Thanksgiving

It's my first Thanksgiving in england, introducing my sweet husband to it. I'm getting some crazy looks as he watches me grab stuff off the shelf. It's going to be fun introducing him to it.

I love Thanksgiving!     I think it's my favourite holiday.  I feel less pressure than Christmas, so I enjoy it more. Plus I love the spirit of it. 

You all know that I'm not terribly domesticated but I'll be dusting off the big oven tomorrow as is customary! 

Hubby is making pumpkin pie at the moment.  The smell is wonderful!  I'm getting excited for tomorrow.

Happy Thanksgiving Friends!

A  coworker brought in a blueberry tart today, it looks just like a pie, so I shall call it a Thanksgiving pie now.

Hope you have a great day all !

Happy Thanksgiving! 

FIRST turkey sandwich!  Yummmmmmmmm 

Hope you guys all had a good Thanksgiving!

We watched the Macy's Parade, and had a spread of food that we nibbled on all day. (I'm going to murder the spelling here, but...) onion bhadjis, pakoras, tika chicken, samosas, baked mozzarella sticks, southern fried chicken with Stubbs BBQ sauce, etc.     And we put up the Christmas tree.  Finally got to use the mini-lights we brought back from the USA on our last trip. They are the right colors! I know it's silly, but the lights here are not the same colors as the lights on the strings we used to buy in the USA and it kinda threw the tree "off" a bit. So it's all hooked up, and all that remains is to put the tree skirt under it (because we were silly and forgot to do that when we put the stand down and began inserting the first row of branches), and then we can start putting our Christmas goodies under it. So far we have mini-panettone from the Italian deli, an almond stollen from Germany, and marzipan dark chocolate truffles from the Oban Chocolate Company. Other little non-refrigerated noms will be added as we come across them, so that starting Christmas Eve there will be a calorie massacre in our house! 

Today's task is to start sourcing  wreath for the front door. The neighbors have beaten us again! But I can't put a Christmas Wreath up until Thanksgiving is done. Must keep the holidays in the proper order, and all that.   Last year I got one from Waitrose. It was nice enough, but a bit underwhelming for the cost. Later saw really nice ones at the Tesco up on Maryhill Road, so I may waddle over there to see if they have them in - I'm assuming probably not until next week, since the "Dec 1" switch that starts the Christmas Season here hasn't flipped. Hopefully that horrible bus blaring out the Christmas music won't be sitting anywhere near when I do go shopping....

  Finally got to use the mini-lights we brought back from the USA on our last trip. They are the right colors! I know it's silly, but the lights here are not the same colors as the lights on the strings we used to buy in the USA and it kinda threw the tree "off" a bit.

Today's task is to start sourcing  wreath for the front door. The neighbors have beaten us again!

I agree completely that the lights are the wrong colour here!  I looked everywhere but never did find ones I liked. I am happy with bright white instead now. 

If you don't like any of the mass produced wreaths, you might try the independent florists or garden centres.

My thanksgiving was wonderful! Live drum n bass. Looking forward to cooking a slightly more traditional meal tomorrow after my ocado delivery.

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Nan, I brought back bubble lights to put on my tree and I run them on a transformer and I am the happiest girl you can meet with our tree.  Next time, will try and buy proper 'big bulb' Christmas lights, that aren't LED....   

I'm late to the party!! I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving!

We started Thanksgiving in 2009 when an American friend visited, I was a bit depressed, and I had a tiny breakdown. We've done it every year since! Though my friend and I figured out that year how much we were brought up from boxes and cans. The UK had none of it so I learned how to cook properly and haven't looked back.

We're vegetarian so...
Nut roast
with onion gravy
Mashed potatoes (or roasted if the vegan comes)
Green bean casserole
Mac & cheese - the one thing I refuse to make vegan
Steamed veggies
Pumpkin pie with vanilla ice cream
Stuffing if we need another dish

It's always between 6-14 adults plus various kids. Friends only, no family.  After dinner every year we do hand turkeys like kindergarters do and write 4 things we're thankful for in the fingers. It's really sweet when new babies, houses or engagements are announced via drawing at Thanksgiving 🙂

We've done multiple choice Thanksgiving based quizzes as well. It's so weird. My husband and his friends think our Thanksgiving is very American, but um, mac & cheese, isn't a traditional Thanksgiving dish (shhhh, let me keep lying to them, it's so easy to make!).


I'm so excited to try some new dishes from this thread!!

This past Thanksgiving, i was in Texas visiting my family.
Their tradition is to go to my sister's in-laws ranch, out in the country.  It's 3 or 4 miles off a main road, and as it was muddy, we could only get to it by tractor... that was an experience! 

You should have seen this spread!!  There were 2 turkeys, which BIL had hunted and smoked himself.  There was also smoked fillet steak with fresh horseradish sauce and there was smoked sausage (all the meat on offer was smoked, i believe). 
There was mashed potatoes, scalloped potatoes and sweet potatoes.
There were 2 or 3 different salads.
There was this amazingly  cheesy, creamy rice casserole dish with green chillies,  the standard green bean casserole with the crunchy fried onions, some sort of stuffing/dressing which i didn't try, there was steamed broccoli and there were roasted carrots with a honey glaze, and another tray of Mediterranean roast veg.

The desserts!  Sugar free blueberry cheesecake (not baked) , coconut cream pie, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread with brown sugar icing,  and a few other pies which still had the foil on them, so i didn't see what they were. 

They also had this giant bowl of a chex mix-type snack, which also contained sweet and spicy glazed tortilla chips... omg, this was SO good!

Was a pretty good feast! 

Though my friend and I figured out that year how much we were brought up from boxes and cans. The UK had none of it so I learned how to cook properly and haven't looked back.

This!  Oh my gosh, my husband is convinced that most Americans don't know how to cook without tins and boxes because I struggled when I first got here, and then when I'd look up recipes the US-based ones would often say, "One 15 oz. can of condensed soup..." etc.  I mean, if I'm just assembling the contents of boxes and tins, I don't need a recipe!  My whole reason for searching for a recipe is I'm trying to find a way around not having the familiar tins and boxes. 

But that's so long ago in the past now.  I've been cooking from real ingredients for years and years, and I think I'm much healthier this way.

This!  Oh my gosh, my husband is convinced that most Americans don't know how to cook without tins and boxes because I struggled when I first got here, and then when I'd look up recipes the US-based ones would often say, "One 15 oz. can of condensed soup..." etc.  I mean, if I'm just assembling the contents of boxes and tins, I don't need a recipe!  My whole reason for searching for a recipe is I'm trying to find a way around not having the familiar tins and boxes. 

But that's so long ago in the past now.  I've been cooking from real ingredients for years and years, and I think I'm much healthier this way.

BUTTTT, this is the same with British cuisine here.  Often people buy a pasta bake sauce, shepherd's pie seasoning mix, fish pie mix, etc.  People can choose to use real ingredients in either country.  We just tend to choose convenience. 

Can someone please post a decent recipe for stuffing? 

I usually like to add Oyster mushrooms and chestnuts but it's always too dry.