I have celebrated Thanksgiving on a Thursday several times since living in the UK, but it's hard. You end up having to cook the whole dinner yourself, and I don't know what you do in your family, but I'm very much a believer in having Thanksgiving as a collaborative effort. You bring this, I'll bring that. So, American expats sometimes celebrate Thanksgiving at the weekend. It is, after all, a moveable feast.
So, my friend the Texan is hosting Thanksgiving at her house. She's doing turkey, mash, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole. (I haven't mentioned it, but I'm not a big fan of the green bean casserole with cream o' mushroom - I'm in the cook-them-beans-down-in-bacon-fat camp).
I'm doing some kind of Thanksgiving related pie (probably pumpkin, but I've seen a recipe for some kind of monster pecan-pumpkin hybrid pie) and the cornbread dressing - since I'm the only one anyone knows with cast iron skillets to make the corn bread.
Request for help
So...since y'all have only just pushed your swelling tummies and loosened belts back from the Thanksgiving table - does anyone have any a really good recipe for cornbread dressing? Mine never turns out that nice cake-y way that it should. (Partly because I've been trying to make a vegetarian version for finicky Brit guests - since I'm bringing and not hosting I don't feel under any such obligation.)
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My colleagues wished me a "Happy Thanksgiving" as I arrived at work yesterday. Awwww. Then one of them paused. "That is the right greeting, isn't it? I mean - happy isn't inappropriate or offensive is it?"
I wish I'd thought to feign offense and say "Well, actually you were supposed to wish me a Reflective Thanksgiving."
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Later on, when I told another colleague that I would be making the cornbread dressing and pumpkin pie on Sunday (after having been asked) she said somewhat wistfully "I've never had pumpkin pie or cornbread - if there's any left over on Monday you could bring it in."
I just laughed. "There won't be any left over," I said. But I do feel kind of sorry for people who've never tasted cornbread.
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4 comments:
I'm emailing you a winner.
"She's doing turkey, mash, cranberry sauce and green bean casserole."
If you eat all the mash, what will you have later with your bangers?
no cornbread = sad
it has been nice to have several brits wish me "happy thanksgiving" though. they may not understand it completely, but they know it's important to us. i think it's really sweet.
If you just say "mash" you can avoid the whole Dan Quayle embarassment of potatos v. potatoes.
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