Jen I had an easy job for our family’s Thanksgiving meal – I was in charge of baking crescent rolls! My aunt and uncle provided everything else. Delicious. On the way home we stopped by a house that’s gotten some media coverage for its awesome décor. It didn’t disappoint! Lots of interactive displays. (For anyone local, you can look it up on Facebook as the “Halloween Christmas House Tempe”.) NikitaHappy Thanksgiving from my family to yours! This year had some challenges; and if I'm being entirely honest, I lost several hours of sleep leading up to this dinner. Our first Thanksgiving in Eastern Europe! You see, Thanksgiving is an American holiday. In Bulgaria, kids go to school and adults go to work like any other day. Without the connection through social media, it wouldn't have felt like a holiday at all. I wanted to stick to our traditional meal but finding certain ingredients can be impossible at times. After searching three grocery stores, I found turkeys. Two, to be precise. They were the same size and the tag that indicated the weight of the bird had been worn off. I still have no clue heavy our turkey was. Thank goodness I have a meat thermometer. Matt claims this turkey was the best he has EVER eaten. The secret? Butter bath. I rubbed two sticks of butter with garlic and thyme all over that bird. Paula Deen would have been so proud! I've expressed my discontent with the lack of canned items. Zero canned pumpkin, so I roasted an actual pumpkin and made pumpkin puree. An important lesson when using fresh pumpkin puree is that real pumpkin retains a lot of water. You need to strain it in the fridge over night after roasting to allow the moisture to seep out. Or use a cheesecloth. I did not do either of these things and my pumpkin pie filling kept separating with the sweetened condensed milk. My mini pumpkin pies still turned out ok, but I could have reduced the baking time if there was not so much moisture. Also, forget about Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup for your Green Bean Casserole. This, however, was a beautiful discovery that you can make your own with basic ingredients in under 5 minutes. AND it tastes infinitely better! Check out my video to make your mouth salivate. You're Welcome! Georgia This year the husband and I decided to do something very different this year. Not stay home. So we flew in to Baltimore. Picked up our favorite teenager and drove a few hours north to Philadelphia. Where we've spent the past couple of days seeing absolutely everything we could see and eating as many Philly cheesesteaks as we could. Even the snowstorm that hit Albuquerque on the day we flew out could ruin our great time. I think this may become a new Thanksgiving tradition. Not be at home for the holiday. No laboring in the kitchen for hours, no time spent cleaning up. Just hours and hours of checking out the city where our country was born. Who knows what next year will bring.. But.. I'm already looking forward to it What a great year..
Nikita in another country still celebrating a very American tradition. Jen and family seeing the sites and sounds of her area Myself and my favorite people exploring a new place. God is good Happy Thanksgiving Jen, Nikita, Georgia, Amy and Amanda
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