Welcome December!!

Oh my goodness, I am ridiculously full right now!! I just ate a very large plate of Thanksgiving leftovers and it was delicious!  Except I'm superbly full and dying just a little bit of fullness.
We had an amazing and successful Thanksgiving dinner last night. Although we had a Saturday Thanksgiving, it was a lot of fun filled with food and friends.
My menu changed a little with availability of food items and also for sheer timing issues (I was running around like a chicken without a head).
Here's what we actually served (I made everything with Endira's help unless otherwise noted):
Spicy Pumpkin and Carrot soup
Stuffed Mushrooms
Grandma's Stuffed Artichokes
Mashed Potatoes (By Laure and Sian)
Mashed Potatoes (By Ashley)
Stuffing (By Ashley)
Stuffing
Gravy
Pomegranite Blueberry sauce
Roasted Potatoes and Vegetables
Roasted Turkey
Pumpkin Pie
Apple Crumble
Italian Pastries (provided by the Italians)

We were supposed to have string beans as well but we never got around to making them. Seriously, it was that hectic. I'm going to have to post recipes because everything was so delicious.
I was so glad to be surrounded by so many friends. I think everyone had a great time and enjoyed the food. It was such a pleasure to cook for so many people and so much fun seeing the reactions of the Brits and Italians as dish after dish came out.

A lot of pounds of turkey

The eyes seriously widened at the site of our 15 lb turkey (sans wings and legs because I had to cut them off
to fit in the oven lol).  It was bit on the ridiculous side since I was at a work conference on teaching all Saturday, except I came home for a hour in the middle of the day to throw the turkey in the oven. So in total I walked about 2 hours back and forth, I subwayed for an hour. I listened to about 5 hours of lectures and cooked for the rest of the day. All this after about 4 hours of sleep since I had stayed up till around 4am cooking and prepping, stuffed mushrooms, and the pies. But somehow I made a beautiful turkey that everyone loved. And with the drippings, apple and onion I made a great gravy, thick and creamy after reducing on the heat.
It went really well with the mashed potatoes and stuffing that Laure, Sian and Ashley brought with them. So many levels of delicious. So much stuffing and so much mashed potatoes. Ashley's mashed potatoes were amazingly creamy and delicious while Laure and Sian's reminded me of the mashed potatoes from back home, rich and a little thicker.

The Spicy Pumpkin and Carrot soup was utterly delicious but maybe a tad too spicy. Everyone seemed to like it anyway so I'm content. Then we had Grandma's artichokes. Artichokes are very popular in Rome but I decided to make them the way my grandmother always made them stuffed with

Grandma's Artichokes

parsley and garlic and then steamed. They were pretty popular with the Americans and Brits who typically eat the leaves the same way. The Romans I think were a little confused because the way they are prepared in Rome, you can eat the entire artichoke and not just the leaves. I also decided to make my mom's stuffed mushrooms. Since my family couldn't be in Rome with me, I decided to bring them to Rome in the dishes I cooked.  In fact, I made the turkey the same way mom always makes turkey, with an apple and an onion inside and roasted with carrots, onion and celery.

Stuffed Mushrooms: Mamma Bear Style

My whole plate filled with an incredible quantity of food

They major difference to our Thanksgiving was that I forgot the string beans and that I had no way to get a hold of cranberry sauce.  Cranberries don't really exist in Italy unless you go to specialty stores and I just didn't have time so I decided to improvise. I saw pomegranites at the fruit store and thought that they might over the same kind of sweet yet slightly acidic kick offered by cranberry sauce.  I looked up some recipes, unsure of how exactly to "juice" a pomegranite thanks to all the little seeds and found a recipe involving some spice and blueberries as well and I decided to adapt the recipe accordingly. I pomegranite, fresh blueberries, sugar, red pepper flakes and salt to make the perfect complementary sauce for our turkey mean.  It wound up being utterly delicious.  I was surprised at how big a success my substitution was. The pomegranite blueberry sauce was a big hit with just the right combination of sweet and sour, with a hint of heat from the red pepper flakes.  I was very flattered because Endira's Italian lady asked me how I had made it! When an Italian woman asks you for a recipe, the dish must be good. So I was very happy and will definitely be making it again.

My Pumpkin Pie looked pretty good

Then came the desserts. Everything look and tasted delightful but I have to say that I forgot the eggs in my pumpkin pie. I worked from memory and I really should have doublechecked my recipe. As it is, it tasted delicious... It just didn't set correctly.  It's so silly because I even took the time to make letters with the dough and I somehow forgot the eggs like a big dummy. My apple crumble on the other hand was perfect both in appearance and in taste. It was a bit hit, and there was no alcohol in it this time. Normally, I bake with a bit of rum or brandy but this year no time for a liquor store run so I just made everything traditionally.  It came out really well and got devoured.  No more Apple Crumble left.  We have a couple of pastries left but those were utterly delicious as well and I need to find out who brought them from where because I'd like to get more pastries from there!

Delicious Italian Pastries

Everyone really enjoyed the food and company and the wine so I'm very happy that we decided to throw our Thanksgiving feast. It was absolutely worth the effort and cooking time. And we have so many leftovers! We're going to be eating turkey and stuffing for at least a week. I can't wait!