"merry thanksgiving!"

11.22.2012

HOORAY! To all my lovely American readers, Happy Thanksgiving!!! A day late.. regardless. I sincerely hope you enjoyed your day dedicated to food, family, and football. Jealously is literally seeping out of my pores for all my friends who got to go home and spend quality time with their families. I'll admit it, it was a bit odd being in a foreign country and away from home for this strictly American holiday. Not only was I missing Thanksgiving this week, but I also missed out on my Dad & my sister's birthday! So here's my public, super obnoxious shoutout to Big Dave & Meggo - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEGAN! Hope you both had the most spectacular days ever! And I can't wait for you both to be here in a month - a month!!

Anywho.. that got off topic. Thanksgiving! Earlier this week, I was feeling a bit down just because I was missing birthdays, family time, and all my friends were filling up my social media newsfeeds regarding their escapades home.. cool. And then I was super worried that actually having Thanksgiving here in Belgium would only make me even more homesick. All things aside, we were still determined to do our best to create a traditional Thanksgiving dinner here in our Belgian home!! We (Claire, Kelsey, and I) planned out an extensive Thanksgiving menu and invited our fellow American, Lincoln, and some of our dearest Belgians.

Cooking began at 10am on Thanksgiving Day while I was still in class.. I came home at noon to Claire putting the finishing touches on an apple pie! I got started on the pumpkin pie, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in a flurry of cooking leading up to our 4:30 dinner time. ALSO - Kelsey managed to find a live stream of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!! For being abroad, it was feeling pretty darn American in that kitchen.

*sidenote: Evelyn (my buddy) has this insane hookup to like, the US Embassy warehouse.. basically, where all the US Embassy employees in Brussels have access to American food & products. Evelyn's Mom works with the Embassy and has a friend with access to the warehouse.. so we were in! What were we in need of? PUMPKIN. Canned pumpkin. How else were we supposed to make American pumpkin pie?! We got even luckier when Evelyn brought us Oreos (!!) and some of her Mom's homemade cranberry sauce.

And here's some photo documentation of our cooking and eating antics...

Too excited to be making Thanksgiving dinner

PIE!

Did I mention we used the ovens from all three kitchens? Cause we did.
I took a break on the third floor to bake some rolls and was blessed
with this beautiful view of the Stadhuis!

So... we couldn't find turkey. Our solution? Chicken! Three small ones. Yay!

Thanksgiving companions! Clockwise from bottom left: Claire, Evelyn,
Veronique (Claire's buddy), Lincoln, Kelsey, and Alexander.
I must say, our Belgians were quite impressed with the Thanksgiving spread!

FOOD! Couldn't even fit it all on the table...

I'm proud to say that my plate boasted each of our culinary creations!
Green beans, chicken, roll, mashed potatoes & gravy,
butternut squash & sweet potatoes, stuffing, and cranberry sauce.
That's pretty traditional, right?

DESSERT. 

Did I mention we had ice cream with our pie too? It was perfect!

All in all, it was a really great day. Claire, Kelsey, I had tons of fun cooking and watching the parade. It was truly wonderful to share the Thanksgiving traditions with our Belgian friends, and in return they shared their stories of the traditional Belgian Sint-Niklaas holiday.. it's coming up soon! December 6. 

I may not have been with my family at home for Thanksgiving, but I was with all my favorite people here, so I don't think that my Belgian Thanksgiving could have been spent any better! 

ps. I just re-read this.. I wonder if I could've said the word "Thanksgiving" any more times?? Probably not. Happy weekend!!