Hello All!

Let me begin by saying, "You have to be really
COMMITTED to have Thanksgiving in Singapore."  We have
embraced many local things but there is something very
comforting about the familiar. 

Holidays not only help mark the passage of time in
this otherwise unseasonal location but I hate to jump
straight from Halloween to Christmas like they do
locally (not that Halloween is big here- but the
stores do carry a few items.)  November 1st they put
up the Christmas decorations- including gigantic
snowflakes over Orchard Road (the main shopping area).
Nothing makes me laugh like giant snowflakes and the
grocery stores playing "Let it Snow" while you're
shopping. 
I digress...back to Thanksgiving.  Another American
family invited us to join them for Thanksgiving
dinner.  We divided up the food assignments and she
agreed to cook the turkey.  This was a relief since my
oven is only slightly larger than a toy "Easy Bake
Oven."  She proceeded to special order the turkey from
the butcher.  Apparently, Americans are one of the few
people who eat turkey.  So the turkey order had to be
placed a week in advance and flown in from the United
Staes.  She ordered a 5-7 kg turkey (10-13 pounds)
which cost her a grand total of $85. Committed?

I shopped at every grocery store on the island
looking for french fried onions to make green bean
casserole and ground cloves for pumpkin pie.  I almost
gave up on the french fried onions and was going to
make a spinach and strawberry salad but I couldn't
locate poppy seeds either.  Finally, I found the
french fried onions but never located the ground
cloves.  I thought I could grind them myself in my
bosch food processor or blender.  It ground the cloves
to a "rough ground" state but never did pulverize
them.  They only things pulverized were my blender and
food processor bowls.  The cloves are so hard that
ground bits embedded themselves into the hard plastic
of my bowl and blender.  No amount of scrubbing will
remove them.  Committed?

I will have to order replacement bowl/blender from the
U.S. I can still use them but everything I make has
the strong essence of cloves.  Ok for smoothies...not
okay for cheese or vegetables.

The pumpkin pie did turn out delicious, as did the
rest of the meal!  It was a really nice day to eat,
enjoy friends, and reflect on the many blessings we
have.  I'm so glad we didn't skip it! 

l