Thanksgiving (and SOON the european adventure)

Happy Thanksgiving friends! I wanted to write and tell you about my great adventures creating Thanksgiving in the lovely seaside city of Galway on the coast of southern Ireland. It began with several excursions to the local grocery store, a handful of called in favors to find a turkey, well, two turkeys, and borrowing of pots, plates and glasses from a lovely cluster of Irish friends--friends of my dear darling friend who is living here with her boyfriend for the time being. She too is going home to good old Minnesota, but she'll be back in time for Christmas, unlike yours truly. Ok back to the food, which is of course the most important part of Thanksgiving... well sure behind people and family and stuff...I suppose. ;) So yesterday the whole process began with the first wave of the great attack: The List. For anyone who knows my beloved mother, you will understand the importance, nay, sanctity of The List. In fact The List is so vitally important that my Mom made doubly certain that I had started mine days ago (What she didn't know is that much of it was mental...hehe). Anyway, The List (in my Mom's case) is basically the battle plan, the master plan, the grand scheme, in fact it is everything. So back to the first wave of the great attack. Yesterday friend Lael and I did the unthinkable--we handled, coddled, washed the turkeys. Plural. I hate touching raw meat. But I managed, both Lael and I touched bits of raw bird that I never ever wanted to have to handle. It was a moment of true pride when we saw them clean and ready. As we had slightly frozen birds we were unable to brine, we were unable to salt rub, and so we did the best we could and we improvised. There on the table sat a can of hard cider, "hmmm" I thought. So in went the turkey, in went the cider, in went clove, star anise, salt, herbs and water. And thus our turkey, Albert, marinated. Alfred found his way into the kitchen sink in a similar bath but topped off with ice cubes. Lael and I crossed our fingers. The rest of the afternoon I intermittenly crumbled the crackers, I mixed seasonings, I mixed spices, and dearest friends, best of all, after several episodes of "Grey's Anatomy" I made pie. My baking guru (well, one of them) the best and most beautiful lady I know (who, by the way turned 89 yesterday), my Grammy, has discovered the loveliest pie crust recipe ever to grace the earth. So two gorgeous pumpkin pies emerged one cooled, cut and plated and the other nestled in the one and only borrowed pie pan. Day 1 of the plan had been executed. This morning I hauled my sorry self out of bed at 8:15 to prepare Albert's roasting pan--carrots, leeks, onions, a good rinse, and Lael was roused to help put Albert in his roasting bag. Out she came with a grumble but the bird made his way into the bag and into the oven. And we made our ways back to bed. The rest of the day we cleaned like mad, took a golden Albert from the oven, made gravy (batch number one), made the first batch of stuffing, made the escalloped corn, the mashed potatoes (a HUGE quantity), and put dear Alfred into the oven. Apparently hard cider brined turkey makes excellent gravy. The gravy has always been of utmost importance to me and this was perfect--creamy, salty, flavorful--perfect. Ahhh ecstasy. Lael mulled the wine and our guests arrived, Irish cream of veg soup, brownies, toddler, two six year olds, plates, bowls, and more wine in tow. We had a total of 11 people for Thanksgiving, 3 of them 6 or under. Everything was lovely: veg soup and bread, mulled wine, two kinds of stuffing (one veg and one sausage), escalloped corn, mashed potatoes, gravy, turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie with whipped cream, sparkling wine, and brownies. It was lovely. It all turned out, it was all yummy, scrumptious, and delicious. The whole night, the food, the friends (old and new), was great--such a grown up experience. In fact, as they say in Ireland, "It was feckin' gorgeous."

I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving and this year I am thankful for friends and family, for safe travels, and for realizing what a world of opportunities is out there, and also for realizing that there is no place like home!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Love,
Sara