Our last Thanksgiving. Nuestro ultimo dia de Accion de Gracias

Una de las cosas que mas nos han gustado en estos dos años y medio en Chicago ha sido la celebracion de "Accion de Gracias". Es una fiesta en la que las familias y amigos se reunen, se prepara comida realmente casera y en mucha abundancia y se comparten buenos momentos. Por suerte, nuestros amigos Christina y Lyle nos han invitado todos estos años que hemos estado aqui y ha sido un verdadero placer poder compartirlo con ellos. Gracias!!

El pavo siempre delicioso, jugoso y fresco. El resto de platos de acompañamiento son otro manjar: stuffing, jamon asado, toda clase de tuberculos, patatas, judias verdes, pudding de maiz, salsa de arandanos, tarta de calabaza y batata, maravilloso!!

Como siempre disfrutamos mucho de la comida y lo pasamos genial en una agradable noche. Aunque es nuestro ultimo año viviendo aqui, espero que podamos volar de vuelta en el futuro y compartir este dia con nuestros amigos.

Thanksgiving day is one of our favorite things since we arrived in the US two and a half years ago. It is a very traditional and familiar feast where people reunite with their families and friends to prepare and eat real home-made food and have a good time. Luckily, our friends Christina and Lyle were so kind to host us for three years in a row. It was a real pleasure for us sharing this day with you guys and the rest of your guests! Thanks!!

The turkey is always delicious and juicy. The rest of the side dishes are also amazing: stuffing, baked ham, roots vegetables, beans, corn pudding, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, gorgeous!!

We enjoyed dinner and company very much! We had a great time with our friends. Even though it is our last year living here, we hope we can fly back one day in the future to share this day with our friends.

El pavo. The turkey!

With Christina, Lyle and the turkey. Con Christina, Lyle y el pavo.

Pavo trinchado, salsa de arandanos, jamon, tuberculos, stuffing, patatas, ensalada, pudding...

Carved turkey, cranberry sauce, ham, roots, stuffing, potatoes, salad, pudding...

Gravy was served with the turkey! 

Tambien habia gravy para salsear el pavo!

Mi plato con un poco de todo :)

My plate with a bit of everything :)

Pumpkin pie. Tarta de calabaza

Christina cortando la tarta. Chritina slicing the pie.

FELIZ DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIAS!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING DAY!!

Thanksgiving 2011, double this year. Accion de gracia, fiesta doble este año

Y otra vez este año tuvimos el honor de ser invitados a no una, sino dos cenas de Accion de Gracias!

Christina, mi compañera y Lyle, su novio, nos invitaron a cenar en su casa, al igual que el año pasado.

Es una fiesta que me encanta, es entrañable, divertida y la comida esta buenisima!! He de decir que Christina y Lyle son ambos excelentes cocineros y que ademas, les gusta preparar cosas distintas cada vez y ademas, mas y mas ricas.

Uno de los hechos mas divertidos de la noche es que eramos 11 personas de 10 nacionalidades distintas :): dos españoles (yo una), un belga, dos suecos, una taiwanesa, dos indios, un canadiense, una americana y una irani. No es maravilloso?

Once again this year we had the honor of being invited to not one, but two, Thanksgiving dinners!

Christina, one of my colleagues and Lyle, her BF, invited us for dinner in their house as last year.

Thanksgiving is a nice party, I love it! It is familiar, traditional, funny and with delicious food. I must say that Christina and Lyle are both excellent cooks.

One of the funny facts of the evening was that we were a group of 11 people of 10 different nationalities :): two Spanish, one Belgian, two Swedish, one Taiwanese, two Indians, one Canadian, one American and one Iranian. Isn't it wonderful?

A las 5 y media de la tarde llegamos a casa de los anfitriones. El pavo acababa de salir del horno despues de 4 o 5 horas de horno y 2 o 3 dias de preparacion, inyecciones de caldo, mantequilla, hierbas, etc.

Junto con el pavo habia varios platos de acompanamiento: judias verdes con piñones, pure de calabaza, salsa de arandanos de dos clases, una cocinada por Christina y otra por Lyle, patatas asadas, zanahorias, arroz salvaje, gravy y stuffing, hecho con salchichas, trozos de pan y castañas. Todo riquisimo, yo comi un poco de todo, lo podeis ver en la foto de mi plato :)

We arrived there at 5:30. The turkey was just out of the oven after 4 or 5 hours of baking and 2 or 3 days of preparation with broth injections, butter, herbs, etc.

There were many side dishes as well: green beans, pumpkin puree, gravy, cranberry sauce of two different styles, one made by Christina and one by Lyle, baked potatoes, carrots and parsnip, wild rice and stuffing, made with sausage, bread and chestnuts. Everything was delicious, I tried a bit of everything. You can see it on the picture of my plate :)

The turkey about to be served! El pavo a punto de ser servido!

