Turkey time!

This year, through some happy accident, the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival and Canada's version of Thanksgiving fell very close to each other, so our HAs set up a giant turkey and dumplings potluck dinner tonight. Groups signed up to make turkeys and dumplings, and the materials arrived yesterday. In all, seven turkeys were given out, two to my floor.

Being neither Canadian nor Chinese myself, I hadn't planned to go at first, but then I decided to stop being so antisocial and pop by tonight - between the two turkeys defrosting in my kitchen and "Alberta," Team USA's bird upstairs, some of the Thanksgiving spirit began to rub off. Of course, this feeling of seasonal goodwill hit me at about 4:30 this afternoon, when I was doing my grocery shopping, so I started roaming the aisles at Tesco, looking for something to make. Instant couscous wasn't going to cut it.

I considered doing a pan of brownies, but that involved the purchase of both eggs and oil. Instead, my eye lit upon a bag of parmesean and sundried tomato bread mix. Just add water, it told me. I could handle that.

The kitchen was complete chaos at 5 PM. With dinner at 6:30, there was some question as to whether the turkeys would turn out. What should have been two-hour birds had turned into four-hour birds, thanks to Richmond Place's crappy ovens (and the two new ones sitting in their boxes by the trashcan did nothing to make anyone feel better). I'd never made bread before, so I mixed (guessing how much water 11 ounces was with my Quaker Oats measuring cup) and kneaded and hoped for the best. I had no flour. I had nothing with which to grease the nasty pan. Still, they turned out edible, if chewy, at 6:30, and the two turkeys were quick to follow.

Dinner was a multicultural madhouse, complete with masses of dumplings, onion rings, a Goodfellas pizza, and screwcap Pinot Grigio. Of the seven turkeys, only the fourth floor's made it down - last I heard, poor Alberta was still cooking. My floor's chefs also forgot to bring the stuffing they made, so it looks like someone's having leftovers tomorrow...

Between the Thai dumplings, mushy peas, and conservative New Englander with a taste for sweet tea, it was definitely the strangest Thanksgiving dinner ever. The Pinot Grigio and good company made up for many things, however, including the lack of gravy. As a nice final touch, if anyone needed post-dinner football, The Peartree started their NFL coverage at 6.