Thanksgiving Day food

This blog is for all of our friends around the world and shows the food we are eating today. Of course, the US viewers will say 'that's not the way to do it' since all families have their traditions, but that is part of the fun of it all. And if you are one of those US families that carve up a roasted hot dog, perhaps you should continue reading.

My contribution is one of my mother's recipes that we used to have about once a week for breakfast when I was a boy. It's apple fritters and we save it for special occasions such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, or when visitors stay with us.

We have this deep fryer called a Fry Baby. It takes a while to heat up the canola oil so I turn it on first to get the oil hot.

Take one apple. Granny Smiths are great for this. For desert after the turkey I will be doing a baked apple in pastry. The apple will be cored and stuffed with raisins and some cut up prunes that have been marinating in Armangac in the bottle for a few days.

Chop up the apple

A cup or so of flour, depending on the number of people. For the two of us I use 3/4 cup.

Some baking powder and one egg go into the bowl. Add some milk and beat.

The mix should be less liquid that what you would use for a pancake.

Chuck in the apple pieces and mix in.

With the spoon, carefully plop about four blobs into the hot oil.

The finished product on some paper towels to stop the grease going everywhere.

Serve with sugar and lemon juice. Fresh lemon is better.

They really are delicious but definitely unhealthy. But they are quite filling if you have enough of them and they keep you going nicely until 2:30 pm when we had the Thanksgiving dinner.

Here is the bird.

Marianne feasted on this huge drumstick.

I prefer the white meat.

Marianne is appalled that I make the scalloped potatoes from a packet. So am I, but I like them.

Over the years Marianne tried many different cranberry recipes but a few years back she found one which  has been a keeper. Nothing else comes close. 

At my first Thanksgiving dinner back in 1974, Marianne's mother made these candied yams. They have been on the menu every year since. The yams are boiled then covered in brown sugar and butter and then baked. This year Marianne cooked them a bit longer than usual and the sugar almost became like toffee.

The feast with some bubbly.

No, not a turd. A piece of the toffee covered yam.

The baked apple did not turn out very well. There is always next year.

And finally, Robin sent us some photos of her Thanksgiving dinner in Sydney. First there was pumpkin soup and then instead of turkey, they had roast pork. Turkeys are much more plentiful in the US.

Note the yams. There is no way Robin would miss out on them.