Italian Thanksgiving

I have done it! I baked an apple pie! It only took me 13 years and moving half a world away from California to do it!

A little background:

First, I am Colombian. Colombians for the most part don't bake. We enjoy all kinds of desserts, but we are not bakers. We have birthday cakes is true, but that is about it... I might be exaggerating a little... not, really... we don't bake!

Second, I was an exchange student in the States in 1983-84, and from that fabulous experience I ended up with another family, my "American" family. We have kept in touch throughout the years, and when we moved to California we visited often. For twelve years we celebrated our Thanksgiving with the Regalias. All I know about thanksgiving comes from Maña and Paca's house.

Third, Maña makes the best apple pie! THE BEST.

Fourth, my favorite American food is apple pie.

When my friend Debbie invited us over to her house to celebrate Thanksgiving, I knew that I had to bake Maña's apple pie. It was my way to bring a little bit of home to our Italian Thanksgiving. I immediately e-mailed Maña, and she gave me her recipe. I think she would be really proud of me, because I made a FANTASTIC apple pie -it doesn't hurt that Italian apples are simply delicious.

We celebrated today, Saturday, since Thursday is not a holiday in Italy. Debbie and Marcelo did an amazing job with the meal even though Debbie had to threaten her butcher with taking her business elsewhere if he didn't find her a turkey -He said it would have been much easier to get if she had waited until December! The turkey was great, as were as all the trimmings: stuffing, sweet potatoes (they are white here), mashed potatoes, green beans, the works! We even had cranberry sauce! For dessert we had FANTASTIC apple pie (no bragging here), pumpkin pie, and tiramisu! We had plenty of wine to accompany our feast, from a gentle vino novello (just out), to a moscato with dessert, and everything in between.

We miss the Regalias, and we wish that we could celebrate with them, but at the same time, we feel them close to us, and for this we are thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!