Thanksgiving dinner :)

2 weeks and 1 day later, I finally got to have Thanksgiving dinner. Due to a bunch of craziness this was the earliest we were able to do it. Luckily I had several friends who were very eager to experience an authentic American Thanksgiving meal thanks to TV and movies. We definitely had more than enough food and it was all super super yummy :) I had some help from Sharyn in cooking the food. Ovens here are generally pretty small and you aren't able to fit anything more than a small to medium size turkey (maybe 8lbs max) in one.

The main spread :)

From L to R: Mashed potatoes, the carved turkey (Sharyn made both of these and did an amazing job cooking her first turkey!), green bean casserole (made by me!), and cornbread (thanks Jiffy). There was also gravy that either hadn't made it on the table yet or it might just be out of view.

The dessert spread :)

I made all the dessert and what's a Thanksgiving dinner without pumpkin pie. My Aussie friends thought pumpkin pie was a requirement for all Thanksgiving dinners, but I can definitely remember a few that didn't include pumpkin pie... Pumpkin pie here is a bit of a novelty, Aussies generally think of pumpkin as a side veggie (so if you got a meat and 3 veggies, one of them might be roasted pumpkin) and not as something that goes into a dessert. These pies were made with real pumpkin (you can't find it canned here). The crust is a frozen crust I found in the store (not quite ambitious enough to make my own crust just yet) and it's more of a shortbread crust, rather than a flaky pastry crust. The recipe I had made 3 pies, 1 went to church on Sunday. It was quite yummy :) I also made banana pudding as I had a request for it. :)

Holidays!!!!

I go home in 9 days!! Due to time travel, Dec 18 will be the longest day of my life. My Dec 18th will start on Dec 18th @ 12am in Australia (yeah I know duh), but it will only be Dec 17 @ 8am in Alabama (my final destination). When I finally get to Alabama it will probably be around 9pm on Dec 18. So my Dec 18 will be ~40hrs... I think... or maybe this isn't how it actually works, but I think I would rather think this way seeing how I lose a day coming to Australia.

Also in the holiday fashion, because I missed Thanksgiving due to my conference in Perth, I will be celebrating it a little bit late. So tomorrow night, we are having a Thanksgiving meal! Complete with turkey and gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cornbread, pumpkin pie, and banana pudding. The turkey might actually be pre-roasted since I'm having difficulty finding anything else at the store (and 2 weeks ago I would of had a difficult time just finding a turkey). This will also be my first attempt at a green bean casserole and pumpkin pie, so hopefully it will go well. The pumpkin pie is also from fresh pumpkin as you can't get canned pumpkin here. Luckily I still have fixings for cornbread and banana pudding left from when my parents came and brought me food. :)

Finally because listening to Christmas carols all the time at home isn't quite enough, I watched "A Christmas Story" last night to help get into the Christmas spirit :)