Thanksgiving

I celebrated my third Thanksgiving in Spain and I have to say, in my opinion, which is the only one that matters since I'm the only American, it was an success! This year I made the executive decision to celebrate Thanksgiving on Friday instead of Thursday because now I have english classes and didn't want to cancel 5 hours worth! It turned out a to be a good decision because this way I had all day Friday to cook everything and I was so busy the week before with english classes and editing I prepared nothing for Thanksgiving before Friday and only had time to go grocery shopping. 

Pablo's parents arrived Thursday to celebrate with us and 4 of Pablo's friends also came to try out the authentic American food. Friday I felt very spanish because I was taking my time and not very stressed, which is very unlike me! I guess I didn't realize how long everything would take even though its relatively easy to cook.
Pablo left around 11am to pick up the turkey from the butcher and I entered into the kitchen around the same time and started cooking the menu:
14 lb turkey
mashed potatoes with gravy
green bean casserole
stuffing
fruit salad
cranberry sauce
apple pie
pumpkin pie
appetizers:
deviled eggs
olives
pickles
cheese

We celebrated spanish style as dinner was served at 9:30 pm. Not the best time to eat such a huge meal but when most of your guests work until 8 or so, you have to change the hours a bit! This year the turkey was cooked through and took exactly 4 hours, just as I timed out. Last year I took it out to early and had to put it back in the oven because it was raw inside. Our new meat thermometer we received as a wedding gift worked just the way I needed it to!

Pablo got the turkey

Turkey man cleaning the bird

My table

Appetizers

The guests

Turkey man carving the bird

Our "family"

When dinner was served I dished up first since the Spanish wanted to see how it was done. Putting everything on the same plate is weird to them since they usually have first course and then second course so I educated them how the Americans do it. To me, everything tasted authentic and therefore I call it a success. I had a few stressful moments and was exhausted but it was fun. Next year I'm going to start prepping days before if possible so I don't spend the whole day in the kitchen. I basically was in there from 11 am until dinner was served.

My plate showing how to do it

Jose dishing up some turkey

Pumpkin and apple pies