Thanksgiving at Ours

There will be 20 of us here for Thanksgiving dinner. The festivities will be delayed until Friday as this is not a public holiday here and some of our friends couldn't get off work Thursday afternoon and early evening. So... we've opted to delay by a day. Besides, Friday is Trevor's 19th birthday so, even though he's in California, it'll be nice to have a party.

OK, we'll be cooking...

6 baked chickens -3 in my oven and 3 in Tammy's.
We've chosen chickens because turkeys are CRAZY expensive here.

Yes, the chickens will have STUFFING.
Sage is the secret to stuffing and I do have some. One year in Portugal, I didn't. I remember driving to a roundabout that had rosemary growing in the middle of it and making a scene as I crossed traffic to pick fresh rosemary for the stuffing. It was nice but sage is best. I'll probably put a little bit of diced mango in the stuffing. Makes it moist and tropical and wonderful. Not too much, now. This isn't fruit salad, you know.

We'll have mashed potatoes and gravy, of course!
Duh. You can't go without those. But how many pounds of potatoes for 19 people? I better ask my Mama.

No cranberries (but I won't miss them.)
Kate is making mango jelly in its stead. Nice!

Green beans: check
Big fresh salad: check

Fresh, whole wheat, home-made bread rolls: perfect.

Pumpkin pie? Absolutely!
Gina will buy whole pumpkins from the ladies at the fruit and veg stand. It's a bit of challenge to chop the meat out, but then it's all good.

Whipped cream? Hopefully.
You can't always find it. It IS fresh... no spray cans (gag!) and usually quite nice. Sometimes it has a lingering farm smell, though. Brings a new meaning to the Maasai compliment, "You smell like the mouth of a cow."

And pecan pie as well.

Woooo. I feel full and sleepy just writing this down.

PS I posted recently on Conversant Life about why I like giving thanks. Read it Here .