Channeling Betty Crocker: Celebrating Thanksgiving abroad

It was strange thinking about spending Thanksgiving here, without my family, with complete strangers, and in a different country. I thought about the delicious meal I would be missing back home, and missing all the time spent with the people I love. But Syracuse was hosting its own little Thanksgiving substitute: a potluck gathering of all the families and students, each with their own dish, to celebrate culture and giving thanks…. And eating delicious, delicious food of course. My housemate Sophie and I were given a budget of 40€ to spend on making a dish or dessert for the dinner. We decided to make two kinds of cookies, sugar and oatmeal chocolate chip, and I decided to make my favorite baked chicken and three-cheese pasta dish. We spent almost an entire night in the kitchen in preparation for the big dinner, which ended up as a total success!

Our makeshift banner/decoration. It’s crazy how hard it is to find appropriate decor!

The dinner battlefield…. 

And this was my victory spread! 

These were the remains of my pasta dish after being put out on the dinner table for like, 10 minutes. It was an apparent success!

And voila, the cookies! My fave sugar cookie recipe with royal icing. I know it was a bit too early for Christmas shapes, but they were the only ones in the store…

\

The dessert table was even crazier than the dinner spread! After the presentation that was shown as part of the entertainment portion of the dinner, everyone and their mère rushed to the desserts. I mean, why not, it all looked so delicious!

Even though it wasn’t the Thanksgiving I was used to, I enjoyed our little celebration with the makeshift family I have made with my friends from the program. Not only did we celebrate our appreciation for love, life and our experience abroad, we did so eating really, really, delicious and tasty food. And you know that’s what I do best. Moments like these are irreplaceable. :)