I have been waiting all week for this! Ever since my plans to have our Thanksgiving meal were put on hold, I have been craving it like crazy. So finally, today I got to cook it all up! I had done most of the major prep yesterday; got the sweet potato casserole ready, washed and chopped all the veggies, toasted the bread for the stuffing etc. I still had the turkey, the ham (brought back from Texas in Roger's luggage!), the mashed potatoes and cooking all the veggies to get done.
If you have never prepared a large meal in a rented, furnished apartment in a foreign country, you have never really prepared a Thanksgiving meal. I say this because it made me very thankful and appreciative of the ease of doing so back home in Canada or the US.
First of all, securing the ingredients is much more difficult. It was actually hard for me to find a turkey; there isn't really a specific time of year meal that Peruvians prepare them so the Butterballs aren't stacked high in the freezer section or Safeway. Wong and Vivenda both had one. The Wong one was much to large, so we went for the Vivenda one. Once I got it home, and had thawed it a bit, I went to pull out the bag of giblets and out comes the neck, with the head still on! Not evening kidding, I threw the thing across the room and screamed! Then once I calmed down, I put my hand back in and the legs with the feet and claws still on them were the next thing I grabbed out. GAG! There are no fresh cranberries that I could find anywhere. I love my home made cranberry sauce! So I bought one can of premade ones. They can is half the size of the ones we would find at home, and cost over $5! I think that there is no such thing as a spiral ham, I wouldn't have made one anyway, but since Roger brought one all the way from Texas I thought I better use it! Also, it is hard to find a pumpkin pie, so I just got apple... the apple pies are amazing here!
The Second problem is my tools for preparation. My oven is seriously 1/4 of the size of a normal oven at home it is 16x12x10 inches. So I actually really had no choice but to get a small turkey anyway. I also have no roaster pan. Household supplies are expensive here so I didn't want to go buy a 40 dollar roaster that I have to leave here. The same goes for making a pie. Rob said he actually brought back cans of pie filling from the US to make a pumpkin pie, but I had to decline because I have no rolling pin, there is no premade pie crust and I have no pie plate! Once again, too expensive to go buy that to use it once! I managed to find a cheap disposable aluminum roaster, which was one inch each way too big for my oven so I had to do some creative folding to make it work.
And the last problem is the time. Its not like once the turkey is out I can just put all the dishes in the oven to keep them warm, so one dish at a time!
Oh and did I mention that apparently I only have 4 dinner plates? So I got to use two small ones. haha
In any case, I think everything turned out pretty well! I think I have included pictures of everything, as well as recipes, if I got the recipe from some where. I hope that Josh, Rob, Jason and Roger enjoyed it!
The turkey turned out awesome. I'm no pro, so I actually looked up How to Roast a Turkey, to get some pointers. If you are wondering, I had to tie the legs with tinfoil because I can't find cooking cord !
As I said, Roger brought this ham back. Basically heat, glaze and serve!
Carrots with butter and dill.
I think this was the hit of the night Bourbon Bacon Sweet Potato Casserole. NOt even kidding the guys could not stop raving. It was almost like pumpkin pie, but with a struesel on top. Wow! Give this a try!
The stuffing was a pretty basic. Honestly I have never actually put stuffing into a turkey before. Not my favorite thing but it was delicious. I got some tips on Herbed Bread Stuffing. here.
For the mashed potatoes and gravy, I used my own secret recipes, haha, but if you need some gravy help, this was a great site Turkey Gravy.
Everyone have a great week ahead and come back to visit soon!
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