OHAI!
How does one get to be a guest blogger while John is away? Go to the santabarbara.com readers lunch and meet him, that's how. It also helps to contribute feedback or information to his blog, and to talk endlessly about food.
That said, a co-worker and I were recentally chatting about food (no surprise there) and eating local. Noozhawk had posted an article on locally raised organic turkeys, and that got us thinking about whether a traditional Thanksgiving dinner can be put together using ingredients acquired within 100 miles of here.
To reference, this is the 100-mile Thanksgiving Challenge, from eatlocalchallenge.com. Can Santa Barbara do this? Please contribute if you know of any sources!
I realize that there are many interpretations of what is a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, but for the sake of simplicity, I'll make the starting list and I am open to suggestions of alternatives if the original item cannot be located. I know of one item off the top of my head that is limited to a region nowhere near here. Anyway, the list:
Feel free to get as granular as you want, if it's possible, such as sourcing a good baking pumpkin and flour for the pie crust. Honestly, I'm really curious to know what's available here. It's too late for me to put together a meal like this (and the local turkeys were spoken for months ago), but maybe next year? Email me at lemonjelly@santabarbara.com. I will happily post results later. Extra props if you can source ingredients within Santa Barbara county.
Dinner Menu
On the dinner menu is lobster ravioli (Trader Joe's) with truffle olive oil (a gift) with fresh grated Parmigiano-Reggiano (C'est Cheese) and a mixed green salad (farmers' market).
