Thanks-sharing

Although Scotland doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, I still did!  We had our celebration on Saturday since I still had classes and dance on Thursday.  I usually help Mom cook, but this was my first time doing the turkey.  Lydie, who lived with my family for a year and therefore has some experience with Thanksgiving, came to visit for the weekend from England and was a huge help.  You can also thank her for all the pictures!

 Mom emailed me instructions for roasting a turkey-Lydie and I started early in the morning so that it would have enough time to cook.  I made sure to clean out the body cavity thoroughly...but it was really gross.  I don't think I could have done it if I hadn't aced my biology dissections last year!

 In addition to the traditional turkey, I was really set on having cornbread stuffing.  Unfortunately, cornbread isn't really seen here.  After a determined search, Lydie and I tracked down cornmeal at an Indian market nearby and I made cornbread from scratch so I could make cornbread stuffing (both recipes from Martha Stewart).

 My flatmates were very helpful taste testers :)  They also cleaned the kitchen and tracked down an extra table from a friend's flat.  It was definitely a family effort.

 We also borrowed a meat thermometer from a friend, so no one would get poisoned.  Unfortunately, it never went past 160.  After almost 5 hours in the oven, we decided to just cut it and see how it looked.  I guess everything was fine...or at least, no one's gotten sick yet...

 Being the strong independant woman that I am, I whined until Sean, the only boy and one of the only three Americans (including me), carved the turkey.

 Emma is moving to the states next year, and was eager to try making pumpkin pie.  Considering she'd never even tasted it before, I was really surprised how well it turned out.

All in all, it was definitely a success.  (And very, very tasty!)  One more thing to be thankful for :)