Group 2 is off to a rousing start with a fun assortment of Dark Days dinners (plus a couple of breakfasts!) from around the country. Soups, root vegetables, and — always impressive — homegrown meats make multiple appearances.
Lindsay at 100 Mile Locavores got off to a great start with not two but three meals: Shepherd’s pie with a homemade tomato sauce; potato and carrot latkes with poached eggs and homemade frozen yogurt; and a leek and potato soup topped with bacon and cheddar.
Lara at Food.Soil.Thread started off with a spiced carrot soup served with salt & pepper chicken wings for week 1. She followed it up with a week 2 meal of an Indian-style supper of beef kebabs with a garlic yogurt sauce and spiced potatoes.
Kristen at Arugulove comes out of the gate on her second year of the challenge with two delicious-sounding meals: A Martha Stewart-inspired pumpkin-chestnut cream soup for week 1, and a winter vegetable shepherd’s pie topped with sweet potato mash for week 2.
Lauren at Dropstone Farms cooked up chicken-noodle soup with homemade noodles and homegrown chicken for her first week’s Dark Days dinner, and a really interesting goat lasagne — with home-raised goat and homemade ricotta! — for her second week’s entry.
Jes at Eating Appalachia turns in a pair of great-sounding posts for her first-time entries into the challenge: a batch of gluten-free buckwheat crackers for week 1, followed by week 2′s supper of smoky sweet potato soup jazzed up with chipotle peppers.
Erik and Lindsay at EatLocal365 pop up with a pair of seasonally-inspired dishes: Week 1 featured a gratin of root vegetables and leafy greens enriched with Gruyere cheese, and for week 2 they went the soup route, with a warming bowl of pumpkin bisque.
Melissa at the Connectivore’s Dilemma enjoyed a pizza-like flatbread topped with pesto, ground beef, and swiss chard for her first week’s meal. Week 2′s meal — an homage to her upcoming UK trip — featured sausage and potatoes with root vegetables.
Jennie at Daftly Smitten and her husband turned Thanksgiving turkey stock into two soups: a southwestern tortilla soup for her, and an Italian wedding soup for him. Later on they enjoyed a dish of ham-infused collard greens and butter beans, and a salad.
Molly from Urban House on the Prairie turns in a pair of meals based around her CSA and freezer. Her inaugural feast featured apple and squash puree and sage-molasses sausage, and the second was a comforting breakfast of stewed home-dried prunes over hot cereal.
Amanda at Dragonwood Farms jumped into the challenge a bit early, serving a mostly-homegrown Thanksgiving feast (and leftovers!) for her first week’s meals. Her second meal was a colorful brunch of fruit & yogurt, an egg scramble, and a brussels-sprout saute.
We (Married …with dinner) were traveling for week 1, but found inspiration with a winter salad of frisée, wheatberries, and other treats. My husband’s bad cold torpedoed our menu plan for week 2, but we ate lots of our favorite chicken soup, among others from the freezer.
