Thanksgiving

Has anyone ever hosted a Thanksgiving dinner? I tried but without pumpkin pie and Kool Whip it just wasnt the same. Anyone know where to get canned pumpkin or better yet pumpkin pie? What about Stove Top stuffing?
Pebbles

What about Stove Top stuffing?
Pebbles

I couldn't find stove top stuffing here.  As for their stuffing just wasn't my cup of coffee.  So strange that the stuffing I brought you had to make with water or something.  I just ended up making my own stuffing from scratch.  Time wise it took longer but definitely was worth it.  Still having Thanksgiving here for me was a horrible experience.  Just didn't feel like Thanksgiving.  No football to watch, no family, etc.  But we made do with what we had..and was THANKFUL! 

I made lots of pumpkin bread last Christmas... bought all my pumpkin in Lupe Pinto's in Edinburgh, but they also sell it online at places like Skyco and Cybercandy.

Never been into Stovetop... If i make stuffing, i make it from scratch.

Has anyone ever hosted a Thanksgiving dinner? I tried but without pumpkin pie and Kool Whip it just wasnt the same. Anyone know where to get canned pumpkin or better yet pumpkin pie? What about Stove Top stuffing?
Pebbles

I've seen canned pumpkin for the past few months at our local Sainsburys SavaCentre.

Hubby has brought home Stove Top Stuffing before.  I believe he bought it from Bluebirds on King's Road in Chelsea.

Tesco carried canned pumpkin about six years ago, but I don't think it caught on here because I've never seen it since that year.  (I saw the same thing happen recently with Saltines, packaged here as "American Style Snack Crackers".)

Since then, I've made my pumpkin pie, and other recipes containing pumking, from fresh pumpkins.  I've even grown my own pumpkins in the vegetable patch.

But pumpkins are plentiful in the stores that time of year.  It's extra work preparing it, but the results are out of this world.  Because of the extra work, I tend to make lots of pureed pumpkin, then freeze it.  Then I can use it in other things such as pumpkin bread, pumpkin stuffed cannelonis, pumpkin muffins, pumpkin-nut pate, pumpkin-chocolate cheesecake, etc.

Not being able to get ingredients I was used to forced me to get creative ! 

The first few years here, I tried to maintain having a traditional Thanksgiving.  Then, because it's just another working day here, I've done variations, more of a "harvest" dinner on the Friday or Saturday where I could still make some of the traditional fare or dishes that used the  traditional ingredients.  Or, some years I've had a Halloween party, so Thanksgiving was lower key...  I've varied things year to year.

I suspect this year when I'm back in Chicago, real Thanksgiving will be a shock to the system!

Have fun! - btw, did you find any Cool Whip here?

My DF really enjoyed the feast I prepared last year, as did our guests.  It helped that Thanksgiving fell on his birthday...we managed to get more people over to celebrate that way.  I found canned pumpkin and yams at Lupe Pinto's in Edinburgh and made everything else from scratch...

Let me just say that when you put homemade cranberry sauce, stuffing and rolls in front of my Scottish friends, they think they are in heaven!!  The only non-traditional thing for our feast was no family and no parade or football.  Which translated into no fights between siblings over anything, including what to watch on TV.

I know that the holiday is a time for family, but I think that celebrating it while away from "home" is just a great way to remember your roots and to introduce your friends to some really great food.   

I was pregnant last Thanksgiving but I always try to make at least a turkey with sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce but last year I wasnt well enough (difficult pregnancy) so my husband said he would make the dinner. We DID have a lovely turkey and cranberry sauce but ended up with Yorkshire puddings, mashed potatoes and Bisto gravy! Bless him! He also put Christmas crackers out for the kids. Is it any wonder I love him!
Pebbles 

Just a note - the Bluebird in Chelsea is now a regular Sainsbury's grocery and doesn't have much in the way of "out of the ordinary" stuff.    Was just there a few weeks ago and discovered that much to my disappointment.

the Bluebird in Chelsea is now a regular Sainsbury's grocery

Cheers, Peedal.  I didn't realise it was gone.   

Neither did I until I dragged poor Wishstar out there...

I haven't had any trouble making anything for Thanksgiving. I just make regular whipped cream instead of having cool whip and our family never used Stove Top anyway (blech!). 

This year there are tentative plans for a big Thanksgiving for those of us in the Southwest. Details to be published in a month or so.....

My DF really enjoyed the feast I prepared last year, as did our guests.  It helped that Thanksgiving fell on his birthday...we managed to get more people over to celebrate that way.  I found canned pumpkin and yams at Lupe Pinto's in Edinburgh and made everything else from scratch...

My df's birthday is also right around that time! Though Jamie was less than impressed with the feast - he loved the turkey, and thought my mom's "corn pudding" recipe was alright, but he didn't like my homemade cranberry sauce or stuffing and HATED the pumpkin pie (thanks to canned pumpkin from skyco) and told me the next day that he'd only eaten it to make me happy!    We've got more American friends now, so this year I suspect we'll have people over who WILL appreciate it. 

but he didn't like my homemade cranberry sauce or stuffing and HATED the pumpkin pie (thanks to canned pumpkin from skyco) and told me the next day that he'd only eaten it to make me happy!   

Er, he only ate it to make you happy?  And then he told you?  That's pretty rude.  After you spent how many hours making this meal?  I'm hoping that this Thanksgiving you're giving him a fiver to go buy himself some fishandchips, while you and your friends enjoy the meal.  Start as you mean to go on, you could serve him live squid-his reply should still be 'Thank you very much, that was lovely.'

Heeheehee. It actually wasn't really that big of a deal - he did tell me that it was a lovely meal that night and we did have a very nice evening. It was only when I tried to make him eat a piece of leftover pie the next day and he turned it down (and he NEVER turns down food!) and I said "but you ate it and liked it last night!!" that he confessed that he really hadn't liked it much but he knew that the whole Thanksgiving thing was important to me, so he'd eaten it anyway.... He wasn't complaining at all and to be fair I said the same thing when he once cooked me a steak and kidney pie - it's lovely honey, but don't make it again, alright? LOL.