I have cooked in foreign countries before, but trying to create the feel of a Canadian Thanksgiving outside of North America was a new challenge.  I’m labeling this as a Travel Tip, because I definitely recommend trying something similar.  It is a fantastic way to “dig deeper” as you explore a new city.

The basic image of Thanksgiving for me is a spread of turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, fiddleheads*, and pumpkin pie, surrounded by family on a quiet day with no shopping, no school, no parades, no football, but with card games and board games and walks in the crisp fall air.  We would usually call our direct relatives for a quick check-in.  This was well before video conferencing, and some years were even before the speaker phone feature.  Perhaps some of you remember developing the choreography of when to pass the phone and when to recite messages, while keeping an ear for the oven timer.  I loosely recall family friends joining us once, with the ulterior motive of having two of us play a clarinet duet as entertainment – not sure what they expected but everyone seemed to be thankful when (or that?) we finished.

Thanksgiving this year was Monday, October 14, 2019, and in our second week in our new city, here was the plan: