Thursday, November 28, 2013

Thanksgiving The Aussie Way

Trial and Error

About a week ago, John and I decided hat we should try to make our own Thanksgiving dinner. Our families are far away, but we still wanted to feel a bit of home by attempting to make all the classic Thanksgiving dishes. First things first, I had to make a schedule for the days cooking. I knew if I hadn't that we would most likely eat potatoes for an appetizer (entree) and rolls for dessert.

All Day Cooking

11:00 take turkey out of fridge and pat dry
11:15 put turkey in fridge without cover
1:15 step 1 and 2 of bread rolls recipe
1:40 let dough sit and rise
3:00 do step three of bread rolls recipe
3:15 take turkey out of fridge
3:20 let bread rolls rise
4:00 cut up bread and cook ‘crumbs in oven
4:10 make stuffing on stove – then refrigerate
4:15 put ingredients in turkey
5:00 put turkey in oven
4:40 cut up potatoes
5:30 lower oven temp to 176
5:15 put potatoes in oven
6:15 uncover potatoes and continue baking
6:30-6:45 take turkey out of oven
6:40 take potatoes out of oven
6:40 put green bean casserole in oven
6:50 put rolls in oven to heat up
7:10 everything should come out of the oven now if it hasn’t already

John had to work on Thursday. He wanted to come home and help though, so I emailed him this timeline. His response was Holy Cow!!!! The preparations actually began a few days in advance. To our Aussie friends, I assure you this is quite normal.... I made a total of 7 trips to the grocery store in 4 days. The thrift store (opp shop) was good to me this week with some fantastic serving dishes. So enough writing... Here is the photo log from the two days.

Grocery Shopping

In Australia, both pumpkins and squash are known as pumpkins. So it was very hard to find a pumpkin for pumpkin pie.
In Australia, both pumpkins and squash are known as pumpkins. So it was very hard to find a pumpkin for pumpkin pie.
It took me several days to find a turkey!

Cooking


I've never made a pumpkin pie before.

Be the pumpkin!

Here goes nothing.
Also another first, I bought vanilla beans. It was sort of fun to figure out how to use them.

I don't believe people when their cooking photos are all clean. This is my kitchen when I cook.
And the turkey!! It worked.
John helped cook a whole lot, unfortunately we don't have any pictures of him in the kitchen.... He left work at 3:00 on his bike to get home and help. Unfortunately he got a flat tire. It is a good thing he carries a spare bike tube with him at all times. Then he got another flat tire.... Do you carry around two spare tubes? Neither does he. So he walked to the nearby train station and got home an hour and a half later :-(. It should've taken him 20 minutes to ride home. Despite all that, he came home ready to work!

Relaxing

Dinner was in the oven and we needed some air-conditioning. Now I know why Aussies actually don't celebrate Thanksgiving. Forget the fact that it has nothing to do with their heritage. It's because November is freaking hot! 32 degrees C (~90 degrees F) with the oven on all day, it was brutal. So we gave in and turned the air-conditioning on for a little while

My Thanksgiving memories all include A Christmas Story playing in the background on TV. So it had to be included. P.S. Our roommate has never heard of it! Before Christmas, I will get him to watch it. You can't understand America without it!

 Dinner

Our Aussie roommate Michael joined us for the evening. Trevor, his dog, tried his hardest to join us as well.
The food, all homemade from top to bottom: Apple Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Bread Rolls, Stuffing (still covered) Turkey, Scalloped Potatoes,  Green Bean Casserole.

This is how the kitchen looked afterwards.... So many leftovers and so messy!

Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

Apple Pie. The crust completely sunk into the pie. It looked horrible, but tasted amazing.

Too bad I can't say the same for the pumpkin pie. None of us could manage to take more than one bite. I decided to have a little fun with it.
 This definitely wasn't the Ramig/Carlson or the Drake celebration that we have come to know and love, but we had a fun evening. I am not sure Michael, our roommate, understands the holiday anymore than he did before; but he enjoyed an excuse to eat a tone of food! Everything surprisingly turned out delicious.... except for that pesky pumpkin pie! Next year John gets to make it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!