Of course, there is no family to visit over here, so we made plans a long time ago to have Thanksgiving with several other families. More families were added and the venue was changed to a new house (we were originally supposed to host), but it all worked out in the end.
All the moms made lots of food to bring, and here was my committment:
a 20 lb turkey
sweet potato souffle (E-side recipe)
cheesy potatoes (M-side recipe)
creamed spinach (my own recipe)
baked apples (my own recipe)
creamed corn (my own recipe)
cranberry relish (E-side recipe)
rolls
drinks for the five of us
Whew! I had to have somebody else pick up the rolls, but the rest of it all got done. IN ADVANCE. Oh yeah. I baked and froze most of this stuff last week. All I did this morning was cook the turkey and heat the rest of everything else.
Believe it or not, I have never actually cooked the turkey. I am always at either of the grandparents' houses, so I've never flown solo on that one. But I think I did a pretty good job! We were very lucky to actually GET a turkey, too. A 17-pounder from Iowa. A very expensive 17-pounder from Iowa. But very-expensive-turkeys are much better than no-turkeys!
Everett and I mad the cranberry relish together last week. He was very excited to make sure it got in the car to take to the gathering.
One weird thing about Thanksgiving here is that it's on the weekend. For once, a US holiday works out with the Saudi schedule! So Mike was home all day. Admittedly, it was kind of weird that it wasn't a holiday, as in an extra day off, but I'm happy that's not a regular work day like Easter or Christmas. And also I'm watching the Macy's parade at 9:37 at night. Crazy.
Speaking of Christmas, onward! We are getting out our Christmas decorations tomorrow because we only have about 2 weeks before we leave for the US. Hooray!
How wonderful! You are such a good cook -- I'm sure the food was all fantastic. PS Catherine is getting so big! Sitting up! Hug her for me!
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