asante-giving.

happy thanksgiving.

here we've been talking about thanksgiving for months. probably since we arrived in kenya. and we had big plans. big, delicious plans.

after quite a bit of searching we finally tracked down a turkey. we hadn't been able to find one and had either thought of: a) switching to chicken (yuck!) or b) trying to catch one of the mangey wild turkeys that run around kibera slum (double yuck!) so finding a 7 kilo turkey was a huge coup. of course we didn't have a dish to cook it in, anything big enough to defrost it in, or really any idea what we were doing.

we washed out one of our plastic wash basins (because we do our clothes by hand, I suck) and let the turkey ghetto defrost in purple tub in our pantry. the problem then became that the turkey didn't fit in our abnormally small oven. we borrowed a giant stew pot and stuck the turkey on its end... to wild success.

in the end our thanksgiving feast included:

• turkey
• mashed potatoes
• candied sweet potatoes
• vegetarian stuffing
• gravy
• beef (because the pork looked scary) stuffing
• macaroni 'n cheese
• dinner rolls
• salad with fresh mango and citrus
• banana bread
• zucchini bread
• brownies
• pecan pie
• vanilla ice cream
• tusker
• wine (carlo rossi - the jug! classy!)
• champagne (andré - only the best!)
• boiled water

it was a freakin' feast. as we totally pulled it off.

after two failed roll recipes (the first didn't rise enough, the second rose too much) my rolls (thanks mom!) turned out perfectly. I made a spectacular pie crust from scratch (thanks google) that was perfectly flakey. the turkey was juicy and delicious despite its ghetto beginnings.

our guests included other american students, professors, kenyan friends and some host family members. our kenyan guests had never experienced thanksgiving before and were obviously overwhelmed by the variety of food/the amount they were expected to eat in one sitting.

we also tried to explain the story of the first thanksgiving, the kid friendly version - pilgrims, indians, turkey, pumpkins and friendship - and the version that includes smallpox, syphilis, genocide, trails of tears and reservations. not sure we really conveyed why thanksgiving is such a GREAT holiday...

we sat and ate by the pool at our apartment and had just the most lovely early dinner.

it was the best thanksgiving I could hope for given that I couldn't be at home. nothing burnt, the company was good, I ate too much, and now the dishes are done.

I hope you all have equally delicious, and wonderful thanksgivings.