November — Lamb Day

"Lamb Day" at our house means Thanksgiving — we cook a leg of lamb. It's unusual for us to cook more than one leg of lamb (gigot d'agneau) a year. Here are some pictures of the gigot we cooked for Thanksgiving 10 years ago. It was a de-boned, rolled, and tied roast. It was so big that I ended up cutting it in half, cooking half, and putting half of it in the freezer, raw, to roast later. This year I went to the butcher's and ordered a whole, bone-in leg, trimmed and ready for the oven.

I'll show pictures of our 2023 Thanksgiving Day gigot tomorrow, and pictures of it cooked and carved in a day or two. In 2013 the boneless rolled and tied gigot weighed in at 2.31 kilograms (5 lbs.) and cost 45 euros. This years bone-in lamb weighs 2.34 kilos and cost 62 euros. The price is high, but it's a once-a-year treat.

Another treat we have on Thanksgiving Day is one of Walt's pumpkin pies. He makes the buttery crust from scratch and this year he grew the "pumpkin" — a winter squash called une sucrine du Berry — in the vegetable garden. The picture below shows his 2013 pumpkin pie.