Thanksgiving, Canadian expat style

So, it's Thanksgiving weekend in Canada. Being off our vegetarian diets, Jason and I decided we'd like some turkey.

And fortunately a group of about a dozen other Canadian expats (plus two Americans and a couple of Germans) also felt the craving, so we got together Saturday night to share a bird and all the other fixins. (We originally hoped to have the dinner today, Sunday -- since Monday isn't a holiday here -- but Sunday evening the power's out.)

We weren't sure we were going to be able to find a turkey (or at least not one that we wouldn't have to kill and pluck ourselves) but Jason won the admiration of all after he found a 10-pound one, ready to pop in the oven, for about $44 Canadian at a local butcher. Expensive! But worth every penny.

I whipped up some mashed potatoes (a bit lumpy, owing to lack of potato masher, but still tasty) and green beans almondine, loosely based on this recipe but using butter instead of "butter buds," whatever those are, doubling the garlic and wine and adding almonds. We found some ridiculously expensive cranberry sauce at the abruni supermarket. Other folks made stuffing, roast carrots and onions, gravy, and apple crisp for dessert. And we had plenty of cheap wine. Mmmmmmmmmmm. Perfect.

Here's our delicious dinner:



And here's Jason and I enjoying it. Jason doesn't like this picture. However, he's the one that pulled the funny face when our friend Birte hit the button. So here it is:



In other news, Melanie's daughter, Tasha, made me a lovely bracelet and sent it by mail last month. It arrived this week, and here's me enjoying it: