Happy Thanksgiving - Belated

Happy Thanksgiving, from a place where it is not celebrated by too many. However, I was not about to let that stand in my way. The only thing that could stop me was not having a place to live. Thanks to Donny and Tim, that was no longer the case. I was not sure how the guys would take it when on the second time they met me (when I moved in), I was already asking if I could put together Thanksgiving at the place, but as I had less than a week to get it together, I had no choice.

To explain the pics above, the one is the turkey in the shower, pumpkin pie in the oven, sweet potato casserole (easily the crowd favourite), and a few of the people in attendance - Christine (in green), Mary -US but from NZ crowd, Donny - housemate, Gretchen - friend I met here from US, Joel - buddy from Church young adult group, on back porch. About 10 attended thanksgiving, and for all but 2 it was their first. Had to shorten the story of Thanksgiving as the food was getting cold.

Anyway, back to the dinner preparations. It was not an easy task. First off, I went to a butcher to order a turkey, and I was told they had anywhere from 4 kilos on up. Oh, OK, how big is a 4 kilo turkey? So, after measuring the turkey with my arm, I went home to measure the oven (not that big) with my arm. So I settled on an about a 5 and 1/2 kilos of turkey. I told them I would pick it up Saturday morning and they said they would take it out of the freezer on Thursday to let it thaw.

Then, time to grocery shop, and I looked at my recipes Mom sent (Thanks Mom). Very helpful, except nothing here is measured like back home. So I spent one night translating cups, pounds, and fahrenheit into grams, kilos and celcius. I would still have to guess on everything anyway as the oven had a fan - which cooks things much faster. I also acquired essentials such as a meat thermometer - which I put in the dishwasher so it would be clean when it went in the turkey.

There was one thing I looked high and low for because it is one of my favourite things for Thanksgiving - pumpkin pie mix. I spent 3 days looking, and found a place that sold it - but they had sold out that morning. I went to a usafoods website - pumpkin pie mix was sold out until February 2007. Heartbreaking.

So Friday came along and everything was set for a full day of cooking on Saturday (There is no holiday that Thursday, so I had to wait to cook the dinner on the Saturday.) I did call my family when they were all celebrating, so I was a bit homesick, but at least they told me I was talked about more because of my absence. Either way, my own preparations really gave me the chance to celebrate, so it all worked out.

Saturday - I am up early and getting things ready, and it is time to get a few final things. At the prodding of my housemate, Donny, I agree to purchase a pumpkin to see if we can figure out pie without the mix. He must have gotten tired of listening to me talk about it all week. Then it is time to get the turkey. I go to the butcher, and am presented with a 5 and half kilo block of ice. Oh yes, they forgot to thaw the turkey. I was not happy, because I had an ice cube and about 8 hours to dinner.

So yeah, I was pretty worked up, but I with a call to Mom and Nana for advice, the turkey took about a 5 hour shower (don't tell Australia, because there is a huge drought going on). Now, if you read about thawing turkey, it specifically says not to thaw a turkey in this manner, but I did not have a choice. So I finally unwrap the turkey, and the neck is still frozen in the body. I had to put it in the oven to melt it enough to get it out of there.

I would have been far less happy, but at this point, the pumpkin pies (made from scratch) looked and smelled so good that I was distracted. Oh yeah, and I definitely split one with my roommate before the guests even arrived.

In the end, dinner was prepared - turkey, stuffing, masked potatotes, gravy, sweet potato casserole, rolls, jello, corn, pumpkin pies (from scratch), and other things courtesy of my guests. And now it is time to brag. Dinner was awesome, I even impressed myself. Even the white meat was juicy. The turkey was really good. The gravy was the toughest part as it was difficult to keep it the right substance, but nonethelsess, delicious. Pumpkin pie from scratch. I was showered with compliments which, aside from bringing people together, enjoyment, and holiday spirit, is one of my favourite reasons for cooking. Even such compliments as the Thanksgiving was better than if one of the attendee's mothers had made it. It was good fun and it helped me because I did not feel like I missed out on such an important thing. It was also great to introduce so many to Thanksgiving, too.

MORE IMPORTANTLY, thank you to everyone who contacted me around the Holiday, as i was homesick and it is always great to hear from everyone. I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. I am keeping you all in my thoughts and prayers.