We had a very good meal with nine others at our table in Calagrana yesterday. They started doing a traditional turkey dinner with all the fixins a few years ago for all the Americans in the area and a sprinkling of British and Italians. Originally Susan and Gary had them cater a dinner for us since a big turkey here is too large for the normal Italian home oven. After a couple years of making the gargantuan Tom turkeys, Ely decided there might be interest in a dinner from others. And the rest is history!
The Tom Turkey which we feasted on yesterday was a whopping 17 kilograms, or 38 lbs. Here he is!
And my dinner. The turkey was amazingly moist and tender. Jane and Christie had brought two bags of real cranberries on my request. So we had real cranberry sauce — my old standby Zinfandel cranberry sauce. I have to use Primativo here which is a relative of Zinfandel.
Besides the turkey we had antipasti of tiny shrimp and a primi of ravioli with zucca puree (sweet winter squash). Very sweet with a surprise of what I thought was wasabi. It turns out it is Senape Essense. She got it at the pharmacy. It added a nice kick. Her little bottle had a skull and crossbones on it. 😄 If you’ve ever had hot Chinese mustard and eaten just a little too much on your eggroll you’ll know what I mean. I looked it up and I think I’ll order some, could be fun to experiment with!
Although I am a day late, I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all had a great day! I am thankful for all I have. I wish for peace in the Ukraine and the USA. I also wish for global accord to combat climate change. 🕊 Today is the day Against Violence to Women. There is a little demonstration in the piazza. I also wish violence of all kinds would stop. Andrà tutto bene 🌈
Hi Karen, it is perfect at Calagrana. Perhaps you can find a restaurant who will help. Do you have turkey in Canada. It does make sense to have yours earlier because of the earlier harvest. It is the loveliest of holidays!
Happy American Thanksgiving. Nancy! Ours was a month ago. Earlier harvest and all. That turkey is MASSIVE! What a great idea, to all have dinner together at Calagrana. Beautiful! I hope to create an enclave of Canadian ex-pats that do the same thing annually, when I retire!
I will probably order some to play around with. It is kind of scary though. Yesterday Ely just waved the cap under our noses about 10 inches away and we got the aroma. Very strong. That was a good article!
I don’t kid myself that we can have peace. But I still wish for it. The human race is doomed. Except maybe for the very wealthy. Everyone else will perish 😕
Nevertheless…Happy Thanksgiving
It seems hopeless to wish for peace in the world. I’ve long been convinced that the only hope for global human cooperation is a War of the Worlds massive alien invasion — and, even then, I am not sure. But I still wish and hope that people become, at least, increasingly tolerant of one another. In any case, there are still the small joys like roast turkey and essence of mustard for which we can be grateful!
https://food52.com/hotline/28721-mustard-essential-oil-olio-essenziale-senape-for-mostarda-di-cremona
Always Matt. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. What’s not to like about a holiday centered around food and giving thanks? So I won’t miss celebrating it. I will make my own turkey sometime in December. I only missed the turkey sandwiches yesterday!
And a Happy Thanksgiving to you and Luther too! I’m sure there are still things you occasionally miss about “home,” and the celebration must’ve been comforting…