Much to be Thankful For

We hosted our very first Thanksgiving dinner. In the past we just piggyback with my family and make a side dish for the meal. Hosting was very fun. We first did the safe (and sane) thing by ordering a turkey dinner package from Safeway; everything is pre-cooked and packed. All I had to do was reheat. That was great because it freed up the kitchen so we could prepare our special side dishes to share with our guests.

James invited two classmates; a family from Turkey and a couple from Taiwan. This was their first "American" Thanksgiving dinner. In addition to turkey and all the traditional sides, James made his curry tofu and I made candied yams, and French green beans stir-fried in garlic and oyster sauce, and steamed rice. (Dinner is not really dinner without steamed rice). Our guests shared stuffed grape leaves, stuffed peppers, baklavah and shrimp cocktail.

I am glad to say we have a manageable amount of leftovers; hearty appetites, and making plates for our friends to take home helped. "Unfortunately" there were a lot of desserts...Noah and I had baklavah for breakfast the next day....there is still a good chunk of apple caramel pecan cake from Costco (we were very curious about it...now we know better) and more than half a pumpkin pie.

Good time with new friends and good food; much to be thankful for indeed.