This holiday season I was lucky enough to be living in the apartment that hosted theee biggest Thanksgiving party I had ever attended. Back in the states it's simple, small and I barley am interested in the turkey by the time it is ready because I have snacked the whole day waiting on the bird, well this year we set all time brand new record.
Thanksgiving started with classes and an early morning run to the central market to pick up the turkey from our friendly fellow Carlo at the market. I brought the turkey to a nearby friends apartment to keep it cool while we finished classes for the day. I had an Italian exam at 9am so I was pressed for time and exhausted already. After the market, italian exam and classes I was cut loose for the day to head home and begin the prep for our 6pm guest arrivals. We sludged all afternoon to prepare the stuffing with all it's italian fixings to hurry and get the bird inside the oven. We hosted about 20-25 people in our small italian apartment. We were blessed with many bottles of wine, went through 12 in the first hour and a half, many of our guests pitched in and brought a dish so that we could focus on fixings and the bird items. One of our professors covered our dining room table with a "cheese and cracker" display that would blow your socks off, italian style of course. Literally this woman is obsessed with cheese, she raises goats just to eat the cheese.
We invited all of our professors and all who work in student services, even the receptionist attended from the school. Many of the Italians, for most of them, this was their first or second thanksgiving. We did the formal "giving thanks" and made a video of it all and what everyone said, it was quite memorable and we all felt really lucky to be involved in such a great program with such great people, we all really lucked out with the students, faculty and the timing of it all, and all our instructors and peers reminded us of this great opportunity and how lucky they felt to get to work with us. I hope to post the video but it was amazing regardless.
Amongst the gravy mixing, turkey happenings and all the other desserts from the great Italians I barely had time to eat, but it was a great night and a thanksgiving to remember for sure.
One of my nutrition Professors, she made and assembled the "crackers and cheese" display. if you look up close there are like ten types of cheeses and every vegetable in season and many other accompany-ments, she kept trying to give us money to help for the meal and we insisted no and this is what we got, loads of appetizers!!! Everyone loved it
this was where all the food looked like. The list: 2 7-8 kg turkeys, mashed potatoes, zucchini and cheese, carrots, green beans, fresh applesauce, cranberry sauce, stuffing, by yours truly, bread and olive oil, of course, small italian pizza's, sweet potatoes, gravy
after all this food we still had room for dessert and vin santo!! Oh so delish
One of our housing coordinators! Her first thankgiving, she loved everything, every time I saw her in the kitchen, all she could say was "mamma mia!!!"
Serena, she works in the library but also helps in Student Services! Crazy kids in the background!
We got Friday and Saturday off for a break and then the prep began again for festivities for Sunday. My roommate has family that live nearby in Bologna so they wanted to come and have a typical thanksgiving with us as well, so we prepped all again from top to bottom and enjoyed another great meal. Except this time I was actually able to relax. I didnt' take part in the cooking so much and was able to fill my plate and relax and enjoy the turkey, stuffing, applesauce and all the others. It was worth the effort and again another enjoyable meal here in Italy!
