Don't ask me why I thought I'd do this in the middle of May, but it seemed like a good idea!
So many Americans I know really miss some aspect of Thanksgiving when they are living in the UK. Hopefully this post will give you some ideas for how to bring a little bit of the US to you here in the UK come November.
First of all, be prepared to be flexible. You won't necessarily be able to find the exact same ingredients as you are used to at home. It can be very easy to get frustrated about this but I choose to make this an opportunity to create new traditions. If you think about it, every family has their own T-day traditions and there are also loads of great (US) regional variations. It's entirely possible you'd change some things if you married and moved from the east coast to California, so changing things here is just part of the natural process.
The other thing you may have to do is explain what the heck Thanksgiving is to your British friends and family!! Despite lots of exposure to it through movies and TV, I can't tell you how many Brits I know who don't know what it is. They think we do it instead of Christmas, or it IS Christmas with a different name! I usually tell them a bit of about the pilgrims supper but then explain that Lincoln actually made it a national holiday. See this link for details:
http://wilstar.com/holidays/thankstr.htmI also explain that it's the biggest holiday of the year and that what I like about it is that it's a holiday for everyone of every race and religion.
If you decide to invite people over for dinner, bear in mind that having it on the actual Thanksgiving Thursday might be hard. As it's not a holiday here, people will be working so will be less inclined to go out on a Thursday evening. We always do it the Saturday after.
But on to the really important stuff: Food!
Turkey You can get turkey here no problem but you
might have hard time finding it in November, especially if you live in a small town where the supermarket doesn't have the room to keep it on hand all year. I personally am not a huge fan of turkey so I always buy chicken(s) instead. I've also considered ordering a turkey from a local butcher but haven't because we've never had a huge gathering. You'd need to give your butcher a week or 2 notice.
Pumpkin If you live near a Waitrose, you might be lucky and have one that stocks cans of pumpkin. If not, you'll need to do one of several things: have someone send it to you from the US (expensive), bring it with you when you visit home (a good option if you can remember to do it!), buy it from an online company specializing in US goods (expensive), or make it from scratch with fresh pumpkin. There are some threads on here about how to do that that I will link to in my next post.
Cranberry Sauce Ocean Spray sell a jar of cranberry sauce here that will do the trick for you if you don't make your own. If you do make your own, I've had no problem finding fresh cranberries in November in the supermarkets.
Green Bean Casserole I use fresh green beans. I've had no problem finding Campbell's condensed mushroom soup but have also used Heinz creamy mushroom soup as an alternative. I think I thickened it up with a bit of flour and butter though. You CAN find the crispy fried onions. I'll post back here with a link to what they look like but I'm pretty sure that most of the supermarkets are carrying them now.
Sweet Potatoes I've yet to see canned sweet potatoes here so if you have to have them, you'll have to make them from fresh which is pretty easy. I'm not a huge fan of the marshmallows on them (mine have a coconut, pecan and brown sugar topping). You will find that UK marshmallows are a slightly different texture than US ones and they will melt and brown a bit differently than the ones in the US.
Stuffing While I like Stove Top, it's never been something we ate for Thanksgiving because my Grandma always made it and now I use her recipe. Like canned pumpkin, Stove Top is something you will have to source from home or online, or you'll need to find a recipe you like. Oh, there are some British stuffing mixes. I find them dreadful but you may find them a perfectly good product!
I think that covers all the common traditional items you might be looking for. In my next posts, I'll link to some threads that discuss cooking the meal, recipes and other ideas.
One other note, in the last few years I've also found it very easy to find small pumpkins and little gourds for decorating the table. If you think to do it, getting some decorations from home is pretty cheap and easy to do too.
