It definitely didn't feel like Thanksgiving this past week being at work on Thursday and not Black Friday shopping. Fortunately there is a large contingency of Expats here in Stavanger and we decided to have our own Thanksgiving Feast!
Shaina graciously offered to host our party of 14 people and everyone contributed a dish or two to help out. Some of us ladies snuck out of work early to make sure and get the turkey in the oven and cooking. I find it ironic my first full-on turkey prep was in Stavanger...
It turned out beautifully and tasted amazing! Good job team!
Heather, Megan, and Shaina all tackled the stuffing. Shaina did the hardest job and chopped most of the ingredients ahead of time so that we could get straight to cooking. It was a great recipe that I know most of us will be making again!
Heather was all over the green bean casserole and her grandma's delicious appetizer recipe!
Megan attempted to help with the broccoli casserole and instead ending up feeding the dogs crackers. It still came together beautifully!
Erica made her family's gravy recipe for the turkey. After a quick consult and an assist from Heather, they got it going and it tasted incredible!
Here's the team hard at work! Fortunately Jason and I live in the building next door so we were able to use both of our ovens to cook everything. Jason also got our mashed potato dishes prepared since I was over helping with everything else. What a guy!
We even had some time to goof around while everything was finishing cooking and we were waiting for guests to arrive. (Tom stepped in and took over the photography with a much nicer camera than my iphone and graciously let me steal his photos for the blog. Thanks Tom!)
Here's the amazing spread of food! Everything tasted fantastic and we wouldn't have been able to have such a fantastic meal without everyone's help!
Now time to eat!!
Group shot! Unfortunately we didn't get it taken before a couple people had to leave, but here's the majority of the Expat Stavanger Thanksgiving Feast!
And Now the Christmas Parties Commence!
The first of our four Christmas parties kicked off Friday night with Jason's Applications Engineering Group. We headed to a restaurant called Renaa for a fantastic meal and a wonderful time getting to visit with everyone!
Here are the delicious appetizers and main courses that came with our Off the Grill and Norwegian Dinner menus. We had cod, venison, and gravlaks (It's a traditional Norwegian dish that's raw salmon cured in salt, sugar, and dill. It used to be fermented by being buried in the sand, hence the literal translation of "buried salmon". It was delicious! I know, I know - I'm not supposed to have raw fish. I tried one small square of Jason's appetizer. And I've lived to tell the tale... ;-) )
We got to visit with some, but not all of his team since we were separated into two tables. Here is the group we sat with during dinner. We laughed the entire time listening to stories and getting to know everyone. It was such an enjoyable evening!
