Thanksgiving

Jonathan and I decided to host a Thanksgiving dinner for the family here.  Today was special for us not only because it was in Spain, but also because it was the first time we have ever served a Thanksgiving together <3.  Everything went swimmingly and was really special, which was important to us as we missed our families a lot today.

On Monday we went to the local grocer store here to inquire about purchasing a whole turkey (the only turkey I have seen here thus far is lunch meat turkey, so I'm sure that our request was no doubt a little out of the ordinary).  We were told that we could pick it up after 1pm on Wednesday.

Wednesday morning we went to pick up our glorious bird.  It was absolutely fresh.  There were still some remnants of feathers around the feet and wings.  It was 6.5 kilos (a little more than 13 pounds).  When we picked it up I was actually surprised at how big the bird was in size.  In the US the birds are bread to have huge breasts.  For a bird to grow large enough to have a good amount of meat it needs to actually grow.  When allowed to do this normally, that is without genetic engineering, the bird actually has to grow.  They threw some paper in the bottom of a plastic shopping bag, put the bird in, and then handed it to us.  We picked up some of our other groceries and were on our way.  Once we got home I got cracking on my apple pie.  I had made one before, so I wasn't very nervous about it.  The only problem I had was that I don't have a pie pan here, so I had to make my pie in a 8" cake pan.  The sides fell in a little, but it was still a pie to be proud of.

I then prepped broccoli au gratin, which I have made several times before.  I also prepped stuffing, something I have never made.  I was really nervous about making stuffing and spent a long time online looking at recipes.  There were so many different variations in how people make them (with or without egg, with or without meat, with fruits, nuts, etc.).  I hoped that the abundance in different recipes signified that it was pretty hard to mess up, but was still kind of anxious about it.  I opted for one that seemed pretty standard.  It used white bread (I like my moms with the mixed white, rye, and pumpernickel.  Although the bread here is always fresh, there isn't much variance.  I get excited when I come across wheat bread), celery, apples, onion, parsley, pepper, and sausage (I found some nice mild chorizo).


We then eye balled the turkey and quickly discovered that we didn't have a pan large enough to fit the whole bird.  We went up to Manolo and Margarita's house to borrow a pan and a thermometer.  We got then pan, but didn't have any luck with the thermometer.  Manolo seemed confused as to why we would need one and indicated that you can just poke at meat and cut into it to know that it's done.  Jonathan explained that if you want it cooked perfectly, you need a thermometer.  Manolo seemed to understand, though just kind of looked at Jon like he had read too much and had become impractical. 

I went to bed feeling confident about the next day.  Everything seemed to be in place.  All I needed to do was heat up some corn, throw my stuffing and broccoli in the oven, and do the mashed potatoes.  Very manageable.  Jonathan was assigned to the turkey.

As we have become accustomed to, we had the meal at 2:30pm.  So we were up by 9am to get the turkey in the oven.  Here's a picture of Jonathan in his PJ's (I call them his "jam-jams") putting the turkey in.  Good thing it fit in our tiny little oven!!

I then sat on the couch, drank coffee, facebooked, and read the news for a few hours until I had to get moving.  Everything basically went as planned today.  All of my dishes heated up perfectly and the timing seemed to go really well (something we had difficulty when we hosted Christmas last year).  The kitchen was even relatively clean up until like 20 minutes before we were supposed to eat.  We feared that we were running a little bit behind schedule so Jonathan suggested that we put some olives and chorizo out for them to pick at (people here always show up right when the food is supposed to be served.  There isn't that like 2 hour window of chatting that goes on like back at home.  You can add this to my list of things I dislike about Spain).  In opening a big glass jar of olives I dropped it and spilled olive juice all over the front of me (ew.  I hate olives).  By the time I finished cleaning up all of the glass and mopping up all of the olive juice it was almost time to eat and we found ourselves to be running perfectly on schedule.  I cleaned myself up a little bit while Jonathan went to make us champagne cocktails (champagne, bitters, and sugar.  yummy).  So we toasted to our very first of what will hopefully be many Thanksgivings served together.

The family showed up and the eating commenced. The turkey was nice and juicy (well done Booey) and all the food turned out perfectly. 

Thanksgiving food Spaniards love:
Stuffing (Margarita had like 4 servings.  Truly a hit)
Broccoli au Gratin
Turkey

Thanksgiving food Spainards are just not that into:
Gravy (everyone tried it but they all seemed to very wary.  Nobody went back for seconds.  Please note that this has nothing to do with my gravy skill.  I make the good stuff from the pan drippings.)
Mashed potatoes (this was a major shocker for me as french fries are served at every meal here).

I then served my pie a la mode with coffee and some macaroons that Jonathan made.  I explained that apple pie is a very traditional American dessert.  I tried to explain the phrase that something is as American as apple pie, but didn't do very well.  Jonathan then attempted to explain it better, using baseball as an example, stating "baseball is as American as apple pie".  Everyone seemed to get it..but then Manolo said "Emily is as beautiful as apple pie".  Jonathan then explained the phrase again, but Manolo just reiterated again how beautiful I was.  haha.  We then partook in some whiskey and aguardiente (equivalent to Italy's Grappa) and video chatted with Jonathan's family in Westchester.  This was really nice, especially since Jonathan's grandmother had not "seen" the family here in 9 years, since Jonathan's grandfather died.

All and all it was a great success.  Jonathan and I are officially compatible Thanksgiving cooks.