Thanksgiving Day!

We had a great Thanksgiving here in Durham! We decided to have dinner with our friends, Mike and Lisa. Lisa and I cooked a "traditional" Thanksgiving meal - turkey, cornbread dressing, gravy, corn, green beans, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, sweet potatoes (didn't turn out so well!) and pumpkin pie. Chris even made his famous Ferebee Cheese Dressing. We had a great time all day and a lot of leftovers.

There a couple of funny stories that happened but I think the best was when the fire alarm went off. We had just taken the macaroni and cheese out of the oven and put the pumpkin pies in when the oven started smoking really bad. We opened the windows to clear the smoke but while we are fanning smoke towards the window the fire alarm starts going off. This is not just a regular fire alarm that goes off just in the apartment - no, it goes off in the whole building and everyone has to evacuate, the fire department comes and it is a HUGE ordeal. We totally freaked out thinking that we were responsible for emptying out the whole building. As we are walking down the back stairs trying to figure out if this was our fault which we were pretty sure it was the alarm stops. Mike, Lisa and I went back to their apartment while Chris went down to see what was going on. It turns out that the alarm had accidentally been tripped by the alarm company and wasn't our fault. It was REALLY funny timing!!

Meme's Macaroni and Cheese, Green Beans and Pumpkin Pie.
Some of the big spread and Mike getting some hot mulled wine that was fabulous. Thank goodness it was hot because it was raining and freezing outside all day!

Dressing in the process. The maize meal cornbread turned out really good all things considered.

Turkey Pictures

Here are pictures of our turkey. It actually turned out really good - a little smaller than what we are used to but still quite tasty. It barely fit in my oven - this is not because the turkey is big but because the oven is quite small!

Thanksgiving Pictures Cont...

Me taking the Ferebee Speciality Cheese Dressing out of the oven. Cheese, bread and gravy - what is better than that?

Our friends Mike and Lisa who we spent Thanksgiving with. Lisa and I did most of the cooking at their apartment and we ate dinner there.

Pre-Dinner snacks - Cheese Sausuge Balls, Cream Cheese Hummus Dip with Pita Chips and Cider.
Lisa and Mike's apartment from the kitchen looking into the living room past the dining table. They just put up some Christmas lights for a festive mood without a Christmas tree.

Ready for Thanksgiving...

So we are all set for not only our first married Thanksgiving but also our first Thanksgiving away from home - while this is a little sad we are so excited about the new traditions we are starting! This year we are having a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with our American friends, Mike and Lisa. Lisa and I spent most of the day shopping for groceries and serving dishes. I almost had a breakdown when I realized that nowhere in the NE UK can you buy cornmeal. Cornmeal is a pretty important part of cornbread which is a pretty important part of cornbread dressing! After a couple of hours of internet searching I found maize meal which is apparently a close substitute for cornmeal. To get this maize meal I had to take a bus 25 minutes away, ask a very nice English gentleman to help me in the store and then wait in the rain for a bus ride back home. What a memory! The cornbread looks good and that is what matters.

Mike and Lisa are from Michigan so there a couple of more northern dishes like mashed potatoes and regular green beans that we are having plus they are trying southern dressing, gravy and homemade macaroni and cheese which they have not had before.

On Friday night we are going to a potluck Thanksgiving diner with about 8 other American couples. Everyone is bringing 2 dishes for the others to try. This should be interesting as well since the majority of the couples are from either the north or the southwest. I am making cornbread dressing, gravy and sweet potatoes. I hope they eat it!

Lisa and I are planning to take a lot of pictures tomorrow so I will post those on Friday. I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving.

See you all in 4 weeks!
A.

PS - Thank you to Mom and Meme for the recipe help. So far everything is delicious!