meal, so instead I did a leftover meal the next day.

We had Open-Face Turkey and Cheddar Sandwiches, accompanied by Potato Pancakes and Honeycrisp Apples. The turkey was our leftover Thanksgiving turkey from Shelton, WA and the cheddar cheese was Organic Valley. (Note: I bought the cheese thinking it was from Washington because it was labeled "local" at my co-op. I know Organic Valley has locations near me, but now that I look at the label it says it is certified organic by Oregon Tilth so I'm guessing it's from Oregon). The potato pancakes were leftover mashed potatoes (also from WA) making their debut the next day in a new form. The honeycrisp apples gave us something light and fresh to go with it all.

Now, it would have been ideal to have fresh home-made bread for all of this, but I am not yet a breadmaker (tune in later in the Dark Days Challenge to see if this changes...) so I bought some local organic bread - Dave's Killer Bread.

I hadn't yet fully defined "local" for the purposes of this challenge, but after discovering the bread came from Milwaukie, OR which is 200 miles away from my home, I decided I would define local as Washington and Oregon. Many places in Oregon are actually closer than Eastern Washington.

One thing is for sure, this challenge has absolutely made me more cognizant in the store about where everything is coming from. I'm hoping to get on a weekly delivery schedule for a local farmer to make my cooking life a little easier in these upcoming weeks!