For Thanksgiving day, I decided that I was going to get a pumpkin pie from Costco to take into school for my co teachers to eat. The pies at Costco are at least a 14-15 inch pie, so needless to say, I only needed one. That being said, I had to go to Costco twice, because the first night they were sold out! Must have been too many American shopping that day. The next day, Jake and I met at Costco again to get pies, and this time we did not mess around. No eating food first. No scoping out the bottom floor. No wine samples...(well at least not until the pies were in our hands) We went straight for the pies! And go the LAST TWO! Wahoo! That was close!
So on Thanksgiving day, I ate a not so grand lunch, but was able to share pumpkin pie complete with whipped topping with my co-teachers. For 3 of them, it was the first pumpkin pie they had ever tried. They were all surprised that it was sweet. I kept telling them that we eat it as a desert, and therefore Americans like it sweet! They also enjoyed the whipped topping that came in a can, and were dumbfounded how the nozzle worked! ahaha
I didn't have class on Thursday as well, because all the students had a day of testing. So, I didn't have to do anything, but I also couldn't spread my holiday cheer.:(
As for the weekend...Weeks ago, some of my American friends and I started to plot what was going to go down on our Thanksgiving holiday. Nobody here in Korea has a place big enough to host as many people that would want to come to these awesome food events, so we had to limit the amount of people. My friend, MJ, who is from California created an event, that made my mouth salivate for weeks:
So Folks, [Oven Warriors]
Fall has arrived and Thanksgiving is right around the corner. If you’re anything like me, the chill in the air has already got you fiending for all things pumpkin and dreaming of falling through mash potato clouds into an endless corn bread stuffing sky. Ok, maybe I take the whole thanksgiving food obsession thing to an extreme, but I’m sure by now you are wondering “How is this whole Thanksgiving in Korea thing gonna work?” Well have no fear, because I have the answer. (Go to this link, click play, and then come back and continue readinghttp://www.youtube.com/
May I present to you, the turkey cramming, potato slamming, artery jamming waygookin Thanksgiving FEAST!
We’re the pilgrims sitting comfy at home munching tea and crumpets on the first Thanksgiving? NO! They we’re just like us, strangers in a foreign land, trying to pull a feast out of thin air, with little more than a couple of gas burners, and a bunch of metal boxes that could vaguely be called ovens. With the help of a couple wise injuns, they still pulled it off (we’re just gonna stick with the fairy tale version of Thanksgiving for this invite), and so will we! That’s right, we’re gonna cook it ourselves, Buy the Book be damned! (besides, THEY DON”T HAVE CANDIED YAMS, HOW CAN YOU HAVE THANKSGIVING WITHOUT CANDIED YAMS?!?!?!) We’re talking the whole shabam people, turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, rivers of gravy, cranberry sauce, broccoli casserole, green bean casserole, pumpkin pie, and yes CANDIED YAMS! This ain’t your grandma’s Thanksgiving! Wait, I take that back, it’s actually exactly your grandma’s Thanksgiving; because WE’RE GONNA MAKE IT. I’m calling on all of you toaster oven warriors out there to help me pull this off. Not Thanksgiving without your auntie Sue’s mac n cheese? Skype her for the recipe and make it for everyone. Doesn’t feel like Turkey Day without your degenerate cousin who still lives at home getting completely sloshed off red wine? Grab a couple bottles and bring them along to share! We’ll get the turkey day games streaming on ESPN and celebrate just like we were back home,so come on out and LET’S FEAST! (You can kill the music now, unless you like the song. I like changing out “turkey” for “tiger”, its fun.)
Here’s the breakdown:
-The Daegu Compass is providing roast turkeys along with gravy, stuffing, and cranberry sauce for 130-140k (delivery fee varies).
- In addition to that I will be providing more stuffing and gravy (because stuffing, that’s why!) veggie gravy, broccoli casserole, and CANDIED YAMS!
