Happy Thanksgiving!

After 3 years of hilariously bad thanksgiving dinners in restaurants in the UAE (read: chickens instead of turkeys, HOT cranberry sauce, “pumpkin what?”, etc.), I have decided to take matters into my own hands. After all, this is my favorite meal of the year and why should I be deprived just because I’m a few thousand miles away from my grandmother?

Building the menu was easy and making the shopping list and preparation schedule was a pleasure (after all, my brain works in bullet points and timelines). However, sourcing ingredients was more of a challenge than one would expect for a city this awash in American brands and franchises. I had to make 4 trips to the store to get my hands on good turkey, I had to make my own bread cubes for the stuffing, frozen cranberries don’t exist, you wouldn’t believe how much I had to pay for fresh cranberries or for pecans, and so on. But where there is a will, there’s a way and by the shiny buckle on my pilgrim shoes I swear to you this will be a respectable Thanksgiving dinner!

I’m a bit intimidated by the turkey roasting. It is a form of magic I have dared not dabble in. But my superneighbor Denise is here to supervise and I’m armed with instructions from Baba over the phone and – here’s my secret weapon – written instructions from my mom! How cool is that?! I was rummaging through my recipe box when I found this, which is her menu and prep schedule from Thanksgiving in 2001. I remember looking at it when I was going through all her kitchen stuff deciding what to keep but I completely forgot I had it. It’s amazing! She should have been a project manager for one of the big developers over here. The buildings would have gone up on time and tasted delicious!

Ok, now it’s time to get to work. Please keep your fingers crossed for a juicy outcome. I’ll report back tomorrow (if I haven’t burnt the house down)….