giving thanks for stretchy pants

The American influence on Australian popular culture means I know of a lot of things I don't know anything about, such as North American special occasions. Independence Day, Halloween, Superbowl etc. This week I got to experience one.

Before Monday, I knew Thanksgiving involved a turkey. And I thought Pumpkin Pie was just the cute name my friend Tracy gave her cat. (Because nobody would actually want to eat a pie with pumpkin in it, right?) I also thought the occasion was later in the year. As it turns out, the US celebrates Thanksgiving in November, and Canada in October. Despite the day marking the same thing.

I had been invited to celebrate the occasion with my cousin Vicky and her parents, but my work schedule didn't allow for that so I instead accepted Joe's invitation to dinner at his place. I thought Thanksgiving would be a quiet day at work, but it seems the holiday has gone the same way as most of the others on the calender - tradition is all but ignored. We were flat-out at work (and I didn't sell one turkey sandwich), but thanks to a quick history lesson from one of the chefs (combined with some trivia I learnt at burlesque the other week), by about lunchtime I was able to wish my customers a happy Thanksgiving, without muttering to one of my co-workers "I don't know what that means". Turns out there is more to Thanksgiving than turkey. There were pilgrims. And something to do with a harvest moon. Anyway, back to the food.

Instead of a turkey, Joe cooked a roast beef. We are Australians after all. But we did follow the usual traditions of pumpkin pie and eating waaaaay too much. If time had allowed I would have attempted baking my own pie, but it didn't so I didn't. Wholefoods supermarket provided well though.

I would have taken a 'before' pic of the serving with cream on top etc, but what
would have involved waiting before eating. Not gunna happen.

I had been assured by one of the girls are work that it was delicious but even as we served it up, I had my doubts. Pumpkin in a pie? Hmmm. Turns out there's about as much pumpkin in the pie as there is nutrition in a burger from McDonalds. It's mainly spices, a bit of pumpkin puree and other 'pie-like' ingredients (evaporated milk, loads of sugar etc). But it tastes OK...sort of.

Thanksgiving dinner ended with me lying down in Joe's kitchen for about half-an-hour before I felt able to go home. And giving thanks for wearing stretchy pants.