Friday, November 24, 2006

at least the sweet potatoes were good

The Menu:
Veggies, crackers and chees to start.
Turkey with sage and onion stuffing
Sweet potatoes with butter so thick with brown sugar you can stand a spoon up in it
Seven pounds of mashed potatoes
Cranberries with pomegranate and clementines
Fruit salad
Green bean salad with caramelized onions
Croissants
Apple pie with vanilla ice cream
Red wine

So then, Thanksgiving. I was really excited to cook Thanksgiving because I love cooking, and because my friend Mel has a sweet apartment and she let me completely take it over to make dinner for ten people, including my first turkey. (which was too dry, but that's okay, because we had Bisto) But of the five people I invited and messaged the night before saying "Hope to see you tomorrow!" only my roommate Alison came. And because I was busy supervising the turkey, we didn't have a chance to chat. She left early as well, so pretty soon it began to feel like I was cooking for Mel's friends. They were all very nice--especially the Aussie who asked me if I'd "heard" of "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" and then couldn't get a word in edgewise while I quoted my favourite pages for ten minutes--but they weren't MY friends. I was feeling very upset that the people I handpicked to come couldn't even bother to send me an email and say "hey, can't make it, but have fun!" I thought it would be a good chance to catch up with these people, since I hadn't seen them in awhile. And it got late, and I probably had more wine than I should have...I got home by midnight, but today I'm being cranky and unhelpful. Not good. I suspect the people I invited who didn't come (all of whom are Brits) don't realise how big of a deal that Thanksgiving is, especially to me, so that not coming, or not letting me know that they're not coming is acceptable, but it's not.

I hope everyone else had a more cheerful Turkey Day than I did. Viva le Puritans!Next year I'm making pumpkin pie. From scratch. And I'm not sharing. Mrrr.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

not sharing? at all? Pooh! A bunch of the grad designers got together for an orphans thanksgiving. Before leaving campus on Wednesday, three separate faculty members tolf me not to let our hostess touch any of the food for fear none of us would be available to work on friday due to food poisoning. I think we consumed enough alcohol to effectively kill any germs.

Chris said...

I'm sorry that your London people didn't understand the importance of Turkey day. I hope that the left overs are good.

Laura said...

Everything sounds delicious! I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who will bulldoze right over you if you ask if I've "heard of" the right thing...

Vive le Purtitans?