from left to right: steffa, hubby, ingvild, josé, cecilia, ángelaoh, thanksgiving. how i love you. you bring the most delicious foods...
actually, i realized something for the first time ever this year. (mom, this one's for you) the food doesn't actually just appear. it takes A LOT of hard work and effort to make every dish, and while there is fun to be had while preparing and cooking, it is work. so, i think that i always took the thanksgiving meal for granted, which is somewhat ironic if you think about it b-c the whole point is to give thanks... so now, after 25 thanksgivings, thanks, mom! (and others who've offered me turkey day meals) i really appreciate the effort. i do especially now b-c hubbs and i cooked from 830am until about 7pm to get all the food ready!
the menu? turkey, dressing, fresh greenbean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey neck gravy (but it didn't turn out... we didn't have a real turkey pan -- paul fashioned one out of tin foil -- as you can see in the photo, so the turkey drippings were hard to come by, so, like i said, the gravy didn't work out.), a miniature relish tray (deviled eggs, black olives and celery with cream cheese), and the best homemade apple pie around (a la mode, of course!)...
actually, i realized something for the first time ever this year. (mom, this one's for you) the food doesn't actually just appear. it takes A LOT of hard work and effort to make every dish, and while there is fun to be had while preparing and cooking, it is work. so, i think that i always took the thanksgiving meal for granted, which is somewhat ironic if you think about it b-c the whole point is to give thanks... so now, after 25 thanksgivings, thanks, mom! (and others who've offered me turkey day meals) i really appreciate the effort. i do especially now b-c hubbs and i cooked from 830am until about 7pm to get all the food ready!
the menu? turkey, dressing, fresh greenbean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey neck gravy (but it didn't turn out... we didn't have a real turkey pan -- paul fashioned one out of tin foil -- as you can see in the photo, so the turkey drippings were hard to come by, so, like i said, the gravy didn't work out.), a miniature relish tray (deviled eggs, black olives and celery with cream cheese), and the best homemade apple pie around (a la mode, of course!)... the guest list? ingvild from norway, our friend from the beach. ángela from spain, our language intercambio friend. josé chilón from perú, hubby's co-worker. cecilia from argentina, hubby's other co-worker and josé's lady.
to top it off, we held a wii bowling championship in lieu of american football watching... cecilia took home the prize! it was quite a big victory. i mean, a wii bowling championship on a 12" screen on a tv that for some reason only lets the wii come in in black and white. the competition was fierce.so, hubbs and i had an AMAZING thanksgiving. we felt really lucky to have people over to enjoy the meal and the evening with us b-c it just wouldn't have felt like thanksgiving if it had just been us by ourselves... thanksgiving is about family and friends, so (at least at my house) people are always coming in and out... and family is together. it's a rad day, and somehow, we managed to create the same feeling here. woot. it's crazy to live away from home and figure out everything by ourselves, but it was totally worth it... and an awesome experience to be able to share my fave holiday with people from around the world. (we didn't have any cheese on thanksgiving, so i figured that i could blog some cheese.)
don't get me wrong though... there were plenty of funny happenings on our journey to thanksgiving, but all in all, the day was freakin' fantastic... maybe i'll post about the misadventures later in the week. for now, i just wanted to give a quick update... that turned out not to be so quick!p.s. hubby has a new blog! and it may or may not contain a video of steffa collapsing the tallest jenga tower in the world.
11 comments:
BTW people....Frank did some REAL GUTS! I did not have to just remove some friendly giblets, but almost all of the innards and a few feathers too! Luckily he had already been sliced open and had no remaining intestinal tract.
We looked up instructions on gutting a turkey in the morning before taking a look inside the bird, and the first step was "cut around the anus after bleeding the turkey from the neck.." My thanksgiving thanks included not having to do this!
We had the most AMAZING time despite the fact that no gravy graved and no jello jelled.
HAPPY EARLY THANKSGIVING! Yeah, for cooking a huge meal just the 2 of you!
No one is entitled to do their first Thanksgiving Dinner (or maybe any Thanksgiving Dinner) and have ever thing come out (like the gravy and the jello), but that's some awesome looking apple pie. I'm glad you had good company, and good food, and a good time.
I think this is the only way there will every be world peace--bring people from different places and different languages together and eat and talk and play--and since that's not going to happen on a large scale anytime soon, thanks for taking one small step and thanks for being great diplomats.
And thanks for sharing it all with us, too.
We have long lists of things to be thankful for this Thursday, and you guys will be chief on that list. I am thankful that your dinner turned out ... I had a few "adventures" on my way to my first turkey ... and it didn't even have feathers (it also had NO giblets, but believe me, I kept looking.)
I am also thankful that Sonny Boy mentioned the "graving" and the "jelling". That brought a little tear to my little eye. He'll always be my one and only Sonny Boy. (As you are my one and only DIL ... and the best a MIL could ask for.)
i've never made a pie, and, to be honest, i probably never will.
same goes for turkey neck gravy. i much prefer turkey buttocks gravy myself.
but props to you for your mad culinary skills!
YAY! What a great turkey day!! It looks like you guys had a great time. AND that pie looks super freakin' tasty! Please tell me you saved me a piece!! :D and YAY for cooking a whole turkey day meal, just the 2 of you! Quite impressive sister. :)
Happy Early Thanksgiving to you guys!!! :) wuwuwuwu
Happy Thanksgiving to you both. Nothing better than a day devoted to family, freinds and food. Somehow it never seemed like work, just a day of thanks. Love you both, Mom
wow..that pie looks AMAZING!!!! and is it all from scratch? do they have frozen pie crusts in spain? if i attempted a pie i think my first try would have to be the frozen pie crust, then i would graduate myself to trying it from scratch! but i hear martha stuart has a good easy pie crust!
Your pie has inspired me to try a pie too....it just looks SO GOOD!
HAPPY HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
P.S. how does the wii work in spain? do you have to use a energy converter or something? im always scared that i will blow out the power when i plug things in to a converter...it is just scary to me!
Seems like you had a fabulous Thanksgiving with close friends. Could you ask for a better one? Especially the fact that you're overseas with your hubby and having new adventures. That's just icing on the cake (or maybe the filling in the pie?).
My family is coming to Vegas for Thanksgiving. We'll be stuffing ourselves with turkey from a buffet somewhere. Like I said, I don't cook. LOL.. The Ford family is actually starting a new tradition of going out to eat on holidays... I kinda like it! :-)
Stef! It sounds amazing. I have cooked a meal for Joshy and I three years in a row now. It IS hard work, but I do some of it the day before. I am crazy though, because to me it is fun. hehe. :) Looks like you had a great time and I am glad. Happy Thanksgiving to you!
i think i just started a blog...
oooh...
i have had time to mellow now and i have enjoyed reading your stuff!!
I love to read it amiga i do=)
Saludos!
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