Everything but the Turkey

Thanksgiving Feast in New Cross!

Who: 17 Americans and Europeans - nostalgic for their family recipes or wondering what this whole Thanksgiving thing is all about. Planned and executed by Dalila and me - with assistance from Laura and Aida, Dalila's flatmates. And Mike made the cornbread.
What: 2 chickens, 4 pounds of meatballs, 3 pans of stuffing, 3 pans of sweet potatoes, 2 loafs of cornbread, cranberry sauce, green beans, roasted root vegetables, and corn. Dessert: Maple Walnut Cake and Dulce de Leche Bread Pudding.
Where: Dalila's flat at Goldsmith's, about 30 minutes outside Central London. Two ovens, 8 burners, 2 sinks, and a lot of aluminum foil pans.
When: Two weeks of planning, our mouths watering over epicurious.com's beautiful photographs of their Thanksgiving recipes, a full day of braving the aisles of Asda (part of the Wal-Mart family) and Sainsbury searching for ingredients we didn't realize were particularly American, and cooking from 9:30 am Thursday until the ravenous troops arrived at 6. We stuffed our faces with seconds, and maybe even thirds (just the sweet potatoes, of course) late into the night.

And yes, it was perfect, if I do say so myself. It may not equal a Thanksgiving at the Squire household, but for a bunch of college students in a tiny dorm kitchen, it was as gourmet as could be. Enjoy the photos, and don't get too hungry...

Me with the classic sweet potato, pineapple, and cornflake casserole. They don't sell canned sweet potatoes in England (they sell canned EVERYTHING ELSE, though...) so we washed, peeled, chopped, boiled, and mashed 12 sweet potatoes to compensate. It tasted the same, don't worry.

Two chickens in the oven, beautifully cleaned and dressed by Laura (she is a farmer's daughter, after all).

Chestnut, Prune, and Pancetta stuffing (thank you, epicurious)

Another shot of the feast

Dalila working her magic with the green beans

The masterminds...watch out Giada

Dalila's flatmates enjoying this American craziness - we even made everyone go around and say what they were thankful for. Painful as usual.

Dalila, Mike, and Sami on the air mattress in the kitchen (there weren't enough chairs)

A typical photograph of me and LP who visited from Thursday to Tuesday!

Laura came from Paris for the weekend and I attempted to show her a slightly less touristy version of London - my two favorite places were at the top of the list: Borough Market and Portobello Road. We also made sure to see Harrod's, which was nauseatingly Christmased out, and managed to do plenty of damage at Topshop. And she got to enjoy the lovely London weather - it has been freezing here most days and the rain isn't even a surprise to us anymore. We just expect it. It was nice to reminisce and increase the female population around here for a while (Sami and I are feeling boy-ed out).

A couple of weeks ago, I braved the Toni and Guy hair academy to get a trendy London cut for only 5 pounds. Although the girl who cut my hair spoke Spanish only, and after practically every snip she needed to show the teacher before she could proceed to the next section of my hair, it actually turned out great! It also took 3 hours, but hey, when you only have 8 hours of class a week, that's nothing. I also went to the London Transport Museum with Brandon (it's like crack for us URBSies).

Brandon "driving" a tube train in the Museum. Cooooool.

The preparation and execution of our feast took up a lot of my time so I haven't been up to too much these days. I can't believe there are only two weeks left! That's right - I leave two weeks from today. I'm really excited to be home and then go back to Penn, but I have to get a lot done here before that happens. Plus there's everything I haven't seen here that I meant to see - so I better get those 2 papers done soon. OH - update on the professor situation -- Michael Collins does NOT hate me, even though I skipped our last recitation last week to cook for Thanksgiving... but it's not my fault. He changed the day at the last minute and obviously you can't really change when Thanksgiving is. Anyway, I met with him to get an essay back and he was really friendly and conversational, and complimented my writing style. So, the coast is clear... and now he knows that our grades here get factored into our GPA at home so I'm hoping he'll be a little forgiving for our final grade!

Two essays to go... See you on the other side.