Christina tossing the beans. Christina preparando las judias.

Pictures of Lyle cooking and carving the turkey. Fotos de Lyle cocinando y a punto de trinchar el pavo.

El super pavo!!

Thomas y Eduard.

Pan, Christina and Sumona.

Mi plato y yo. Yo y mi plato, jeje!

Nosotros llevamos cava y vino blanco para acompañar y el resto de invitados tambien llevo algo para beber y/o comer.

De postre, la maravillosa tarta de calabaza y batata de Christina, que delicia!

We took cava and white wine to drink with the food. For dessert, we had the wonderful pumpkin and sweet potato pie of Christina, what a delight!

Christina decorating and cutting the pie. Christina decorando y cortando la tarta.

Despues de la cena hubo amenizacion a cargo de Eduard, con su juego de los circulos y las cruces y mas tarde jugando a "Tabu", chicos contra chicas :)

After dinner we played a game of "crosses and circles" by Eduard's intervention, hehe! and we played Taboo afterwards, boys vs girls.

Eduard regañando a Lars por no doblar bien los papeles. Eduard nagging Lars for not folding the papers properly, LOL!

Lo pasamos genial en compañia de gente estupenda, me rei bastante y lo agradeci...Ahora no se si habra una proxima cena de Accion de Gracias aqui en Chicago...aunque siempre puedo hacer una en Europa!!

We had a great night with wonderful people, I laughed a lot and I really needed it. I don't know if there will be another Thanksgiving dinner next year in Chicago...even though we can always prepare one in  Europe!!

La siguiente cena fue el domingo, a punto de terminarse el puente de Accion de Gracias. Esta vez en casa de una colega de Thomas, con ella, su familia y mas compañeros de Thomas.

Llegamos alli a las 3 de la tarde y habia ya una inmensidad de cosas para picar...Nosotros llevamos distintas clases de queso: manchego con membrino, Gouda, queso azul y brie. Aqui lo veis en la foto, junto con otros frutos secos, datiles, orejones, anacardos, humus y quiche. Buenisimo!

Por supuesto, tambien bebimos cava :) y buen vino.

The next party was on Sunday, the last day of the Thanksgiving break. This time in the house of one of Thomas' colleagues, together with her family and other colleagues.

We arrived there around 3 pm and there were already tones of things to eat. We brought different kinds of cheeses: manchego with quince paste, Gouda, blue cheese and brie. You can see it on the picture together with other nuts, dates, dry apricots, cashu nuts, humus and quiche. Delicious!

We drank cava an wine, of course ;)

Mesa con aperitivos! All the appetizesrs!

David enjoying the cheese

One of the stars of the night, Alex. Una de las estrellas de la noche, Alex.

The other star, Ela. La otra estrellita, Ela.

El pavo era bastante grande y tardo bastante tiempo en asarse. Junto con el pavo habia varios platos de acompañamiento. La familia que nos invito es de Turquia y ademas de ser muy generosos y amables, prepararon toneladas de riquisima comida turca.

Habia arroz con pinones, ensalada de zanahoria con yogur y cebolla, "black-eyed peas", falafel traido por Bilge and Tarik, ensalada, esparragos a la plancha, etc. 

David, un companero de Florida, trajo dos platos tipicos del sur, judias verdes con pan rayado por encima y salsa de champinones y "cacerola de batata" cubierta de nueces con azucar!

The turkey was pretty big and it took a long time until it was fully cooked. Together with the turkey there were many sides. The family who invited us is from Turkey and they prepared many Turkish side dishes. They are awesome!

There was rice with pine nuts, carrot salad with yogurt, black-eyed peas, falafel brought by Bilge and Tarik, salad, asparagus, etc. 

David, a colleague from Florida brought typical Southern sides: green beans and sweet potato casserole, with walnut topping!

Waiting for the turkey and with the other dishes. Esperando el pavo, podeis ver el resto de platos.

Tarik and Bilge.

Ozge carving the turkey and Thomas waiting to eat it :) Ozge trinchando el pavo y Thomas esprerando para comerselo.

Thomas echandose el jugo del pavo. Thomas pouring some of the turkey juice.

El maravilloso pavo de 10 kilos, deliciosa carne blanca sin grasa! Wonderful 20 pound turkey, delicious white meat with almost no fat ;)

Thomas & Ela

De postre, baklava!!! Esa maravilla turca!

Baklava for dessert, that Turkish wonder!!

Una vez mas pasamos un maravilloso dia en compania de gente aun mejor!

We had a great night together with even nicer people!

