A Thankful Feast

Hello All,

Happy Comatose Friday! I hope your turkey gorging went spectacularly well!

Here, Andrew and I decided that we should celebrate the lovely Thanksgiving Day with a traditional meal. So we made some adjustment to have our free day be on Thursday, thus allowing us to spend the day preparing a meal. Initial plan is as follows:

Turkey
Sweet Potatoes
Cranberry Sauce
Stuffing
Green Bean Casserole
Pumpkin Pie

Pretty typical. We decided against normal mashed potatoes because we had them earlier that week and we only wanted the best. BUT, like an ecological niche, there is the ideal menu and then the actualized one. We found this out when we went shopping on Wednesday.

First, you can't get a whole turkey this time of year in Chile. They're more of a Christmas bird. So we made due with two chickens. Second, sweet potatoes don't exist here, and cranberries are neither common nor cheap. Positives are that pumpkins are awesome and delicious. So our new menu was as follows:

Chicken
Mashed Potatoes
Stuffing (technically dressing as I found out)
Green Bean Casserole (sans French's Fried Onions)
Pumpkin Pie

It was a a glorious day. For not having one measuring cup and a odd assortment of cooking dishes, we pulled off a pretty delectable meal. The oblates were all pretty impressed (one could argue they were thankful) and the night was heavily enjoyed at the dinner table until the head of our house reminded me that the most traditional ingredient to a Thanksgiving meal was the scotch and cigars that followed afterwards. A Chilean was telling and American that Scottish whisky was in order. Awesome.

So we went outside where a few smoked, a few had a drink, and everyone enjoyed the cool (60ish) weather outside. One pulled out an accordion (now we're bringing in some German?) and huffed out a few notes of a song. Overall, it was a wonderful day and while I may not have been able to spend the time giving thanks with my family, I was able to be thankful for my family (for whom this opportunity to be in Chile was made possible by) while in a community. Thanks to all!


Cheers,


P.S. Not many leftovers. Sad face emoticon.