November 25, 2006
After many trials and some discouragements, our Thanksgiving Party for Europeans was a victory for all. I started baking on thursday, making pumpkin bread with the ingredients that Heidi and Cynthia sent me (thanks ladies). Some trouble arose, when the gas in our building was turned off in the middle of the day and when I couldn't find a can opener. But all problems were resolved and the pumpkin bread was baked as well as some brownies. That night, Thanksgiving night, Ben and I and Catherine went to a restaurant that served a turkey dinner and had American football on a big screen. We had a good time, but there's something not right about eating thanksgiving dinner in a restaurant.
The next day, i stayed home all day and made an apple pie, (with crust from scratch), and stuffing (from scratch as well, it is not fun to cut up 10 cups of bread), and cranberry sauce. I found the cranberry sauce at the Asian store in tiny jars, so I bought two and added pears and clementines to the sauce. Catherine came over that night to make chocolate chip cookies, which was tough because she had to make brown sugar by mixing molassas and white sugar. She also brought over the turkey she had ordered and picked up from a butcher. It was 6 kilos (13 pounds) and looked weird (see picture). It wasn't tied up at all and was all stretched out, plus it still had some feathers on it. Yum!
The big day arrived and Ben and I woke up early to start figuring out what to do with the turkey. We plucked it as best we could and stuffed it with vegatables and covered it with butter and put it in the oven. Then we made the green beans, mashed potatoes (Ben's speciality), and cooked the stuffing. I also made stuffed mushrooms and Catherine made devilled eggs.
The first guests to arrive were Diana and her boyfriend Maximilliano. Diana works in the administration of Ben's school and is from Genova. Maximilliano (Massi) is from Milan and works as a broker for shipping companies. They were hesitant to try the devilled eggs, but eventually really liked them. Then Bryan arrived, a classmate of Ben's who is from Western Canada and is an ex-pro hockey player. Then Elisa, one of Catherine's collegues from her job who is French. And finally Leo came, an Italian from southern Italy who is also at Ben's school.
They were all shocked to see the turkey and how big it was and were very interested to know what everything was and how they were supposed to eat it. We all sat down and dug in. Everything was great and despite being very worried about the turkey (there being no button or meat thermomoter) it was delicious!!!!!
It was such a fun party, and I don't think I've ever had so much fun at one of my own parties. I am so grateful to have friends in this new place and for them to be so fun. Dinner started at 4pm and they just all left at around 11pm. The food was great and everyone enjoyed getting to know one another. Yay! Enjoy the pictures. Our camera is terrible at indoor shots, but we did the best we could. Ciao!
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