America [Neil Diamond]

First I should point out that today is my 100th day in Budapest. Kinda crazy, no?

Happy Sunday after Thanksgiving! I am happy to say that our "A Very American Thanksgiving" dinner went off splendidly! It was a long day, but everyone left stuffed and happy. And really, what more is there to Thanksgiving than good friends, good food, and good times? Instead of a decades long post about the evening, I'd like to present you with a photo-diary with commentary of the process.

On Friday afternoon we went to the market to gather all the supplies we could find that deal with the Thanksgiving dinner. And what a process that was! Sweet potatoes are expensive! Other vegetables, not so much. But still, finding everything we needed turned out to be an adventure.

All the Hungarian Drinks you could need

Vegetables galore!

The expensive Sweet Potatoes

They use every single part of the animal

including the pig skins, noses, organs, and...

...even the whole pigs!

We got to Kelly's at noon on Saturday to start cooking (I got up at 8:30 to do some work before then, have I mentioned how much I have to do by the 15th?). We started with the Turkey, Herbert, because we realized that there wasn't a pan in Kelly's house big enough for the 8Kilo guy! And Hungary doesn't seem to posses the disposable cooking trays which would have been perfect for him. So we cut off his legs and cooked them separately (according to Kelly, Julia Childs always cooked the legs and wings separately so that the bird would cook faster, and then just reassembled it for the purpose of presentation at the dinner!). Now, for the squeamish of you out there, ignore what I'm about to say.... the Hungarians don't really disassemble the bird for you the way they do in America. This means, I had to take out his kidneys (gross and squishy and trashed asap, sorry Herbert) and Kelly had to chop off his neck (to be cooked for the gravy).

So we seasoned him, cooked him, and got him into the oven and cooked the rest of the dinner (sweet potatoes, sweet potato casserole, sautéed vegetables, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, and corn) and then the guests arrived. People brought food and beverages (french quiches, desserts, and wine), we watched "It's The Mayflower Charlie Brown" so that people could "understand" the holiday. And we chatted, had a toast, had dessert, listened to music, everything that you could possibly ever want in an overseas Thanksgiving.

I'm still sad I wasn't able to spend the holiday at home, but it did help to still have the holiday and to be surrounded for a great evening by so many friends. It's nice to share our holiday with so many people from so many different places around the world. And like I said before, Thanksgiving is about being with people you care about (and about eating 'till you can't eat anymore). It was a happy day full of friends, I couldn't have asked for anything more.