Turkey Bowl 2010

I know Thanksgiving was more than a few days ago, but I also know you all are still on the edge of your seats waiting to hear what I did to celebrate this oh so American holiday in a foreign country. After having plans fall through last minute a group and I of my friends, were turkey day refugees. So, I decided to host Thanksgiving at my apartment. All tolled, we had a group of twelve make their way to the beautiful pine valley of Ocotepeque.

In true Honduran fashion the afternoon before the feast our electricity went out- mid pie baking session mind you! We immediately started planning where we could find a gas oven to cook our 14.5 turkey and other sides; luckily we had my gas stove to cook some of the food. 6 am the electricity came back! But… it was a tease, going out again at 9 am. This did not look good for our ambitious menu, and we had no way of telling if or when the power might come back. Undefeated, Kyla (fellow chef for the day) and I set out to the market to get the last few ingredients in case the lights came back on. It was a Thanksgiving Day miracle and the electricity came and stayed on while we were out shopping.

After prepping most dishes we set off to play in the Turkey Bowl 2010. We planned a touch football game up in a “field” a.k.a. a cow pasture by Kyle my site mate’s house. Team Oco vs. Team Penguins took the field, with crowds (ten at least) of Honduran children cheering.  The final score was 21 to 7 with the home team- Team Oco- coming out victorious! During our hour long game as a collective we managed to have a pulled groin, at least four scrapped knees, and some blood was drawn- by accident I swear! Then, it was time to get back for some serious cooking. 

I wrangled together 5 tables so that we could eat family style, not a common Peace Corps occurrence. The menu included a delicious turkey (thanks all to Kyla the vegetarian), chive mashed potatoes, biscuits, bacon wrapped green beans, tomato-cucumber salad, roasted vegetables, stuffing, apple pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cream pie, and banana bread.  Many stories were told, bottles of wine consumed, fireworks lit, body rolls perfected, and even some magic tricks performed. It was, all in all, a very successful celebration.

Light it and slide it!