Thanksgiving Day....Italian Style.

So about a month ago, on a day trip with some Italian friends, peanut butter comes up in conversation. One girl asks me if there's anything you can possible do with peanut butter other than eat it straight from the jar as she had been doing for 6 months while living/studying abroad in Scotland. I rhetorically exclaimed "Is there?!" and rattled off a bunch of PB recipes. Suddenly pumpkin pie came up from another friend. ...I knew where this was going... Then a proposal for a Thanksgiving dinner from another. In true Italian form, I heartily agreed to cook up a storm and have everyone divvy up the total costs spent for an all-American Thanksgiving dinner...in Italy.

A 10 pound turkey was ordered from the butcher and of course, everyone was calling it "The Beast." I called it "The Bambino" and confessed experiencing Thanksgiving with turkeys up to 23ish pounds. As suspected, jaws hit floors. Grand! But true.

So, with the bambino (complete with 15 hour brine composed of 4 gallons of water, 1 pound of salt, a huge jar of honey, an enormous bottle of maple syrup, a cup of peppercorns, 12 bay leaves and not 1 bay leaf more), mashed potatoes, home-made dinner rolls, stuffing, 2 pumpkin pies and a peanut butter cheesecake later, this 2-day adventure picture-story goes something like this...


Grazia works as a secretary at my high school.


We sang Italian songs and kids' nursery rhymes while cooking. =)


Yes, that's my hand. Rubbing rosemary-garlic butter under its skin. It was strangely cathartic, I must say.


Shortly after this picture, they told me I should stop.


Armida, Grazia, and Paige.


Bye bye, birdie!


Paige is another girl in my program, working at a high school in Busto Arsizio, the next town over from Legnano. She's from Montana. Montana's bigger than Italy. Just sayin'.


Better slice those carrots right, or I'll slice ya fingahs!


Paige's traditional family dinner roll recipe.


Making deviled eggs. Try explaining that recipe name to Italians. They liked 'em!


This alternative potato masher was friggin' awesome. It was the adult version of the Playdough spaghetti-maker. I swear, we've never had so much fun mashing potatoes in our lives!


If you ever wanted to know what 2 kilos (or about 4 pounds) of rice looks like, this is it. (Such a burning question, I know.)


What, you didn't think I'd nearly blow up the house? Haha! Now, kids, this is what happens when you let olive oil drip onto the bottom of the oven with a temperature of 350°.


Oven change!


Ah, much better.


Herro!


Hor d'oeuvres anyone?




This is Paolo. Originally from Messina (Sicily), transferred to the region of Lombardy 7 years ago.




Funny how similar to my mom at Thanksgiving time this is. (Oddly enough, she usually wears a brown sweater, too. Freudian slip?)


Birdeh.


The crew.


The goods.


Arrrrr!!!


Ok, this picture definitely is scary.


Put a fork in us, we're done.


This picture is so awesome!! That's Daniele, my student.


Uh, I think you forgot to ask for whipped cream with that.


We even had prosecco with the pies.


Cake and merriment.




Fine.