Spanish/American Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday.  We always go to my grandmas house in Arkansas for the week with the entire family.  Its is a lot of fun, and this was the fist year, in my memory, that I was not in Arkansas.  I had to do something to celebrate so I decided that I would make a Thanksgiving meal for my host family.  Quickly after making that decision I realized that I had no idea how to make any of the food...let alone in a kitchen where I don't know where anything is, or the name of it in Spanish.  I also knew that I could not make a Turkey, the whole idea of touching it is enough to make me gag...gross.

So I talked with my host mom about it and she thought it was a great idea and said that she would make a chicken, because apparently they don't eat turkey here...  So I began looking for the food that I wanted to cook, and started at an American grocery store in Madrid.  I went to the "store" with Marzia, but I don't think you can call that a store.  It was more a pantry, with American food brands.  (Soooooo tiny!)  I did get some pumpkin for the pumpkin pie, but they were out of pie crusts, and stuffing mix.  (But I got oatmeal and some crunchy peanut butter!!!)  Normally, making stuffing or pie crust from scratch is not a big deal, but when the ingredients are all different, and you have class all day on Thanksgiving, it makes it a little harder.  In the end, I decided that chicken, vegetables, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie would be the Thanksgiving menu for this year.  5 grocery stores later, I finally had all the stuff I needed to make dinner! :)

I had to go to classes all morning, which was very strange to be in class on Thanksgiving and in a country where they don't celebrate it.  (no one was in a particularly good mood, which was weird because I kept forgetting they don't celebrate, therefore it is just a normal Thursday for them...lame)

Anyways, when I got home from classes, my host mom and I began cooking and had a great time together in the kitchen watching TV and translating recipes and converting units.  All the food turned out great, and I was excited for everyone to have their first Thanksgiving meal! 
They were all quite skeptical about the pumpkin pie, because pumpkin here is only used as a vegetable.  (It would be like making a broccoli pie, I see where the skepticism comes from)

But they all tried everything, and liked it all, (even Raúl who apparently has the taste buds of a 4 year old, because he doesn't like anything)

Yumm! 

After dinner I skyped with everyone in Arkansas and my host family which was really fun.  It was difficult to translate everything quickly, because there is always at least 7 people talking at once but it was fun.  Overall it was a good Thanksgiving, nothing like being in Arkansas, which I look forward to next year, but a it was fun to bring some American culture to Spain. :)

Last night I went to Madrid with some friends to look at Christmas lights around the city, they finally turned them on!  The city was so festive and beautiful, but freezing.  I am sure it is still warmer here than at home, but damn!  I am not used to cold anymore!

Some of the Christmas lights near Sol - hopefully more picture to come!

Tonight we have tickets to the theater in Madrid, not sure what show, something in Spanish I assume. :)  And tomorrow consists of homework, 2 presentations on Monday, yikes!  (Its like I am a real college student again...)

love xoxo