Thanksgiving with a Kick

Along with our semi-American friends (throw some Russians and Canadians in the mix) here in our apartment complex, we decided we must celebrate Thanksgiving together and go all out. We started doing research about a month ago to find out where if anywhere we could get a turkey. Turkey is not a staple here and we were already preparing ourselves for a roasted goat instead. We got word that a Halal butcher would be carrying turkeys. Random yes but we jumped on the tip and I went to go visit Amou's Butcher Shop. The Egyptian owner told me that he would in fact have fresh turkeys that are being raised in Ghana and I could put my order in. Like most things in Ghana, I did this feeling that the chance that we'd actually get a turkey was extremely low. But, we went ahead with the plans and dividing up the menu. I would be responsible for the turkey, gravy, and stuffing...none of which I've made before. And since living in Ghana has been all about new experiences, why not take sign up for one more new one.

So as the big day approached I scurried around town looking for all the ingredients that I needed. Major challenges included celery, dried cranberries, cranberry sauce, and a baster. Four stores later and hours spent driving through traffic all was found, but had to pay an arm and a leg for the precious celery. Friday morning I called Amou's shop to find out when I could pick up my turkey and he said to give him a few hours...he just had to kill it! What?? Did I hear correctly? So it turned out we were getting a super fresh turkey...now the pressure was on. When I arrived at the shop, the shop keeper weighed it and it came to a whopping 22lbs! Frank helped me carry it upstairs to my apartment and the bag broke and there went our fresh turkey on the ground! It didn't matter though, the turkey got a good wash in my sink, got a salt rub and went to my friend's fridge for 24 hours (since I had 200 truffles and 100 cheesecakes in mine! - see previous blog).

On Saturday, after some small miscalculations on the baking time and converting kilos to pounds, I managed to barely get the turkey in our small oven and made the fixings.



Alan did his part and carried it over to our friend's apartment...hence the apron.




The turkey despite being baked upside down was a beautiful golden brown and smelled up our whole place but we didn't mind. We had an amazing feast at our friend, Marina's, place. There were 4 of us couples and on the menu besides what I made were mashed potatoes, green beans, carrot salad, and delicious apple and pecan pies.


Allen, Gilda's husband, carved the turkey as we all looked on.








We devoured as much as we could and then relaxed to our friend Antonio's jazz guitar playing and singing.



It was so nice to be surrounded by good friends even if we did celebrate a few days late. As much as I missed my family's traditional Thanksgiving meal, this was still great and at least now I know how to cook a turkey.

And making the Thanksgiving weekend even better was the momentous occasion of feeling this little boy in my tummy kick for the first time. In fact, the little jabs have been pretty frequent now that I know what I'm feeling and even Alan was able to catch a few kicks with his hand on my stomach.