Although I’m living and working in a country where Thanksgiving isn’t celebrated, this year I felt that I celebrated the holiday more than I ever have at home! First, at school I presented the topic of Thanksgiving to six classes (ranging from kindergarten- second grade). Second, my roommate Lauren and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner, since we have the largest piso out of most of our friends!
We invited both American and Spanish friends. We assigned all the signature American dishes to the American’s: sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, and chicken (turkey is very hard to come by in Spain..and it’s quite expensive if you do find it) and even some homemade mac & cheese. Our Spanish friends brought aperativos (appetizers like olives, chips, tortilla española) and of course, the wine!
As if it weren’t a big enough of a challenge to make Thanksgiving dinner (many of us have never made a Thanksgiving day meal in our lives thanks to our moms and grandmas), an added challenge was finding alternatives for ingredients that aren’t available in Spain.
(my very first apple pie...i even braided it!)
For example, there were no french fried onions for the green bean casserole (MY FAVORITE), so instead I attempted to pan fry onions (it sort of worked). I also made an apple pie and I didn’t want to make the pie crust, so instead I bought something called “masa base,” which is…well, I’m not really sure, but it did the trick! Our friend Allison made a pumpkin pie with crushed up white cookies and butter! Our friend Lindsay was in charge of the cooking the chicken, and even though all she had to do was heat the chicken through, she almost burned the piso down. I'm happy to report my piso is fully intact and the chicken was delicious!
(mac 'n cheese, green bean casserole & chicken!!)
All in all the food turned out great, but I think the thing that I enjoyed more so than the food was the company and the sharing of traditions between cultures. English and Spanish were both spoken; American and Spanish foods were eaten, and we were all together: six of us Americans and four Spaniards. As customary, we all went around and said what we were thankful for: the food and wine, the company, being in Spain, etc. It was truly a Thanksgiving to remember.
(leave it to me to mess up a perfectly good pic ;))
One of my favorite Thanksgivings was a "cena internacional." Yours looks really good.
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