Thanks Giving - American style

In true American spirit Neil decided he would like to make a desert to take with us to our first Thanks Giving dinner. We were now in a kitchen that was almost fully functional. The marble worktops (counter tops) had been installed yesterday, the plumber had been today and so the appliances were working, the sinks were working and we had work surfaces to prepare food on. We found a variety of bowls and utensils from the piles of items in the various rooms and we were in business - we decided a Chocolate Pan Forte would be good and visited the local Nob Hill Supermarket for all the ingredients. It's a simple dish that needs no baking, it sets in the fridge, or when short of time, the freezer. Neil somehow managed to tweak his back while taking it out of the freezer, which was to have serious repercussions for the rest of the holiday.

http://www.ginodacampo.com/recipes/panforte

Lynn prepared a dish of Sweet Potato Mallow and we were already for the next day.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1950,146170-244197,00.html

Dinner was scheduled for 3pm and we have a drive of about an hour. We hit the freeway with the rest of California. As we drove closer to San Francisco all 4 lanes of traffic started to crawl. It gave us a wonderful opportunity to look at the gorgeous autumnal trees

but it wasn't getting us to dinner. Suddenly Lynn's Satnav told us of an alternate route to avoid the heavy traffic. We took the next exit and were soon travelling again and reached our destination only 10 minutes later than planned.

The table looked beautiful

and as we moved through to the kitchen the smell of the turkey met us at the door. It was almost ready to come out of the oven so, once drinks had been served and initial greetings exchanged it was time for the great unveiling of the main event - the traditional Thanks Giving Turkey.

There was 7 of us for dinner but enough food to feed twice that number and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. After dinner, in a family tradition, we all took turns at saying what we were thankful for this year. It was lovely to hear some of the stories around the table and, although we were given a pass if we didn't feel comfortable joining in, both Neil and I were happy to say our piece having been pre-warned of this tradition so having had time to give it some thought.

After dinner we all went through to the Family Room and the guys settled themselves down to watch the big game - 49ers v Raven's - it was a good afternoon as long you weren't a 49er fan - oh, the whole room was rooting for the 49ers!

So, many thanks to our hosts Cath & Chris for inviting us to spend Thanks Giving in their San Francisco home - it will be a special memory for us for many years.