-I’m asking everyone to bring 14k to cover the turkey and one dish to share.
-I’m capping this at 10 people because I don’t really think my apartment can hold much more.
-RSVP ASAP and post what you would like to bring (so we don’t get repeats). I won’t order the turkey until we have a good majority RSVP’d because I don’t want to front 140k for a turkey on maybes. The turkeys are supposed to sell out quickly, so it’s important that we book soon.
Looking forward to celebrating Thanksgiving with all of you!
Love, peace, and chicken grease,
MJ
For this event, MJ only invited Americans, so I was very excited about this. Most of my best friends are from other countries here, but when it comes to Thanksgiving, Americans have the same food desires! I could go to say as well that most of us had ovens as well... Many of my other friends seemed a bit offended about this, but I completely understand how the amount of people could have gotten out of control! I had to basically grovel and beg to get Ben able to go, even though he's American!
Ben and I made creamed corn and mashed potatoes for this Thanksgiving. The creamed corn was one of my first adventures in my new oven. I had never made cream corn before either. I made an 8 x 8 of it as the recipe said, but it was pretty full in the pan and therefore a bit soggier than my personal liking. The mashed potatoes were really good and a big hit. I took tons, and none came back or even leftovers. MJ made some amazing stuffing, candied yams, broccoli casserole, gravy and a homemade pumpkin pie. We feasted! Chelsea brought mac and cheese. Nick brought rolls. Heather brought creamed corn. Mitch brought deviled eggs. Ian brought Walnut pie. Lily brought an apple crisp that was to die for...Sarah and Kyle brought something I'm sure, but I can't remember and now I'm sad thinking about the fact that I most likely didn't get to try it! Of course we had turkey, stuffing, and cranberry sauce that we bought as well.
We laid down MJ wardrobe and used that as our table. It worked perfectly. We all sat around it to eat, with all of the food in the middle. Perrrrrrfect! I had such a great time. This was a great group of Americans! I haven't been spending a lot of time with Americans, but I think I have found some that I really like! :) Since coming to Korea, my stomach has shrunk, so even though I ate no where near what I would have usually eaten on a normal Thanksgiving, I was stuffed. Ben and I were suppose to go out at night to sing at the norabang, but our food babies were ridiculous...We couldn't move! I had to cancel and I felt horrible, but we were miserable. Instead we watched a movie.We knew that we needed to quickly recover because....
The next day we had another Thanksgiving to prepare for. This one was at Maria and Matthews house, which I found out is quite close to mine! :) Ben and I again took creamed corn casserole. I halved the recipe, so that it wasn't as thick and it was the perfect amount. Since I had bought a gallon of corn at Costco, I also made some actual creamed corn in a crock pot. I used what I had left of the potatoes to make a small amount of mashed potatoes as well. Stefanie had some people from home mail her the ingredients to make green been casserole, and since you can't find many of the ingredients here in Korea, she came over to put it together and bake in my oven. My oven was a life-saver! Sian came the day before to make her milk tart (South African desert) that was like a vanilla pudding pie.
All of the food turned out really well. I was so thankful that Stefanie got the ingredients for the green bean casserole! It was amazing! :) Also present was, sweet potatoes, cornbread muffins, mashed potatoes, turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and banana bread. YUM! Ben had to leave before it was over because it's almost a 3 hour adventure back to Jinbo where he lives. After dinner we played games, and I noticed that they were playing a game that exactly like Dutch Blitz but with a regular deck. Funny enough, I had brought Dutch Blitz and I made them play it with me. It's slightly easier to play because the colored cards are easier to see! It was so much fun, and I'm sure that there will be some game night in my future! Sian couldn't stand losing to me, and those who know me, know that I am pretty competitive to say the least.... She will NEVER beat me.... :)
Thanks so much to MJ for hosting us and also to Maria and Matthew for opening your house as well! :) It was a great at home weekend spent with tons of awesome peeps!
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