Thanksgiving has always been a big holiday in my family, in large part because we lived in Detroit. My dad and friends always had tickets to the annual Lions football game that started at 12:30pm and those who went to the game would rush home to find the house smelling of roast turkey and all the trimmings. This year, for the first time in memory, none of my family was together for turkey day--KT and are here of course and my oldest brother stayed in New York. But my other brother and his family, my sister, and my mom, who had all planned to gather with my sister-in-law's family, were for various reasons unable to pull it off much to their and my dismay.
When I learned that would happen on Thursday, I was even happier we had decided to host a mini-Thanksgiving dinner. After inviting over 3 American friends, including my intern--all twentysomethings and away from home--we bought a small turkey and then hoped it would fit in the oven. It did--barely. KT brined it for many hours like she did last year and then blasted it with high heat briefly (setting off the smoke alarm briefly!) before letting it roast normally. The pumpkin pie above was part of the adventure. Earlier in the week we had gone hunting for Libby's pumpkin in can--only one grocery store chain in the UK carries it we learned on the internet, but that store was near us fortunately. No frozen pie crusts anywhere but KT made do beautifully, as you can see. Thanks to the magic of cable TV, I was even able to watch the first half of the Lions game before dinner (I taped the rest)--with KT heckling me as she is a Packers fan and Favre was killing the Lions. Oh well, I still had an appetite and we all enjoyed a great meal--turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, carrots, and 3 desserts! And leftovers!!
And if we don't say it enough by email or phone, we both dearly miss our friends and family and we are very thankful for all of you.
--JT
The Chef in action
