Thankful

I missed Canadian Thanksgiving due to travels but I am hoping to still secure an invite to an American one. Considering I don't know any Americans in London I may just have to re-create a Thanksgiving dinner on any random day – like an un-birthday (does anyone remember that from Alice & Wonderland?!). I miss my annual Thanksgiving dinner as it is a time when I gather some of my great friends for a sit down meal and before the start of it we do the cheesy thing that my family always does and say what we are thankful for. I think this year we should hold hands while doing it too; mostly people’s statements are general ones relating to family, friends, health and happiness and sometimes it is something specific - some years there have even been tears. Once the sappy sharing of love is over the big bird emerges, it's not always a turkey, but it is carved like it is. There usually is lots of wine for us to forget how cheesy we were at the star of the meal and everyone goes home like they were a stuffed turkey, which you are not to do anymore due to health and safety reasons (boring).

I am now turning into Calogera Snr (my mother) who usually serves a 'turkette' (a fat chicken), this was always disappointing as children since the other kids at school always boasted about their big turkeys and came to school with dry turkey sandwiches for the whole week after the holiday, but since my parents were a bit foreign to the whole Thanksgiving thing, they served chicken and told us it was turkey!

Our turkette was served with lasagna and Italian wedding soup and a whole host of other things that were traditionally Canadian thanksgiving-y but we didn't care. The pumpkin pie would always be bought, sliced up for everyone to eat, but the plates would all return to the kitchen un-eaten except for my sister who bizarrely is the only one that acquired a taste for it. The rest of us ate something like my mother's amaaazing tiramisu.

My travels this year have been weird, wonderful and always full of sunshine, love and laughter, the one thing that all of them did was remind me how lucky I am and to this I am very thankful. I have been blessed with love, luck and happiness coming from some of the greatest friends and family around the globe. Thanks to my favourite sisters in Singapore and Abu Dhabi, London and my real sister in Toronto for being part of the reason for this sappy post. Ok enough sap! Smell ya later readers! Off to make friends with an American to snag an invite to eat some real turkey – I’ll bring the tiramisu!

My substitute turkeysInstead of buying a frozen, massive turkey which would take 2 days to defrost (and the packaging had a hole in it) I opted for 2 fresh, free range, Waitrose chickens.

I lathered them with garlic, fresh tarragon, salt, pepper and roasted them with olive oil, carrots, onions, sweet potato and regular spuds. Served with bruschetta to start, stuffing, vegetables and vegetarian lasagna it was a fantastic belated Thanksgiving dinner. I started cooking at 11am and didn't stop til guests arrived at 7pm - that is a long day of peeling and preparing, my respect for housewives significantly increased that day!

Then there was the lemon meringue pie that the Bunny made, which should and will have its own post. It was delicious! There was lots of wine consumed and it was a great evening with the NHG and the other London family members.

The Yanks are celebrating Thanksgiving soon so hopefully I will get invited to another dinner - maybe this time there will be turkey!

Cuore e cervelloHeart of veal
& brain of veal.

Just two of the delicacies you can get at the food markets in Palermo.

Maybe I will serve that at my dinner party next week? Not sure what kind of recipe is needed for the brain though? Perhaps will stick to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner meal (yes it is a belated one, as was in Sicily for the official Canadian one). This week am on a mission to find a big turkey!

This aint no brown turkey!
Pic of Zia Grazia's Butterball and hungry Steve. The brand Butterball has been around forever and I think they must soak their turkeys in water and butter as they always seem to be so juicy for such large birds. A regular turkey from the butcher shop is usually dry and needing lots of cranberry sauce and gravy but the Butterballs seem to need none of this.

Maybe their secret is this... they sell a 'special breed of broad-breasted white feather turkey.' (from their website) So our beloved Thanksgiving turkey is not really brown? But instead white like a swan? We draw, sketch and make them from crafty materials from kindergarten up and paint them brown our whole lives?! V.odd, non?. I want to see this white feathered turkey now.

You can subscribe to the turkey lovers e-newsletter from the site if you want to keep 'abreast' on turkey talk! :)

Gobble Gobble
It is Canadian thanksgiving tomorrow. You should always be thankful for all the goodness that you have but this weekend you can do that and eat turkey at the same time. We should always celebrate the abundance of food and good fortune that we have. Enjoy turkey weekend!


:)

What are you thankful for?
Today is Canadian Thanksgiving and I will be hosting a dinner party at mine tonight. The question is do I try out some Sicilian recipes or do the traditional bird which everyone is expecting. I think I may do a mixture of both as there are some vegetarians coming so they will have to have pasta, non? Anyhow will let you know how it goes. Am going to India on Friday so there will be few posts posted, unless a) my lovely sister posts for me or b) I have net access at Shruti's house in Delhi. Not sure of either but stay tuned. Will post this week and tell you more about Sicily as it has been scant info so far. Above is a photo of one of my favorite foods, fennel. (pics from Pasquale's farm in Sicily) Now before it became popular with Jamie Oliver bbqing it and using it in all sorts of recipes http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/fennel-and-radish-salad-with-lemon-dressing it is normally eaten just freshly washed after dinner.

It has a celery-like texture and crunchiness and has a slight taste of sambuca and licorice. Look how beautiful it is when it grows, like a gentle and delicate grass (see pic).

From wikipedia's insight, fennel is considered to be a weed in the US and Australia (?!) It is one of the three main herbs used in the poisonous and highly drunkenness-inducing drink absinthe (do not ever have a shot on your birthday!), Indians often chew fennel seed (or saunf) as a mouth-freshener. Fennel is also used as a flavoring in some natural toothpastes. Some people employ it as a diuretic, while others use it to improve the milk supply of breastfeeding mothers.

This is the way to eat it Sicilian style:

-wash and slice into small pieces and use in a salad of tomatoes, cucumbers and beans with olive oil, oregano and lemon/vinegar -or any fresh summer salad

-cut it into large chunks and put it in a roasting pan when roasting a chicken with potatoes and carrots on the side

or

-just wash and eat after dinner as a refreshing desert. (the most popular way!)

and call it by its Italian name -finocchio -just like Pinocchio with an f!

Well Happy Thanksgiving to those over the pond...for all others try and reflect today on all the things you are thankful for. Am sure you will see that they far outweigh the other minutiae of life that annoy you...

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