Friends and Social Events

Thanksgiving, October 12

I decided to combine celebration of Antonia's birthday and Thanksgiving on Sunday, October 12. The year Antonia was born it was actually Thanksgiving Day on the 8th. This year Thanksgiving Day in Canada was on Monday the 13th, but it's not unusual to have the big dinner the day before to give a day to recover. Given that there isn't a day off for it here in England, I had dinner on the Sunday.

As it turned out, Antonia's birthday was pretty much done on the 8th and ignored on the 12th, but Thanksgiving dinner was a hit. We had 8 guests for a total of 12 people (7 adults, 5 children). I spent about 12 hours over 2 days cooking every traditional Thanksgiving dish I could think of, including several that were never part of my own family's tradition, mostly using recipes off the internet (especially Allrecipes). My guests were very brave about trying dishes they'd never even heard of, let alone eaten. Nearly everyone tried nearly everything (with the exception of the three vegetarians.)

The most popular items were the spinach dip, the cranberry jelly salad, and the sweet potatoes although many other dishes went over very well. Only the broccoli casserole was a real failure. See the full menu of what was served, below.

Menu

• Appetisers
• Mixed nuts, sweets, and mini chocolates (Heroes)
• Cranberry/orange punch
• Corn chips and bread sticks
• Spinach dip
• Main Dish
• Turkey
• Side Dishes
• Carrot Salad
• Cranberry Salad
• Biscuits (not cookies, which is what "biscuits" means in the UK)
• Broccoli casserole
• Parsnips fried in butter
• Brussels sprouts and baby carrots
• Stuffing
• Candied sweet potatoes
• Desserts
• Pies: Apple, lemon meringue, and berry & apple
• Ice cream and raspberry sorbet