Thanksgiving

I've committed myself to cooking my first Thanksgiving Dinner, this year. One of the benefits of being married to an American. I've never cooked a turkey before and ,while the whole prospect of being responsible for such an important meal isn't horribly daunting, it IS a first and I'm quickly finding that there are a lot of American dishes, or American adaptations of dishes from other countries, which I know nothing about.

To wit, Steve and I had an interesting discussion today on the subject of 'Goulash', to find our concept of that particular dish is worlds apart. I grew up with Hungarian Goulash while he grew up with Hamburger Goulash. I asked him what he'd like for dinner and he said Goulash, so I was mentally preparing a paprika-based stew with chunks of beef and to be served with tagliatelle or some other egg noodle (which is what my mother always used instead of the traditional egg dough 'pinches'). I didn't realise until later, that Steve was concocting a vision of a dish based on ground beef into which macaroni is added and it all cooks up together. So, I'm going to try to whip up something similar to his version, tonight.

I realise that Thanksgiving Dinner is not too far distant from a Christmas Dinner - what with the turkey and veggies and cranberry sauce even - but there are some very key things that seem to make Thanksgiving Dinner just that, and not a fore-runner to Christmas Dinner.

Anuja is providing use of her oven (I don't have one) and the space to entertain family and friends. I've volunteered to do most, if not all, of the cooking so if anyone out there has something very typically eaten at an American Thanksgiving Dinner, please could you shout out. One thing though, I'd really rather NOT prepare any dish that incorporates marshmallows. Just saying!

Thanks everyone.