The tale of our first Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving meal was one of the hardest, nay THE hardest, meal I have ever cooked; but I have to say it was also the most enjoyable. Three things before I tell the tale of my first thankgiving. 1. Obviously, it is not my first thanksgiving, but it is the first thanksgiving in which I was responsible for the entire meal. Does that mean I'm an adult? 2. Sitting down with our friends and sharing with them in their first thanksgiving made it TOTALLY worth it. 3. My amazing husband cleaned all the dishes for me (sans dishwasher). As dishwashing is one of his least favorite chores, it was definitely an act of love and i really appreciated it.
Now for my thanksgiving saga...
It all began a few weeks ago when we were visiting our friends. We realized that they had prepared a few delicious meals for us and had taken us out to eat and we wondered how we would ever be able to show them how thankful we were/are. Oh yeah, we have a holiday coming up that is all about thanksgiving, let's invite them to our place for Thanksgiving. Our goal is now set: have our first (maybe a tradition) thanksgiving in Spain and introduce our friends to some of our favorite foods while also getting to know them better and telling them thank you for all they've done for us.
Now how to go about preparing a meal in a new country: Step 1, go out and buy a few things that we haven't had a chance to get and some things that we never really thought about (i.e. a roasting pan and rack for a turkey, baster, meat thermometer,etc.). Between El Corte Ingles and a Chino shop we found everything we needed except for a meat thermometer. I'm not sure these exist in Spain because no one seemed to know where to get them or what to use them for. Step two, decide the menu. Thank you Allrecipes for your many recipes that I decided (foolishly, as you will later find out) to mix and match in order to get the perfect menu with my favorite ingredients (or the only ingredients I could find). Menu as follows:
Turkey
Sweet potato casserole (with walnuts rather than pecans)
Green beans with browned butter and toasted almonds
Baked Macaroni and Cheese (per my husband's request)
Mashed Potatoes (I nixed this when i realized how many starches we had and b/c I just didn't have time)
Stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Banana sour cream bread
Pumpkin Pie with whipped cream

Step 3, order the turkey, which we named Lou, at the meat shop. Stephen took care of this. He ordered a 5 Kg turkey...we picked up a 6 Kg turkey. Step 4, find the ingredients needed for our menu. After at least 5 stops at different stores, we were short only a few ingredients. I was able to make substitutions for everything except...brown sugar. Via internet I learned that brown sugar can be made from molasses and white sugar. We went back to the store and managed to find what I hoped was molasses (and it was) and went home to make my brown sugar. I was actually quite proud of this, proud enough to post on facebook a picture of my finished product. Step 5, start cooking.

2 Days before our celebration which was the real Thanksgiving Day, I decided to make our desserts, the banana bread and pumpkin pie. I started at about 6 PM when we had finished school and were both home for the evening. We finally went to bed around 1 AM that morning. I started with my pies. I made pie crust from scratch with only butter...I've never done that before. Normally I use shortening, but of course, shortening doesn't exist here. I think you can find lard, but I think I"ll stick with butter. And it wasn't too bad. I used my new botador (European mixer/blender/thing). Great. Dough is ready; now, roll out the crust...shoot, I don't have a rolling pin. [Stephen offers to run out to the Chino shop to get one.] Hmm...nah, i'll just press it out. I press it out. Shoot, the pie pan is about half the size of my "normal" pie pans. I need another pie pan b/c I realize the recipe will be way too much for this little pie pan. [At this point, Stephen offers again to run out and get a pie pan and a rolling pin. Okay, this time I take him up on the offer.] In the meantime , I"ll do the banana bread. The banana bread was easy....no problem, i've made it here before. I use a "fresh cheese" which I think is pretty close to a sour cream taste. It tastes pretty good anyway. I throw the bread (2 pans) in the oven. Stephen gets back...rolling pin, check...pie pan, no dice. Okay, what can I use? How about this ovally, roasting-like/casserole-like , pyrexy pan we found in the cupboard when we arrived here? Well, we 've got to use something. Great, two pie crusts ready. Now onto the pumpkin filling. Fresh pumpkin...not quite the same as pumpkin we are accustomed to, but in the same family, at least. I had the pumpkin roasting in the oven. It's ready to be pureed. I puree it and begin to add my ingredients. Oh no, stephen, where is my evaporated milk? I thought I had some here. I'm sure I did. Oh shoot, I used it to make Indian curry for our friend last week. blah....should I have Stephen run to the store again? No, let's try using the cream I found at our little local market. I'll just mix a few more ("from scratch" pumpkin pie) recipes together. Let's see, oh wonderful, i'll use my new brown sugar to add to the cream to make it sweet. I've got ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. I think I'll hold on the cloves, I don't love those....Now pour it into my "pie" pans and voila, it just barely fits. Now my bread is finished....put my pies in. Recipes say anywhere between 1 hour and 1 1/2 hours or until a knife comes out cleanly. 2 hours later, my toothpick is still not coming out cleanly and my pie looks runny....i don't remember this ever happening before. Stephen, I've done something wrong. Charity, it's 1 AM and we have school tomorrow. You're right. I'll just pull it out and see if it sets. The crust looks too done anyway. The next morning I wake up and it still looks a little runny. Hmm...maybe if i put it in the fridge to cool? I put it in the fridge, I throw one more pan of banana bread into the oven b/c I didn't have time to cook the 3rd loaf. After that is finished, I decide to put my pies back in the oven? Am I crazy? Well, stephen, if this doesn't work, i think i'll have to start over because they don't look that edible right now. But, it actually works. And they tasted great on Saturday.

