Il Giorno di Ringraziamento...

Thanksgiving. 

Of all the American holidays, this is top bananas for me.  And as long as I have been here in Italy, I have never made it back home for the celebration and it brings a little tear to my eye every time I think about it.

So, that means 6 years with no turkey. No dressing. No gravy. No pumpkin pie...

Really?  

Do you think that I would voluntarily miss out on that?

Do you also think I am dead inside? 

Well, I am not. Every year, I do the very best I can to re-create the holiday (never actually ON the holiday of course...work and school snuff that one out quickly...) Italian Style.

The 2009 Thanksgiving crew...Chris, Mooresy and Drama...

So this Friday, I will be hosting our annual Italian Style Thanksgiving.  To be honest it is not much different than the American style Thanksgiving, but one must be a bit more creative in finding ingredients fitting of a Turkey Day feast...they are not just stacked up to the ceiling in the entrance of Wal-Mart.  There are no "stations" for pie making in our local supermarket, and God forbid you ask where the canned pumpkin can be found!?

I make it a habit to peruse new recipes every year, and - as Thanksgiving fodder is quite specific to American tastes and availabilities - I always have a little giggle when the ingredients include canned green beans and cream of mushroom soup...

(Sorry Midwesterners, that means no Green Bean Casserole round these parts...)

Turkey Day 2010

The availibilities of "short cuts" seem sacreligious here in Italy, and I am fairly sure that the use of pre-diced garlic in a jar will warrant a trip to confession and 10 Hail Marys.

And then there is the turkey.  Our native American bird is an unappreciated little guy in our neck of the woods.  I can only imagine that an entire bird could be made avaiable by advance order from the butcher, but I have never been so brave (and I have also never been brave enough to attempt cooking one...best leave that to the true Americans...)  

So the substitute ends of being an entire breast of turkey with a 'pocket' cut into it and stuffed.  The stuffing can be anything - one year it was fresh chestnuts, breadcrumbs and apricots; another was chopped leek and spinach...

Sorry again, Yankees...not stuffed with a chicken and a guinea fowl, or McDonalds hamburgers.  We keep it simple round here ; )

Thanksgiving 2009 - with Uncle Chris...

To round out this menu, there are always a plethora of fresh sides; mashed potatoes, green beans and pancetta, and then there is the dressing.  To be specific, Neukam dressing.  

No you cannot have the recipe...it is a well guarded secret. 

(OK, that is a lie, but I don't part easily with my recipes...you need to bring me at least one bottle of wine before my secret recipe book is brought to the table...)

No Thanksgiving dinner would be complete without the pumpkin pie...that is where it gets a little hairy.  I quite envy the Yankees who have frozen pie crusts, canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice and Cool-Whip available at their fingertips...24 Hours a day at WalMart.  But the greatest discovery I have made since being here in Italy and learning to cook things - not just from scratch, but from whatever comes before scratch - has definitely been the good old fashioned pumpkin.

In the absence of precooked canned pumpkin, the filling for the pie must come from (GASP!) a REAL pumpkin!!  First chopped in half and roasted for about an hour until soft.  Then scooped out, pureed, and mixed with various spices and a bit of heavy cream.  All baked in a freshly made pie crust...

Wow. I am exhausted just reading that back.

Now, as I am married to a Brit, I have one tough customer to impress with my pumpkin pie...he is very highly unconvinced regarding the use of our North American friend in several recipes.

Just to make matters worse, we once enjoyed an episode of "Two Fat Ladies" (a British cooking programme...and pure culinary hilarity at it's FINEST) in which they insisted that Americans should...

"...never be allowed near a pumpkin, as they do awful things to them". 

It is officially the ONLY line from a TV show or film that the Hubby can quote...
Harumph...

So this year the pumpkin challenge continues.  After 6 years, he is still wildly unimpressed.

But, Thanksgiving.  It is not just about food...

It's a time when we sit with the people we love the most and remember how thankful we are for all we have got.  I may not be around the table this year, and most likely will not be able to return for many Thanksgivings to come, but I am certainly thankful for them most of all.  

Thankful that they don't give me TOO hard of a time for being so far away.  

Thankful that they are always there for me, even when I am a world away.  

And most of all thankful that we CAN all be together - no matter what time of the year it may be.  

My family - the ones in Indiana, the ones in Italy and the ones all over the world - make it all worth it.  

I can wake up every day knowing that I have them.  

I am thankful for my beautiful family...

 

...and my beautiful family.

I am the luckiest girl in the world.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

xoxo sjkh