Hello all!

I am not certain whether anyone is still around here (Hello? Talk about bare ruined quires and echo chambers), but I thought I'd tell you about my first, bona fide American Thanksgiving dinner.

We don't have any holidays between Guy Fawkes Night (November 5) and Christmas, except for Armistice Day (Nov 11) which is a bit of a downer, so it was a great experience to attend a Thanksgiving dinner cooked by some American friends this week. It is, I'm sure, familiar to you, but all new to me.

We had turkey with heavenly stuffing, macaroni and cheese (this was beautiful, but eating it with turkey is a little weird), mashed potato with sour cream, cream cheese and crackers (huh?), salad, green beans, the most gorgeous bread rolls I've ever had, and finished with pumpkin pie and cream. I am not sure about the latter--eating pumpkin in a pie seems like some kind of un-natural mutation, but this is because a pie here is meat, mostly mince or steak, and fruit pies are usually apple--we don't have pumpkin pie at all.

So, without exception a gorgeous and beautifully cooked meal (thank you, Miss Missouri!), with some exotic strangeness, which was highly satisfying. Allegedly (I find this difficult to believe) Thanksgiving is bigger than Christmas?!

Really?

I hope you are all well. What's everyone up to?

I agree with Julie, though I suspect that since these were American students preparing the feast that they made do with whatever they had to remind them of home.  I'm surprised there wasn't a big bowl of Ramen noodles on that table!  John, be reassured that THAT menu does not represent the classic T'giving dinner.

Ramen noodles are a staple of the college student's diet.  Small packages of dried noodles with a little broth powder.  You pour them in a bowl, add boiling water and have instant "food" -- though they have NO nutritional value at all.  They are popular because they are so cheap.  I often see them in local grocery store for about 10 cents per package.