That night (Friday), I decided to take a break except to boil my sweet potatoes and mash them up in preparation for the casserole. Oh, and of course pick up Lou the turkey who turns out to be an extra kilo...we throw him into a bucket after salting him and brining the juice we put him in.

Saturday morning, I finish my sweet potato casserole (using my brown sugar and walnuts), next I move to the mac and cheese. Great, those are done and in pyrex carriers to keep warm (cross my fingers). Then I prepare my stuffing, but there is not time to cook it before we need to put Lou in the oven. STuffing goes on hold for after the turkey. I rinse my turkey and am about to place him on my new roasting pan when I realize that the pan won't fit into our oven....aaaaahhhhhh! Stephen, our pan doesn't fit!!!! Well, there is this weird roasting type/broiler pan already in the oven that catches the juices from things we bake. Let's put it in that. Okay, crises averted! phew...Put Lou in the oven....now run to the store for more butter, cream and a few other things we forgot.
Home again, set table...Thank you Ikea for making tables that seat 4 but fold out to seat 6. Check Lou...looking good, turn him over with STephen's help so breast-side is now up. Now, time to do the whipped cream. Pour my cream in the bowl, start beating it...waiting for it to begin to stiffen...waiting....waiting...still waiting. Hmm, this isn't right. What is wrong? I can't read the label on the cream b/c it is in Spanish. Why won't the cream stiffen? Well, this is taking entirely too long. Stephen, can you run to the store again to see if they have whipped cream? [Stephen goes and is back quickly.] yes, they do, phew. And it was really good actually, better than our American store-bought whipped cream. Oh well, i do love homemade whipped cream, but I don' t have time to figure this one out. Now, beans, browned butter and toasted almonds. Easy peasy.
Lou comes out of the oven...we are banking on the time in the oven and Grammie's advice that the legs should move easily (b/c we never found a thermometer). Now throw the stuffing in to bake. Take the little itty bitty jar of cranberry sauce that we thought was a miracle we found, throw some craisins in it and mix it up and it tastes pretty much like fresh cranberry sauce. All is just about ready....
And our friends arrive! We had a marvelous time with them! It was so fun to introduce them to our traditional thanksgiving meal. Stephen did an amazing job carving Lou. But, I think stuffing was the fan favorite. As much fun as I had preparing and spending time with our friends, I definitely know why we only do this one time a year. Thanks Mom, Dad, Grammie (and family), Mom Bynum, Lindsey and the rest of the family for doing this for us before...I had NO idea!

Pepi brought us some chocolates as a gift that are traditional to eat during the Christmas season in Spain. I think we are going to try one each day of December...our own little advent.
And thus ends the tale of our first thanksgiving...