Happy Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family!

Thanksgiving this year is quieter than normal; Laurent is in Greece with his Dad - at this point they are in Santorini - so festivities were limited to the Canadian Club of Rome annual lunch yesterday afternoon. This year it was held in a very hard to find but great Trattoria di dui ponit out on the Via Flaminia. I was glad my cab driver wasn't the only one who got lost - most of us (even old Roman hands) went around in circles for 20 or 30 minutes (not hard to do when the street numbers suddenly jump from 278 to 858) which meant a glass of wine was called for immediately upon arrival.

What followed was a wonderful Thanksgiving menu with an Italian twist:

After salami, fried vegetables and grilled olive oil soaked bread we tucked into a very untraditional primi. Because of my gluten thing the trattoria did a corn pasta with fresh porcini mushrooms (its that season again) for me.


Though turkey (tacchino) is popular here it is mostly in scallops, legs or breasts - roasting a whole turkey is not a done thing- most people don't have an oven that would be big enough. I'm sure its only me but I find poultry here has a moisture to it that back in Canada seems can only be achieved by brining. Mind you it could also be that our turkey yesterday was cooked in a huge wood burning oven. And what would Thanksgiving turkey be without cranberry sauce - straight from the can, just like mother use to make!


And to round off the meal - pumpkin pie! Pumpkin (zucca) is better known in Italy as a cooked vegetable. It often shows up as a ravioli stuffing or even better in the Ghetto lightly battered and deep fried. Put in this case we had a torte di zucca - and nothing canned about that filling.

So though it would have been a better thanksgiving if Laurent had been here - I may be mistaken but I think this is only the 2nd one we missed together in 33 years - it was still a great chance to see friends, share a meal and give thanks that we seem to have the best of both worlds.

And as I have done in the past I listened to a few of the old Harvest Hymns that we sang back in my church going days. My own particular favourite, which I've posted on here before,


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Again to all my friends, family and loved ones absent the happiest of Thanksgivings - we do have much to be thankful for.

11 ottobre - Giorno del Ringraziamento