Feliz Día de Acción de Gracias

(At right: yes, I am brining the turkey in a garbage bag)

This weekend I pulled off the nearly-impossible. 

I made Thanksgiving dinner,

in Madrid,

for 17 people. 

By myself.

I have a newfound respect for my mom and aunts who pull this off every year. I picked up the pre-ordered 10 lb. turkey on Friday afternoon at 4 with my friend Rocío and she helped me do some grocery shopping until 8pm. I then cooked from 8pm until 2am. Woke up at 9am and started cooking until people got there at 3pm. 

The menu:

Turkey

Stuffing

Mashed Potatoes

Gravy

Salad (with apples, gorgonzola and walnuts)

Apple Pie

Cider (spiked with rum) and cinnamon

The turkey came out really well because I brined it the night before in salt/sugar water with onions and parsley. Then instead of putting stuffing in it, I put a few carrots, celery stalks and parsley sprigs and put the turkey breast-down. I read on someone's blog that this makes the turkey more moist because all the juices run down into that part of the turkey. It was such an ordeal trying to make all of this because our oven is TINY and we have only ONE burner that works. Halfway through the roasting process, Jeffrey and Javi helped me transfer the turkey from a tray to a big pan that they bought at the Chinos (shops run mainly by Chinese people, thus the stores are called "Chinos") and they almost dropped the turkey on the floor. That was a bit hectic.

It all came together though, and fortunately everyone was happy and we had enough food. We were a mix of people from the States, Australia, Perú, Venezuela, Poland and Spain. It was cool to have everyone together saying what they were thankful for. I explained the happy story of the first Thanksgiving (before they massacred the Native Americans) and all was well...until a heated discussion about immigration ensued, pitting the Spaniards in the room versus the Venezuelans. I normally would jump in, but when everyone is spitting out their opinion at rapid speeds I can't get a word in. 

P.D. Back in Seattle when we had a dinner party most of our guy friends would help clean up the kitchen voluntarily. After Thanksgiving dinner everyone who helped out in the kitchen afterward was female. I made a comment to my roommate's friend Melisa about it and she said "I think this problem is universal."