Thanksgiving à la Barbade

Finally, a sunny weekend. I hate to complain, but really, I am living on a tropical island and the last few weekends have been cloudy and rainy. After a Saturday of discovering the Cheap(side) veggie market, shoe shopping and going for a dip, I was not really thinking about cooking much. And it gets HOT in that kitchen. But how could I pass up the opportunity to make an international-style Thanksgiving meal after setting a Tanzanian precedent. Thinking back to making a feast for a good 15 people on three hotplates on the floor, mashing the potatoes with the bottom of a water bottle, making ad-lib stuffing from baguettes, and enjoying the oh-so-precious American import jello cheesecake, really motivated me to recreate whatever I could here. And I could not possibly forget our epic live turkey at last year’s thanksgiving in Rwanda. And my pumpkin pies, between seeking out an actual pumpkin at the market, cutting, cleaning and baking it, then scooping and attempting to puree it without a blender, followed by mixing with condensed milk and spices. Not to mention making my own crust from yogurt and coconut cookies I crushed myself with a hammer. I really felt like a cop out this year when I bought pumpkin puree in a can and ready made pie crusts. Lame.

Getting away from the nostalgia, we did make a pretty decent meal this year, although it did not have as much character as the previous ones. No slaving away for the whole day this time, but instead I had a beach break half way through. And I dropped the pumpkin pie. Typical.

And we draped a large Canadian flag underneath the front window of our house on Sunday for thanksgiving, and this had the unintended positive result of correcting our neighbours’ previous perceptions that we were American. And we have met more neighbours in the last few days than in past few weeks.

Now back to trying to fit in. Next step: work on my tan.