In the spirit of "when in Rome", we've taken to celebrating Thanksgiving. I think it is fitting, because this was the time of year we were busy winding up our old lives back in Guernsey and getting ready, nervous (read: petrified), to decamp to a new country.
For many Canadians, this is a huge family affair. People don't bat an eyelid at talk of cooking for 20 or more but it took a couple of years for us to realise this, because, although huge, this is an intensely private holiday. Although it is talked about, there is none of the OTT commercial hype of Halloween or Christmas.
Of course, we don't have family over here so we celebrate in our own quiet way.
This weekend, we were joined by a good friend now living up in Courtenay. He arrived yesterday, shortly after Ali and the kids returned from an overnight Cub camp. We saved the turkey dinner for today, getting the gastronomic side of things off to a start last night with a dish of braised pork and clams with fresh-baked olive bread and a crisp salad. Today, we pottered around for a while before preparing the turkey for the oven, then went out for a good long hike (and a bit of geocaching along the way) to work up an appetite. Turkey was served with a couple of our signature vegetable dishes: sprouts with mushrooms and almonds, and parsnips in creamy horseradish sauce. We finished off settling down to watch Avatar.
If there's any interest, I'll try posting some recipes another time.
So that was our Thanksgiving. How was yours?
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6 comments:
This post makes me hungry. I have never had olive bread but it sounds delish-and though I am horrible (terribly horrible) in the kitchen I still like to try to bake-maybe you could post the olive bread recipe??
I hope you do post up some recipes. Have you ever tried some pumpkin pie? That's something I really miss over here.
It seems that Thanksgiving has been a poignant reminder of the start of your new life in British Columbia.
Have a peaceful and positive week.
With respect, Gary.
Add some football and it sounds like a great Thanksgiving!
I'll add olive bread to my list of things to post then, Sam. It is seriously good, and well worth sharing. Just a heads-up, I use a breadmaker for the dough, though I'm sure the recipe will work or could be adapted if you are doing everything by hand.
Gary, I have tried pumpkin pie. *Whispers* I wasn't too keen on it. Sorry. Nothing actually wrong with it, just the combination of flavour and texture didn't work for me. Does that disqualify me from Canadian citizenship? I hope the immigration office don't read this blog!
Alex, no football but it was a good Thanksgiving, thanks.
Yay!
Okay, you can get away with not liking pumpkin pie. As long as you eat chips with melted cheese and gravy, you should be just fine :-)
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