A Very Danish Thanksgiving

  Before I head to Florence tomorrow morning to see my best friend Anita, I figured I needed to properly document my efforts to bring Thanksgiving to Denmark. Yesterday I spent the afternoon (and most of the morning) preparing a genuine Thanksgiving dinner for my host family. They've had to listen to me talk about how delicious all the food was and how much I loved Thanksgiving (a fact which I dont think I ever appreciated until I actually began preparing Thanksgiving here). So last Wednesday, I found myself in 3 grocery stores looking for a full turkey, which is surprisingly difficult to find in Denmark. Luckily, my host dad Jess texted me the next afternoon that he had found a 4kg frozen turkey, despite my pleas to just let us cook a turkey breast since i have NEVER cooked a turkey before and was slightly intimidated by the idea of attempting it in a foreign country.
  Thursday found me in the only British food store in Copenhagen, Abigail's. After lots of questions and requests, I walked away with Cream of Mushroom Soup (for the green bean casserole) and Pumpkin Pie filling! Also things you can't find in Denmark... My dad had already emailed me his recipes so I was pretty set. After some minor confusion and hunting in 3 different grocery stores, I had all my ingredients (or the closest I was going to get) and could set to work on Monday.
  Since I'm gone for actual Thanksgiving, it was decided that I would make dinner last night as a close-to-Thanksgiving. So Monday morning, I set to work making the green bean casserole and cooking the potatoes (AND putting the turkey in the oven!) before heading to class. When I returned, the turkey was cooking (no burns!) and I made my dad's yam bake recipe. It had been my intention to make cornbread stuffing, one of our favorite staples of Thanksgiving, until I found to my shock that there was a) no cornbread to be found and b) no cornbread mix. For some reason, I couldn't let the idea go, so when I saw cornmeal in one of the nicer grocery stores, I pounced at the opportunity and decided I would make my own cornbread. However, since the turkey was occupying all of the small oven, I had to improvise once again and make cornbread pancakes. Not to be defeated, the cornbread stuffing was completed! And although it was not quite as delicious as my dad's, it was pretty tasty.

My cornbread pancakes!

Preparing the turkey!

In the oven :) a 4kg turkey takes up a lot of space...

  Finally, after about 4 straight hours in the kitchen, the turkey was done and all the side dishes- mashed potatoes, yam bake, green bean casserole, and cornbread stuffing (along with about 40 leftover cornbread pancakes). My host family had set the table beautifully, with candles and flowers. It was a very hyggelig evening and they said they loved all of the food! While we were eating, I put my pumpkin pie (in the form of about 20 little tartlets because apparently they dont do full-scale pie crust in Denmark. We had them for dessert and they were also superlaekker (super-delicious in danish!). I was exhausted after dinner but it was all worth it, and my host family had a real thanksgiving dinner!

Side dishes!

Pumpkin Pie tartlets :)

  Tonight I went to my friend Aaron's house for Thanksgiving Round 2, where I helped them cook and made my dad's fantastic macaroni and cheese recipe- they loved it so much that his host mom asked me for the recipe before I left! It was also a very hyggelig evening, I had a great time and am so excited to continue the Thanksgiving festivities in Florence! Funny how I seem to have more Thanksgivings in Europe than at home...