Thanksgiving :)

After my first few days here and realizing just how amazing my host family is, I knew that I wanted to do something special for them. So, in advance, I asked if I could prepare a Thanksgiving dinner :).  Now, the entire month of November I was pretty nervous about preparing this dinner.  First of all, in normal supermarkets in Spain they don't have things like Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, French's Fried Onions or Karo Corn Syrup - very important things you need to make a Thanksgiving dinner!  What they do have is every flavor and brand of Yogurt possible and every single part of a pig you can think of!  Also, if you want fruit-you go to a fruteria. If you want meat-you go to a carneceria.  If you want fish, you go to a Pescadaria.  So I had to hunt down certain herbs, Karo corn syrup, Pecans, and of course, a Turkey.  Quite the mission!

Now, luckily Belen has a friend named Angel who is a chef -- and he said he was going to help me cook! The only problem was a little language barrier and he had never cooked these dishes! Poor guy spent the entire week before watching youtube videos on how to prep a turkey! :)  He also said that he looked up so many different recipes for traditional Thanksgiving dishes.  My favorite contribution of his (besides all of the help in the kitchen, of course) was his AMAZING Traditional American Apple Pie.  His first time cooking it and it was one of the best pies I have ever had!



Here are some of the fun facts I had to do to make up for the missing ingredients
1) Angel made a condensed cream of mushroom soup from scratch
2) I made all the little fried onions for the green bean casserole
3) For the twice-baked potatoes we had to make our own sour cream (because they don't have it in stores)
4) Susanna (Angel's wife) had to crack every Pecan shell because they don't come without the shell

What we ate

1)Turkey

2) Green bean casserole

3) Sweet potato casserole

4) Stuffing

5) Twice Baked Potatoes

6) Pecan Pie

7) Apple Pie

8) Apple Biscoccho (Spelling?)

And the turnout? Delicious :)  We had 9 people for dinner and everyone left full and happy.  Talk about an experience--This was the first time that any of these people had tried anything like what I made.  It was such a nice way to share my culture and an American tradition with my friends and family here.  So what am I thankful for?  My life and the amazing people in it :)

We did it!! 

En mis primeros días aquí, yo supe que yo tenía una familia buenísima.  Yo supe que yo quería hacer algo por ellos.  Les pregunté si yo podría preparar una cena de Acción de Gracias.  Estuve nerviosa preparando esta cena.  En los supermercados aquí no hay las mismas cosas que los EEUU.  Pero, tienen cada sabor y marca posible de yogur y también tienen todas las partes de un cerdo para comer.   Pero, si tú quieres fruta, necesitas ir a la frutería.  Si tú quieres carne, necesitas ir a la carnecería.  Entonces, he buscado especias, nueces, y un pavo.  Que difícil!

Belén tiene un amigo que se llama Ángel y es cocinero.  Me dijo que quería ayudarme a preparar las comidas.  Era un poco difícil porque él sabe poco inglés.  Y también, era su primero vez cocinando estas comidas.  El pasó la semana antes estudiando cómo preparar un pavo en YouTube.  El cocinó una tarta de manzana que me gustó muchísimo.  Era ricísima! 

Que cosas comemos –

El pavo

Una cazuela de ejotes

Una cazuela de batatas

Relleno

Patatas con Relleno

Tarta de Nueces

Tarta de Manzana

Y Bizcocho de manzana

Y Cómo fue? Ricísimo! Eramos 9 personas para la cena y todo el mundo  salió contento.  Qué experiencia! La gente probó por primera vez comidas como esas.  Me encantó compartir mi cultura Americana con mi familia aquí en España.