I meant to send you all a wish for a Happy Thanksgiving last week, but I ended up rushing around and never managed to post anything. Anyway, I hope all our American friends feasted and enjoyed themselves in the traditional manner.
Over here we don't normally celebrate Thanksgiving - it's a purely North American holiday, of course. However, I was determined to do something as we both really enjoy a holiday where the only thing required is that we eat a lot! So I invited some friends and relatives and set out to re-create a Thanksgiving dinner.
I nearly came a cropper on the Turkey. It never occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to find one, but I was looking around at the butcher's shop the week before and realised they didn't have any as it wasn't Christmas time. I could have gotten a frozen one from the supermarket, but I wanted a proper fresh one! I asked if they could get one and after a few phone calls the butcher said he'd have one for me on Tuesday. When I went in on Wednesday to pick it up he told me he'd sent it back because it was "blue". I imagined the worst, but he meant that it wasn't properly fattened and the skin had a bluish cast to it. He then told me that he'd sent his son off in the lorry to pick one up and his son would be back that evening.
I felt sorry that the blue turkey had met his end before his time, but was thrilled to be getting one at all. In the end I got a fine 14lb bird on Thursday morning. I thought it was really wonderful that they'd done all this just to get my Thanksgiving Turkey and I was profuse in my thanks when I stopped by on Friday! I think this bird had been dispatched rather quickly when the order came in as there were still a lot of feathers on it! We soon plucked them out with the needle nose pliers, though!!!!!
Raw cranberries weren't in evidence in the shops, either, so I had to settle for a jar of cranberry sauce. Still, it was tasty and added another layer of flavor to the lovely turkey with its cornbread and sausage stuffing.
Cornbread was another problem. There is no cornmeal to be had, as such. In the end, I took a risk and bought something labelled "Polenta". In the States, I think polenta would already be made up. The ingredients list of the packet I bought only contained one item: ground corn, so I took the risk. In the end, it made absolutely smashing cornbread. John and I scarfed a lot of it "just to test" and it was delicious so we had to make some more for the dinner!
I decided not make a green bean casserole and just did plain steamed green beans to which I added pine nuts and melted butter. Similarly, I didn't do glazed sweet potatoes, but cooked and sliced them and then added some crispy bacon bits and more melted butter.
One of our neighbours gave us a chunk of the huge pumpkin they had grown this summer (quite a rare veg/fruit for a Brit to grow in the first place) and I had pureed and frozen that some time ago. From this I was able to make a pie. Those of you who know me well know that I can't make pastry. Fortunately there is "jus-rol" frozen pie crust and I used that for the pumpkin and pecan pies. Pecans I found in the super-market, but of course there was no corn syrup. I used a very good substitute - maple flavored Tate and Lyles Golden Syrup.
So now you know more than you really needed to know about our Thanksgiving dinner. We had a good time. The food was good, the wine was uplifting, the company scintillating and the evening was a fine success. Next year, I think I'll invite more neighbours!
