{expat diaries} no Thanksgiving

Hello world! How’s it going? I know it’s been a while. Not too much to report, but Minh and I did take a couple trips (Indianapolis, Bristol/Bath, Milan, Oslo) and some local exploring (bonfire night, some English Heritage castles, explored Lincoln)  since I last put up a post. Minh posted some pictures up on Facebook of our adventures over the last few months. Christmas is in full-swing here in the UK. Towns have been doing their Christmas tree lighting events, and even Nottingham has a big Christmas village and ice-skating rink setup in the Old Town Square. In case you’ve forgotten what I look like.. here’s a recent picture.. I look the same, right?

Anyway, I was just thinking what I would be up to if I were home in California. Being the weekend before Thanksgiving, this weekend would typically be dedicated to all the Thanksgiving dinner prep… grocery shopping, prepping any vegetables or sides before hand, making pie. Makes me a little sad that I won’t be home to celebrate Thanksgiving with my family back home.. and this will be the first year in as long as I can remember that we’re not having a Thanksgiving dinner. Minh and I had considered doing something somewhat traditional for dinner that night, maybe a turkey breast with some traditional sides… but I still have to work Thursday and Friday, so that’s probably not happening. In any case..  I still got around to making pie to share with my coworkers this week. I used this brown butter squash pie recipe from Serious Eats.

Finished pie.. just a few minutes from the oven, so not totally cooled yet.

The crust looked a little burned, maybe overly so, but I’m sure the pie will still be delicious. It was probably the most annoying part of the whole thing, because I had to crush the gingersnaps by hand (with a rolling pin and a freezer bag) instead of a quick whiz through the blender (because we don’t have one here).

Not a traditional pumpkin pie, per se… I made it with this gigantic crown prince squash that came with our weekly veggie box. They don’t sell pumpkin puree here.. so I had to steam/boil down the squash, and then pass it through a ricer (again.. because we don’t have a blender here).They also don’t sell pumpkin pie spice here.. so had to mix my own of that too.. although, I guess people usually put together their own spice mix, right?

I crown you..PRINCE SQUASH!

Green skin and orange flesh.. I admit, this was a little unexpected..

64 oz of pure organic squash.. YUM!

Came out with 64 oz of beautiful organic squash puree!!! I also roasted the seeds with some chili powder and dried herbs for a good snack.

Squash brains..

Squash seeds.. still called pepitas? Or are they called something else with the shell still on?

Ready for snacking!

Minh and I also picked up a caveman turkey leg on our weekly market run. We roasted it dry in the oven, and then smothered it in buffalo wing sauce.. DELICIOUS! I guess that’s kind of like Thankgiving, right?

Buffalo turkey leg!!!

Hoping all my family and friends back home have a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! Among many things in my life that I have to be thankful for, the biggest one is that I have such a loving husband who is making the most of being here, even though he absolutely hates it. almost 8 months down, and only 16 left to go!