Happy Thanksgiving from Saudi Arabia!

Welp, Thanksgiving has come and gone in Saudi Arabia, and I must say it was one for the books. I haven't had the pleasure of hosting a Thanksgiving in my own home until now, and I really wanted things to go well. The hubsy and I invited all of the housemates, an American family from down the street, and our new boss and her husband. (Her husband is a Sheikh [read: Billionaire], and is also the man who is sponsoring us in the country, so...there was that.)

We used Alton Brown's Good Eats roasted turkey recipe for our Tom this year, and oh my LORD was it sooo good! We've found a new favorite recipe. We brined the turkey overnight and slathered it in oil before we put it in the oven.

After 30 minutes, we turned the oven down to prime roasting temperature and it was already looking like something from a movie dinner table.

We searched high and low for a roasting pan and one could not be found.

It was even more yummy looking after all the roasting was finished and boy oh boy was it soo juicy and wonderful! As another Food Network host would say, "Yum-o!"

This just doesn't do justice to how beautiful our bird was!

It was funny because before we put the bird in to brine, the Mister and I looked for the neck and the giblets so we could take them out and put them in the fridge. All we could find was the neck. I thought that was a little weird, but we did buy the turkey in Saudi Arabia, so perhaps they didn't know to include the giblets? Anyway, we went about our business. Wouldn't you know, as soon as we started carving, the giblets dropped out, perfectly roasted in their little bag. Oops!

Don't worry, I didn't use them for gravy.

The table was set. We had sweet potatoes with bananas and honey, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, my Granny's sunshine casserole, mashed potatoes, dressing, pumpkin kibbeh, cooked carrots, and yummy yummy rolls.

Oh, and we had two turkeys. The hubs and I made one, and our neighbor and his Thai wife made one. It was so funny, when we all sat down, our neighbor invited the Sheikh to carve the turkey. Being a Saudi, he of course had no idea how to begin carving a turkey, so our neighbor took over. After a couple of ungraceful cuts, his Thai wife said, "Move over, I'll do it," and took the reins!

She did a mighty fine job of carving, too!

The hubsy played nicely with his friends while the grown-ups ate.

And after dinner, we retired to the apartment next door and had dessert and tea. The Mister kept playing outside with the kids and captured these hilarious moments (they're dark and grainy but still pretty funny):

All in all, I think everyone had a great time and lots of food was eaten. That's the whole point of Thanksgiving, right? Hope the holiday was just as fun for everyone else in the good ol' USA!

Vicariously yours,