Hope everyone had a fun and relaxing holiday. I'll be honest, this was the first time I've ever been homesick. Thanksgiving isn't quite the same across the pond, what with them not really caring about the pilgrims and turkey and football. I, however, was in full holiday mode. Therefore, I skipped class, didn;t go the gym, and cooked all afternoon, which is what you're meant to do on Thanksgiving. Fortunately, there are lots of Americans in my hall, and we weren't about to let Thanksgiving pass by without a feast. Our amazing International Students Rep, Brett oraganized a big Thanksgiving dinner. He got the kitchen to cook us some chickens. I know, not turkey, but close enough, at least if you're a vegetarian. Then, we all cooked the traditional (and some non-tradiational) side dishes.
Our awesome Rep Brett with Laura and her amazing stuffing!A few friends and I took over one of the hall kitchens and got to cooking. Laura was making stuffing, Kristyna chocolate chip cookies, and I took on the sweet potatoe casserole, complete with the marshmallows on top. Our friend Anna (she's English) tagged along to learn about this whole Thanksgiving thing--she was very intrigued by a holiday centered around food.
Given our lack of dishes, utensils, counter space, and experience, I think we turned out some amazing food. I never realized how many things I take for granted in my well-stocked kitchen at home until I tried to cook in an empty one. I mean, it's one thing to have to buy all the ingredients for a dish, down to the milk and butter. But I had to buy a pan as well. Then, in the kitchen, we realized that there weren't any bowls, We only had two knives and one measuring cup between the three of us. We didn't have a clue how to turn the ovens. (I promise it was not at all straightforward.) We had to improvise some with ingredients and measurements, what with the whole conversion issue. This was not a simple task.
Given our lack of dishes, utensils, counter space, and experience, I think we turned out some amazing food. I never realized how many things I take for granted in my well-stocked kitchen at home until I tried to cook in an empty one. I mean, it's one thing to have to buy all the ingredients for a dish, down to the milk and butter. But I had to buy a pan as well. Then, in the kitchen, we realized that there weren't any bowls, We only had two knives and one measuring cup between the three of us. We didn't have a clue how to turn the ovens. (I promise it was not at all straightforward.) We had to improvise some with ingredients and measurements, what with the whole conversion issue. This was not a simple task.
We all ran into our fair share of obstacles. Kristyna had a hard time with the measuring, since improvising is not so easy when baking. Laura's measuring cup was in cups, but she bought it here, and it seemed way off. Oh, and they don't have chocolate chips in Britain, so she had to chop up a bar of chocolate, which required precious knife usage. She also forgeot to buy baking powder, but was able to borrow someone else's in the end. She finally got all the rounded teaspoonfuls of dough on the cookie sheet, only to find out it didn't fit into our miniature ovens. At this point she disappeared to another floor to find a smaller pan or a bigger oven.
Laura's stuffing was a family recipe-but-not-an -actual-recipe type thing. Basically it involved some combinaiton of bread, butter, onions, celery, and poultry seasoning (which they also don't have here). The proportions were a little off (she had about three loaves of bread left over) but in the end it turned out great. We taste-tested regularly to make sure. After seeing how much butter went into that recipe, I think I know why it was so good.
I've neer actually made sweet potatoe casserole before, but I decided to give it a shot. Given our initial inability to turn on the oven, I started by microwaving the sweet potatoes. Who knew it took 15 minutes to cook 3 sweet potatoes? And I had to do 2 batches! Oh well, all the more time to help Laura tear up bread. Once my potatoes were cooked, I practically burned my fingers off trying to scrape the potatoe-y part out of the skin. As my mom knows, the potatoes don't mash themselves, so that was my next task. Remember how I said we didn't have any bowls? So into the pan they went to be mashed, with my one and only fork. The recipe I found called for milk and butter and salt, as well as nutmeg ans some other spices. Well, it turns out spices are kind of pricey and Laura already cinammon, so I replaced all the spices the recipe called for with cinammon. Oh, and I accidently bought pecans instead of walnut, but I like pecans better, so maybe I subconciously meant to. Of course, I put the marshmallows on top, even though all my Scottish friends thought it was weird. What's weird is that you can't buy bags of plain white marshmallows here. They come in a mix of pink and white, so I bought two bags because I refused to put pink marshmallows on my sweet potatoes. In the end, I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.
Once everything had come out of the oven, we brought it down to the common room were everyone was gathering for dinner. By the time we got there, there were already the chickens, greeen beans, mashed potatoes, and an impressive array of desserts. Eventaully everything showed up--stuffing, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, roasted vegetables, 2 sweet potatoes casseroles, salad, rolls, and cranberry sauce (which showed up very late, tsk tsk). That was only one half of the buffet. The other half, of course, was desserts--2 pumpikin pies, chocolate cake, fudge doughnuts, chocolate chip cookies, chococlate chocolate chip muffins, some lemon-y cake, and pecan pie (also late). In addition to all the "normal" food, there were two small pizzas, pita bread, hummus, and nachos.
Our Thanksgiving spread, sideways (I have to figure out how to rotate these!)
Laura and Kirsty enjoying the feast.
Kathryn, fellow American and maker of the pumpkin pies, eating a very non-traditional but delicious fudge doughnut.
It was sooooo good. It was a good thing we had so much food, because a lot of people showed up. Pretty much all the Americans in hall were there, along with some non-Americans who just wanted to eat good food. Then we had some visitors from outside of hall stop by. Everyone consumed massive quantities of food. I had three full plates. That includes my dessert plate of pumpkin pie and chocolate cake. I was disappointed at the lack of pecan pie, but I was so stuffed by this point it didn;t matter. Then, just as I'm debating unbuttoning my pants, the pecan pie shows up. It was like I instantly grew a second stomach. So, just one last plate, and it was totally worth it- that was good pecan pie.
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