Give Thanks

But not to Continental Airlines.  Thanksgiving came, and we had a big day planned.  Katie and Kevin were to drive to Manchester and get John while Cailin and I slept and got Thanksgiving dinner started.  Once they arrived back with my BMF (best male friend), Kevin and John were going to drink scotchy scotch scotch while Katie and I finished up Thanksgiving dinner in time for our friends experiencing their first American Thanksgiving to come over.  However, Continental airlines had other plans when they caused John to miss his connecting flight due to air traffic problems, booked him on an alternate overbooked flight and caused his mother to have to drive to Newark in the middle of the night and pick him up.  While the news that John would not be coming left the entire flat depressed (its hard to tell if Katie was more sad about not getting to spend Thanksgiving with her husband or Kevin as he was now stuck with three girls), we tried to make the best of it. 

I spent the morning getting things prepared and we all ran out to the market around lunch to get a few last minute things.  After lunch, we put on the music and cooked.  Since we had a girl from Ireland, a girl from England and a guy from Scotland coming over, I figured we better do a very traditional Thanksgiving meal.  On the menu:

• Roast Turkey (brined the night before in citrus and then rubbed with Herbe de Provence butter and stuffed with lemons, oranges, onions, rosemary, sage and oregano)
• Mashed Potatoes (Alton Brown’s delicious masher recipe consisting of 2:1 russet to red potato and mashed by hand with garlic infused buttermilk)
• stuffing (traditional french bread, celery, onion and sage stuffing cooked outside the turkey.)
• Rosemary-citrus gravy
• Butternut squash (cubed and roasted in brown sugar/cinnamon butter)
• Green Bean casserole (with home-made onion rings on top since the French’s onions were back in CT with John)
• Cranberry Sauce (OceanSpray straight from America)
• Pumpkin cheesecake with pecan caramel sauce
• Chocolate cream pie

Look at that beautiful golden brown skin!

Allister wants to know what everything is.  The overwhelming hit – Green Bean Casserole!

   

Yum – wine!

After we taught our friends how to stuff yourself silly, Cailin broke out another hit of the night – Beef Jerky.  I don’t understand why they don’t sell it over here, since everyone I met over here has loved it.  Plus, it’s a culture obsessed with meat!

Meat!

While the jerky was a hit, the grapefruit gin and tonics that Katie and I discovered at the store were not! 

We’re smiling cause we haven’t tasted them yet

After we all digested our food slightly, we set off to get a post-dinner drink at the Swan with Allister and Ciara.  Cailin and Sarka were not feeling well so unfortunately they didn’t join us.

 

Enjoying a traditional “American” drink in honor of Thanksgiving – Jack Daniels (+coke for Katie and I)

We all missed our good friend John, but made the most of our day.  Hopefully everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did!