Thanksgiving dinner

I cooked my very first complete Thanksgiving dinner this year.  This was the first year I have been at a post that I wasn't invited to at least two different dinners. I miss the small, tight-knit communities of my posts in Ouagadougou and Bishkek. Here in Bucharest, people are more spread out and self-sufficient. At first I was a little sad and nervous about pulling off an entire meal, but since I love to cook it ended up being an amazing day. One that I will likely choose to do again with or without invites to others' turkey dinner.  Yes, I could have just skipped it, but Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday and I think it is important for Otto and I to keep up the tradition. Plus, it his only time of year for him to get turkey, dressing, cranberry, and pumpkin pie. I will admit, I didn't cook a whole turkey...fortunately here turkey is very accessible and you can buy breasts already cleaned and ready to go from the market.  I brined it overnight (because that is what google told me to do!) and wrapped it around the stuffing. I found some great recipes from different sources on the internet - I even made my own crispy, breaded onions for the green bean casserole. I tried a new brussel sprout recipe where you grate them and then flash cook them - yum. I also made broccoli for the boys since I am the only one that loves brussel sprouts.

Otto invited a couple of his good friends over for the meal. One of his friends, from Romania, had never has a Thanksgiving meal and his other friend hadn't had a proper American turkey dinner. It was nice to share a part of our culture with Otto's friends. I only took a couple of photos...to prove I had cooked.  The other very satisfying thing is that Otto loved the food - he asked if I could make a Thanksgiving dinner again, but before thanksgiving :)