November Supper Club: Massachusetts-y Foods

For this iteration of the "host picks the theme" plan, our host settled on "foods from Massachusetts" or reasonable facsimiles thereof. It was a later than usual gathering since she has to work on Sundays, and in the newly dark evening we trekked up the Driveway of Doom (she has the steepest one I've ever seen) and settled to... a lot of cranberries. :)

• D--Salad with dried cranberries, and cranberry-balsamic vinaigrette.
  
• H (our hostess)--An ad hoc crock pot meal of pork and dried fruits with spices. I'm actually not sure what the local connection was.
• K--Cranberry Oatmeal Bars
• P--Beans with apples
  
• R (me)--Maple-glazed Yams with Orange and Cranberries
  

Next month we'll be going out for dinner and doing our traditional cookie swap. Not sure where yet, but given the budget constraints we're all under, probably nothing too exciting. I'm actually a little bit worried that we're in a rut, that we've stopped challenging ourselves. But then again, maybe that's not what everyone else wants out of the group, and it's okay to just be a bunch of people getting together for dinner; it doesn't have to be an event.

The best thing about the evening? I went three hours and didn't even think once about the election.