Something to be Thankful for

Living in a foreign country does not immediately exclude you from practicing your own culture. In fact, I believe it reinforces where you come from even more, and makes those personal connections to your home country even more important.


So as Canadian Thanksgiving began to encroach on us, I realized that - while I would be missing it at home for the second year in a row - I had the opportunity to share a small piece of my culture and identity with those around me. And hey, who doesn't love a celebration?  So, for the second year in a row, I set out to make Thanksgiving in my foreign home a memorable one. (You can read all about last year's here.) I approached one of my other Canadian friends, Tuesday, (yes, that is her name...not the day of the week I approached her) about throwing together a little Thanksgiving shindig. She agreed enthusiastically and we decided to get our mutual Canadian friend, Sarah, in on it as well. Idea firmly in place, we set out organizing how we would feed 20+ people in some sort of non-chaotic manner. We put our heads together and drew up a list of stuff to make and people to invite, and as the guest list grew so did our shopping lists. But we were representing an important Canadian holiday, and for most people this would be their first Thanksgiving celebration, not to mention the first one away from home for Sarah and Tuesday, so we wanted to make it as awesome as we possibly could!

On Saturday we headed out (in the rain, of course) to Edinburgh's very fine farmer's market to grab some necessary items (as well as some non-necessary ones, such as fresh bread and Scottish cheese just for me, mmm)

hooray for shopping on a rainy day!

After we piled up on groceries we went our separate ways and set to work making this massive meal come to life. All 3 of us slaved over hot stoves all weekend - after all, we had 25 people to feed!

On Thanksgiving Monday I got up 2 hours early (which was a struggle) to churn out 2 pumpkin pies (I had been busy all day Sunday puréeing fresh pumpkin and chopping lots of veggies). After my classes I cooked non-stop for 4 straight hours, thankfully with the help of my awesome Australian friend Elizabeth, who I was so grateful to for the help peeling and mashing and chopping.

Elizabeth busy at work!

It was exhausting work (especially in a tiny kitchen), but at the end of 4 hours we had churned out:

- 2 vegetable quiches
- 5 pounds of mashed potato (or one giant heaping pile, anyways)
- 3 pounds of mashed yams
- 2 dozen Yorkshire puddings
- 5 cups of vegetarian gravy
- one massive bowl of Greek salad
- 3 pumpkin pies

ta da! Look at all that awesome food

The end of a day of hardcore cooking

And didn't even set off the fire alarm once!

With the help of both my roommates, we managed to get everything into Nicola's car, pick up Tuesday, get all of her food in the car too, and find Sarah's flat.

Then there was more running around as all of us attempted to organize and reheat all of our food with only 1 oven and stove. It was a challenge but we managed to get all the food onto the table and all 25 guests into the kitchen to load-up their plates buffet-style. There was so much amazing food! Sarah and Tuesday had pulled out all the stops as well and had made massive amounts of wonderful things to stuff your face with. The table was PILED with mashed potatoes, veggies, stuffing, salads, chicken (for the meat-eaters), squash and yams, potato pancakes, pasta and the like.

so much food!

There was enough to feed a small army (or at least enough to feed a gaggle of hungry students) and everyone piled their paper plates high with fantastic Thanksgiving nosh. Delicious! Plus there was a ton leftover, and we sent people home with tinfoil-wrapped doggie bags. It had been a lot of work but the evening went off without a hitch and everyone had a great time, socializing and eating to their hearts content. AND I made everyone say what they were thankful for before they got a piece of pumpkin pie. (Had to be a little traditional!) We fed 27 people in total, and we were super grateful to Sarah who opened up her awesome apartment for the festivities.

three cheers for the Canadian chefs!

It was such a fun evening and I couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate Thanksgiving away from home!

So, what am I thankful for? So many things.
1) For meeting 2 awesome Canadian gals who were willing to work their asses of to pull off one hell of a successful Thanksgiving
2) For meeting even more awesome friends who were willing to celebrate this special holiday with us
3) For one dedicated Australian friend willing to put up with me and help me out in the kitchen
4) For amazing roommates who are willing to transport mountains of food (and all of us)
5) For friend's who have bigger apartments than me (and are willing to cram 25+ people into it)
6) And of course, for having the opportunity to live and study in this wonderful city!

(obviously I'm thankful for a million other things, but we'll leave it at that for now :)

Happy Thanksgiving!