Thanksgiving dinner was a great success!

Although yesterday was a bit stressful, our thanksgiving dinner came out great. And, per tradition, there was way too much food. Lauren, Brendan and I worked all day to make creamed corn, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cooked carrots, and sweet potatoes with marshmellows. Actually, the sweet potatoes are in fact camotes, a purple looking vegetable that turned the water dark green and then blue as we cooked them. It legit looked like a witch's pot. But they tasted like sweet potatoes! Even though they sell this vegetable in the markets, my host family had never tried it before and we shocked to hear that our version of this vegetable is orange. They were also surprised that we were not using the carrots, green beans and potatoes to make a salad with mayonaise. That we were eating all of these vegetable separately? and without mayo?? how strange. Actually, they were a little bit afraid of everything that we made, because it was different than what they were used to. But they like it! I made everyone go around the table and say what they were thankful for. It was really nice. It felt like home.. the only thing missing was my real family. :( But I was thinking of them and I know that they missed me at their thanksgiving dinner table.

The funniest part of the thanksgiving adventure was helping my friend Lauren make the most culturally unkosher dish I have ever tasted: jello salad. It involved melting marshmellows in sprite and then pouring in jello mix, walnuts, and pineapple. Then, the kicker, you add cream cheese mayonnaise, and whipped cream. EW. But Lauren insists that this is a family tradition and her grandfather's favorite so we had to make it. Actually, it turned out that everyone loved it. But when we first dipped into it, we discovered that somehow when we made it, we managed to leave a whisk in the jello salad. and since it's opaque, we couldn't see it until we uncovered it. It was hilarious.

I'm just happy that now my family can't make fun of me for not knowing how to cook. I do too! and more than just cereal with milk and scrambled eggs...