The First Thanksgiving ... in South Africa

We celebrated Thanksgiving three times this year. We are super thankful!

We cooked our first turkey dinner at home and celebrated with guests. (You need guests to cook a turkey.)


The menu ...

Welcome!

Proteas and mums in Thanksgiving colors.

Thanksgiving Dinner guests.

Turkey on the braai.

Sunflower and pumpkin seed bread in case anyone wanted turkey sandwiches.

Serving suggestion: a cup of soup with a cheese straw garnish.

The herb-stuffed bird ready for carving.

Braai mealies and coal-scorched yams with butter and maple syrup. Mmmm good!

Enough stuffing for leftovers.

Buitengeluk

For the second Thanksgiving dinner, we ate out with the American Society of South Africa.

The estate grounds were spectacular!

The display of door prizes and raffle prizes. Proceeds went to the children's charity Edu Fun.

Desserts included pumpkin, apple and pecan pies. Just like home!

















We won two door prizes (!) and

... 1st prize in the raffle! A premiere Scotch Whisky selection presented in a wooden rack. Vince was very thankful!












Finally, for the third celebration on actual Thanksgiving, we had a light dinner just for the two of us. It was a work night after all!

We had some Turkey and Rice Soup that we made from the leftovers of the turkey dinner, and a warm Butternut, Apple and Brie Galette. A mushroom, dried cranberry, pecan and spinach salad; a bottle of South African Shiraz; and for dessert, Pumpkin Custard Pie, minus the crust.



We did save one of our annual Thanksgiving dinner traditions for the actual day of thanks. We listened to that other Thanksgiving story ...

Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant.

What are you thankful for?

Happy Thanksgiving to friends and family in New York, New Jersey, Kansas, Maine, and Florida! Especially Alex and Nick and Jill in California; Cheryl, Richard and Patrick in Colorado; and Bob, Angela, Tori, Dan and Aly in New Jersey.

We love you and miss you! xoxo

 

Here are some recipes:

Butternut squash and Brie Galette from Happyolks

Ingredients:

For the pastry:
- 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 pinch salt
- 12 tbsp cold unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup ice water
In a bowl, mix the flour with the sugar and salt. Using a pastry blender or your fingers, cut in 6 tbsp of butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Cut in the remaining butter. Pour in water, then begin to mix and knead the dough until a ball forms and the mixture is no longer shaggy-looking. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
For the filling:
- 3-ish lbs butternut squash
- 2 apples (honeycrisp, pink lady or fuji)
- 2 cups Brie cheese, rind removed
- olive oil
- fresh thyme
- salt/pepper
- 1 egg
Preheat oven to 400ºF. Peel the squash. Cut 1/4-inch vertical wedges up to the rind. Halve disks. Place on a baking sheet, and coat with olive oil, salt and pepper. It’s okay if wedges overlap. Bake 15–20 minutes until just softened and a little al dente in the thicker regions. Set aside and cool. With a mandoline or paring knife, cut apples (with peel) into 1/4-inch slices. Set aside. Cut or tear Brie into strips and chunks. Set aside.

Construction:

On a floured work surface, roll the dough out into a 12-inch round. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Begin layering cooled squash, apples, cheese, and a bit of salt and pepper leaving a 1.5-inch border for folding it all up. Repeat until you run out of ingredients and can top with more cheese. Fold the border over your squash-apple-cheese tower, pleating the edge to make it fit. Finish outside exposed dough with an egg wash. Bake 30–40 minutes in the 400ºF oven. Cut into wedges and serve warm.

Pumpkin Custard Pie, minus the crust from A Way to Garden
Ingredients:

• 2 cups cooked, mashed winter squash (use a fine-grained and sweet variety such as ‘Hubbard,’ ‘Buttercup,’ above, or ‘Butternut;’ stringy, wet pumpkins such as jack-o-lanterns make terrible pie)
• 3 large eggs
• 1/3 cup dark maple syrup or to taste (if using sugar, start with ½ cup and taste to adjust)
• pinch of salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger
• pinch of nutmeg and cloves
• 1 cup whole-milk yogurt (I used goat), or up to 2 cups milk or half-and-half or a combination of milk and cream

steps

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Mash the cooked, cooled squash in a large bowl. (Note: You can steam the pumpkin first, or roast it, the scoop meat from the skin.)
• Add the sweetener, spices and dairy, blend well by hand or with a mixer.
• Taste and adjust sweetness and spices.
• Beat eggs, and mix into the batter.
• Scoop mix into oven-proof custard cups, enough to nearly fill each cup.
• Set into a pan of water (seen below, ready to pop into the oven) and bake for 30-50 minutes (as below), until the custard is set and rises up (it will fall once cooled). A note on baking time: My latest batch, made from that ‘Buttercup’ up above with yogurt and maple syrup, took about 50 minutes; I have made lighter versions with milk and a different squash, like ‘Butternut,’ that cooked in 30.

Yield, 6 ramekins.