Thursday was Thanksgiving, which I celebrated with 3 American and 3 British friends. The Brits obviously heard about my magnificent culinary ability and came solely for that. It took me 3 days and about 8 stores before I finally found a frozen turkey breast, which, according to my calculations, cost me $5.25 per pound (compared to about 65 cents in the US). They had duck, goose, pheasant, grouse, chicken, but no turkey! I am very thankful that they were all there; otherwise, I might've been crying into a very expensive plate of turkey all by myself.
Here's a photo of my delicious dinner (thanks, Dorian, for the overhead shot): turkey (that's really all there is) on top of dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato souffle, green beans, biscuits (which the Brits were intrigued by and kept calling "scones").
I should probably give my Granny's recipe for dressing right here, because I followed it (sort of), and it was amazingly delicious. Basically, you make stuffing/dressing whatever, then you add melted butter and salt or chicken stock. Then, you keep adding butter and salty chicken broth until it's soupy and you're fairly sure someone eating it is going to have a massive coronary from the sodium. Then, you add a little bit more and it's perfect!
The day after Thanksgiving I slept in (which is pretty unusual for me). I don't think I actually woke up until 10:30! I went to the Christmas markets in the evening. Manchester supposedly has the best Christmas markets in Britain, but I haven't seen the others, so I couldn't tell you. I can tell you that it was AWESOME! I am a great lover of Christmas, shopping for gifts and food, so it was like heaven. I went to the European one which is in St. Ann's Square behind the City Hall. There are 4 others in the various squares around city Center. The lights and stuff are beautiful. Here are examples:
Nope, that's not London, that's Manchester. Gorgeous, isn't it?
Anyway, the food was what made it awesome, and you can buy Gluhwein, which I pronounced GLOW-wine because that's what it should give you due to the extreme cold, but instead I just drank lots of it and got really, really sleepy. For the home-folks reading this, it was like the Mossy Creek Barnyard festival and the GA National Fair had a European baby... on crack.
I ate (over the course of two days at the markets): a chocolate-covered homemade marshmallow, a spicy German sausage in a bun, a chocolate-covered fried Dutch doughnut, a pretzel, some cheese, lots of Gluhwein and peppermint flavored (okay I used "flavored" because "liquored" isn't really a word) hot chocolate. Here's the fun part: food pictures!
Mmmm. Candy. Lots of it. Covered in chocolate. Made into houses.
This German dude is serious about salami. My favorite part of his spiel: "I don't trust vegetarians. Who in their right mind would give up this amazing feast of meat?" My answer: I don't know. Those vegetarians are crazy!
Two years ago, my friend Cristina got me this awesome "filled doughnut pan" from Williams Sonoma. I've made them a few times and they're awesome. However, these people obviously are better at it than me. They cover them in jam and chocolate.
There was a large lit "creche" (nativity) in the middle of the German market, and this woman was telling her little girls: "Please just stop running around and screaming. Here, eat some chocolate and look at Jesus in the manger." I think that pretty much sums up my entire philosophy of Christmas.
Now, I'm going to take a nap.
2 comments:
I am so glad you found a turkey! Thanks for calling me on my Birthday it was definately the most memorable! I did go see Twilight that night and I hate to have to tell you this but other than Edward being extraordinarily hot, it didn't live up to the book.
That Christmas Market looks awesome! I am so glad you have this blog it lets us all experience a little piece of England without all of the annoyances like bad toliet paper! :)
Aww, I'm glad you had a Thanksgiving, it sounded yummy. I was in Perry and my mom asked how you were doing and she says hi. It's obviously been a while since I've been there. Houston Lake Rd is NOT how I remember it and is a terrible mess now. There's also a Publix just up the road from my parents house!
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