Thanksgiving. Accion de gracias

Ayer fue un dia importante en Estados Unidos, ya que se celebraba "Accion de gracias". Esta tradicion proviene de los primeros colonos que tomaban parcelas de tierra (en cierto modo quitandoselas a los indios americanos), pero despues se reunian con ellos y cenando todos juntos, daban las gracias por sus tierras, cosechas, etc. Al menos, esta es una de las historias que mis companeros me han contado :)
Christina, una de mis companeras del grupo nos invito a cenar en su casa. Lyle, su novio iba a preparar el tipico pavo de accion de gracias y un monton de platos tipicos de esta noche.
Por supuesto aceptamos! nos hizo mucha ilusion y estabamos deseando ver como era este evento, como seria el pavo, la comida, etc :)
Yesterday there was a big celebration here in the States because it was "Thanksgiving". Some of my colleagues told me that this celebration started after the first colonist took some land from the American Indians. After settling they use to make a big dinner to thank for what they had :)
Christina is one of my colleagues in the group and she invited us for dinner at her place together with her boyfriend and some other colleagues, including our friends Patricia and Igor.
We of course, accepted and we were very excited to see how Thanksgiving was. We were wondering how the turkey was, about the typical food, etc ;)
Christina me dijo que Lyle, su novio, habia empezado a preparar el pavo el domingo, ya que para que la carne este lista, hay que inyectarle caldo de pollo y mantequilla para este tierna. La verdad es que me quede muy sorprendida al ver y probar el pavo. La pinta era inmejorable y el sabor tambien. Me parecia muy dificil preparar un pavo tan grande, pero la carne estaba jugosa y muy tierna.
Christina told me that her boyfriend Lyle started flavoring the turkey last Sunday. They inyected butter and chicken stock into the turkey. This way the meat is nice and tender. They also salted the turkey during two days, keeping it in the fridge. I thought it was very difficult to prepare such a big turkey but I was really surprised, it look great and the taste was excellent. The meat was juicy and tender :)

Christina and Lyle with the turkey. Christina y Lyle con el pavo. (Pic by Patricia Dankers)

Cortando el pavo. Carving and cutting the turkey
Pavo! Turkey!

Ademas del pavo, habia muchisimas mas cosas para comer, todas ellas caseras y muy ricas. Entre otras cosas habia: patatas asadas, se hicieron en el horno debajo del pavo, patatas dulces, judias verdes, "stuffing" es como para rellenar el pavo, tiene trozos de pan, de salchicha y verduras, pero se come fuera del pavo :), "graving" es salsa para el pavo, normalmente se coge del caldo que suelta el pavo al ser asado, tambien habia salsa de arandanos (deliciosa!!), ensalada, huevos y pecan nuts, como nueces pero mas dulces.
Nos pusimos un poco de cada cosa, estaba todo delicioso y no estoy exagerando. Aqui os enseno mi plato.
Apart from turkey, there were many other typical things to eat, everything home-made and nice: roasted potatoes which were baked under the turkey, sweet potatoes, sauteed green beans, stuffing, graving, cranberries sauce, salad, eggs, pecans, etc.
I took a little bit of everything and my plate ended up completely full. Here you can see some pictures.

Mi plato. My plate

Como he dicho, todo estaba buenisimo. Empezamos a comer antes de las 5 de la tarde, jaja! para los espanoles se que esto suena casi imposible, pero no! es muy posible :)
Nos servimos la comida, mientras hablabamos de todo un poco y despues vino el postre :)) tarta de calabaza. Aunque suena un poco raro hacer algo dulce con una verdura, aqui es muy normal y bien pensado, en Espana tambien tenemos el cabello de angel, que esta hecho de calabaza.
Todo nos encanto, asi que le pedimos a Christina y Lyle todas las recetas! Aqui podeis ver la tarta.
As I said before, everything tasted wonderful. We started eating around 5 pm :) extremely early for Spanish standards, but well, here it is completely normal. We served ourselves and then eat while talking with everyone around. Dessert was also great, we had pumpkin pie. It sounds a bit weird making pie with vegetables, but here it is very normal and after thinking a bit, in Spain we also have "cabello de angel" (angels hair), a typical stuffing for sweets made of pumpkin.
We loved everything and we asked for all the recipes :) Here you can see the picture of the pie.

Pumpking pie. Tarta de calabaza

Estamos encantados con la experiencia, lo pasamos muy bien con nuestros amigos y esperamos poder celebrarlo juntos al menos un agno mas :) We are very happy about Thanksgiving dinner, we had a lot of fun with our friends, so we hope we can celebrate it together at least one more year :)

A lo mejor, la proxima vez, podemos comer turducken, jaja!! un pavo que tiene un pato dentro y el pato un pollo :) que locura!!! haha! Maybe next time we can eat turducken, haha! that was new for us, stuffing a turkey with an stuffed duck (with a chicken inside...) crazy!!