Happy Thanksgiving!

Even though Thanksgiving is an American holiday, and we don't live there now, I wanted to celebrate it since Cutie learned about it at Kindergarten. Today was also a holiday in Japan. Very similar to Thanksgiving Day, Kinrou-kansha-no-hi is literally, A Day To Be Thankful for Hard Work. It's November 23rd every year, not the fourth Thursday of November. But this year, it turned out to be the same as the American Thanksgiving Day. So, what a perfect excuse to roast a turkey! I had to order an American frozen turkey at the supermarket in advance. 3980 yen ($34) for an 8-pound turkey. It is probably an insane price, but I don't remember what turkeys cost in the States. The people in the meat department at the supermarket seemed VERY happy to get this for me. I thought they would get a couple orders, but I guess not. It came out like this:

and tasted very good! This year I made mashed potatoes, roasted green beans & radicchio with garlic, and wild rice stuffing with apples and cranberries. All the recipes are from epicurious.com. And turkey gravy (Lawry's), and canned cranberry jelly spiked with a dash of Grand Marnier, and store bought bread. The cute Crate & Barrel placemats with colorful buttons were a gift from my sis (correction: my sister's husband, then boyfriend. Sorry Garrett!). The striped ones are el cheapos from Ikea.

The wine was this year's Beaujolais-Village Nouveau, from a Domaine Bel Avenir. I have been hearing good things about this year's Beaujolais, and I agree. I liked how it was full of fresh and fruity flavors and aromas, the beautiful bluish purple color.

Cutie made dessert! Fruit Parfait, following the recipe he got from an event at his cooking school. Here he is in action, mixing raspberry jam with lemon juice, after cutting the kiwi fruit and counting the pieces to see if there were enough for the 6 of us.