The main dishes were a roasted chicken for Jocelyn and basil roasted salmon for Trey. For side dishes we had mashed potatoes, Enid's yummy yams, vegetarian stuffing, green beans with Campbell's mushroom soup, and cranberry sauce. And of course Trey baked a pumpkin and an apple pie for dessert. Cooking such a large meal was a challenge with our small kitchen and miniature oven but we managed to get everything done timing it right so everything was still warm when served since we had practiced the year prior.
As you can see we each piled the food on our plates to start the feast. Trey finished his portion with ease but Jocelyn struggled - having to stretch a few times while finishing the last few bites. Once she finished she proclaimed "I don't understand how those professional eaters do it." Trey had to remind Jocelyn that it was not a competition. This is also the first time we both liked the vegetarian stuffing recipe so I think we are going to make it a yearly tradition which is nice since most of the other things we have are taken from dishes we remember growing up with. The stuffing can be a Fary-Holzwarth family tradition. After dinner we both proceeded to pass out on the couch in our post Thanksgiving food comas. We woke up about an hour later with enough room in our stomachs for some pie with whipped cream.
It was good and we still had enough leftovers to last us two more days. Since we decided two pies for two people might be a little overkill, we invited our friends Michele and Kurt and Mel and Troy for dessert the next evening. We opened a bottle of dessert wine that we had been saving for a special occasion from Cloudy Bay and gave everyone a piece of both the pumpkin and apple pies. Pumpkin pie does not really exist in New Zealand so they were all surprised how good it was. Michele even plans on a getting a few cans of Libby's pumpkin from the US so she can make the pie herself. Although it was a food filled Thanksgiving it was just not the same without having family around. We look forward to next Thanksgiving when we will be back in the US and will be able to share the holiday with our family. It does still seem odd to celebrate Thanksgiving in warm weather but who knows, maybe next year it will feel odd to celebrate it in the cold since we have had two years here!
