Thanksgiving in Hungary

Bill and I hosted our first Thanksgiving last Friday and it was a smashing success. Finding the needed ingredients ended up being somewhat of a scavenger hunt, but we found almost everything from either the great market or our grocery store across the street.  Bill and I were a bit nervous to host our first Thanksgiving since we would be working on both Thursday and Friday, and had seldom used our tiny oven.  I'm glad we went ahead and hosted Thanksgiving though, because everything turned out great, and our guests seemed to really enjoy themselves.

We had 15 Hungarian friends and colleagues over to join in the celebration. They were all so gracious and polite, and I will never forget many of their looks of surprise when we unveiled the 8.5 kilo turkey.  Bill had quite the audience while he was carving his first turkey....but he came through like a champ.  We couldn't have asked for better guests.  It didn't hurt that most of them had never had a Thanksgiving dinner before, so there was no worry of being compared to past Thanksgivings.

Bill carving the turkey

stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce

serving up the food

We have felt so welcomed by our Hungarian friends and colleagues over the past three months, and have appreciated all they have done to introduce us to Hungarian food, culture and history.  It was nice being able to give back and finally share something that is quintessentially American with them.