Turkey Day, Take Two

Our flat had our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. It went really great! There were nine of us all together: five of us from the flat (one of our flatmates couldn't make it), one girl from another flat here, and then three of our flatmates' friends. It was a very international Thanksgiving. :) So for our party we cooked a turkey (which Helen named Ben after Benjamin Franklin, oddly enough--we kept slipping and calling the turkey a "him" all night, which frankly is pretty creepy if you think about it), stuffing, green bean casserole, red cabbage casserole, mashed sweet potatoes, salad, rolls, cranberry sauce, and an apple crumble for dessert (courtesy of Valentina and Sarah). It all turned out pretty delicious, I must say.

There was one slight, if hilarious, mishap. (Part of my brain is telling me not to tell anyone this story, but the other part of my brain is saying it's too hilarious to not tell it.) Helen and I were in charge of cooking the turkey, and I knew that when you buy frozen turkeys from the store that they have the innards still inside. So when we were getting ready to put the turkey in the oven, we took out what was inside the cavity (the neck, I think, and some unidentified turkey innard bits). So we cooked it for 3 and a half hours, and it looked great. Then we sat down to dinner, and I started cutting the turkey. And Helen said, "I think there's something shiny in there..." And she reached over and pulled out this humongous giblet packet from between the skin and the meat of the turkey. Needless to say, everyone in the kitchen burst out laughing. It was hilarious and mortifying all at once. Seriously, isn't that something that only happens in the movies?

We started dinner at eight, and the last of us didn't leave until one in the morning, so I'd say it was a pretty successful evening. It was certainly the most fun I've had so far. Valentina made a music playlist, Gabby bought roses for the table, and we even had candles. Finding enough pots and plates and cutlery was a bit of a challenge, but we managed. And since it was Gabby's birthday as well, we put candles in the apple crumble and everybody sang Happy Birthday.

So much fun!