The Little Turkey That Could

Happy Late Thanksgiving to everyone. I hope everyone is recovering from the holiday-get ready cause Christmas is less than a month away!!

This Thanksgiving is my most memorable. One night in October Balbina came over for dinner and we were all talking about Thanksgiving and how we wanted to celebrate it over here. Then in the middle of November, Pat asked me if I was still planning of fixing dinner. I really wanted to even though I had never done anything like that in the states...the only thing I do for Thanksgiving is make the pumpkin and pecan pies under the supervision of Grandma Doogie. Then just last week Pat asked me to start getting the menu together so that we could find everything and translate the ingredients. This was the challenge, not only finding everything but knowing the name in Italian-fyi this is why pictures on boxes are really important. On Wednesday night we sat down and translated all the items I needed but to my dismay they didn't have evaporated milk or shortening for my pie. My mother had sent me a box full of food I might need two weeks before and this was the lifesaver. I went to the supermarket on Thursday and bought all the things but substituted an Italian pastry for my pie crust and a box of cream for my evaporated milk. Pat came home that night excited that she had "booked" the turkey that afternoon and said he would arrive on Friday. I was a little concerned about the bird because she asked me on Monday if I wanted the bird with internal organs and I was praying she didn't bring home a live turkey on a leash or anything. On Friday after the boys and I finished lunch I began to cook the feast. First I made pumpkin bread and then my pie. They both came out looking like they were suppose to so I was hoping the taste would be right too. Then I started on some of the veggies. About that time the bird arrived! Luckily he was dead, featherless and gutted. WHEW. He weighed 13 kilos or 6 pounds and was the largest bird they had ever seen in there house. They kept saying it was huge but it looked like the perfect size to me. I called the turkey hotline (Grandma Doogie) to make sure I was preparing him right. Since he was Italian I covered him with olive oil and fresh rosemary. I then put celery, onions and orange slices inside. I put him in a plastic bag and then in the oven to cook for 3 hours (sorry this sounds like a recipe-feel free to use it for Christmas I guess). While the turkey was cooking I finished the stuffing, veggies, cranberry sauce and prepared the potatoes for the oven when it became available again. By 7 o'clock everything was ready except the potatoes were still cooking. We sat the table using the fine china and when Pat and Alberto came home they found a cleaned kitchen, a fancy table, a cooked bird, a tired chef and a partridge in a pear tree.
The guests, Andrea-he brought a huge assortment of wonderful pastries, Barbara, and Balbina and her friend from Texas, Tyler, arrived at 8. I instructed Alberto of his duties, bring the wine and carve the bird, which he did beautifully. We served the meal American style-or all together with one plate per person instead of several courses like my family is use to. The final menu was Turkey, dressing (stuffing), fresh greenbeans with roasted almonds and lemon sauce, corn on the cob, cheesey potatoes, cranberry sauce pumpkin pie with homemade whipcream and pumpkin bread. We had a wonderful time laughing and talking around the table. Plus I was really glad I could share a wondful American tradition with foreingers and give Tyler and Balbina a meal they might have missed otherwise. I had a great time preparing the meal and was shocked that I, of all people in my familly, fixed the entire meal without any problems. I am so thankful for my wonderful friends and Italian family and the fact I got to share this holiday with them.

PS The Thanksgiving pictures and Venice pictures are now up. It was brought to my attention that the Venice pictures did not show up but I think I fixed the problem. If you still can't see them please email me and I will see what I can do.
Enjoy the last week of November!!