November 14 - Thanksgiving in Sevilla?

I have a really nice class this week - we have four students who are all pretty serious and a teacher who is willing to push us all as far as we are willing to go.  I am usually delightfully exhausted after every class.  While a couple of students had their phones out to snap a photo of some questions on the whiteboard, I took the chance to snap a picture across the table.  A large group of students has enrolled for next week - I am not sure how many of them will join our class.  Every Monday is an new adventure.

As Thanksgiving approaches and Christmas is on the horizon, I have started to consider which, if any, traditional holiday meals from home I can recreate here.  I have not found a place to get a whole turkey  - I have a lead on a butcher where I heard you could order one, but I am not sure.  I did look around the Corte Ingles today.  You can buy various "holiday" meats there.  They have lots of different types with pork being the most popular.   But they have a special case that has ducks and turkeys that are pressed into something like a ham with stuffing and random legs sticking out for the low price of about 60 Euros (just under 70 US dollars).  Probably going to pass on this.

Lots of people in Seville will buy an Iberico ham that will stay on their counter for the holiday season with thin slivers cut off for special meals.  You can order one for your home in the US that comes from a native black pig that has been cured for at least two years and after curing weighs about 15 pounds with delivery included for the low low price of about 600 dollars.  Now see, that stuffed poultry roast doesn't seem so expensive, does it.  

You can also buy a small carton of "fresh" cranberries for about 4.5 Euros.  I haven't checked any other large stores (just our local market) for cranberries,  no sure but I think Carrefour might have frozen ones.  If I get desperate, there is always the possibility of canned cranberry sauce from the America Store.

I have managed to find the herbs and spices I need.  So, I have concluded that I can make stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, lots of vegetables, either a whole chicken or some combination of turkey parts (which are available at the regular grocery store), cheese straws, rolls, something resembling apple pie, and maybe some version of cranberry sauce.  There are also lots of good pickles and olives.

So, although I won't have a 25 pound frozen turkey swimming in an ice bath in my bathtub to defrost or even brining in my rolling cooler as in years past, we will still be able to have a meal that feels like home.

Of course, I don't think I will make this size feast on Thanksgiving Day since it is a regular school day, and Albert and I will be alone here - but with all of the company we have on the calendar for the next couple of months, I am sure I will find an excuse to cook a big meal at least once or twice.