A weekend of good eats (Thanksgiving and migas)

Thanksgiving

 People who know me know that I LOVE Thanksgiving, that it is my favorite holiday. Why? Well, because it involves spending time with family, eating and hanging out, relaxing and NOT giving gifts. I often get stressed about about presents (how much to spend, what to get, wrapping, etc) so I prefer holidays that don't require them. Plus how can you not love a holiday dedicated to delicious food. Living in Spain last year meant I didn't cook or really celebrate at all. This year I decided to give it a try but moved our celebration to Friday instead of Thursday because of work.

 I had to get creative with finding all the necessary ingredients. I ended up getting a teeny frozen turkey from our grocery store. The gravy mix was something I picked up at IKEA of all places (another reason to love that place!). I made mashed potatoes and sweet potato casserole. I also made stuffing out of old, crusty bread we had in the freezer. With all this in the oven and on the stove Jose's parents and one cousin came over to celebrate with us. 

Here you can see our mini Spanish apartment sized table set for five:

And here you have the actual food: turkey, potatoes and stuffing.

Migas
The next day we headed to a gathering with people from Jose's work. We all went to one family's home where they cooked us a lot of amazing food including lots of typical dishes best enjoyed when the weather is cold. The star of the show were the migas (literally crumbs) which used to be considered food for workers in the fields. They would cook their old bread with garlic and oil, add an egg and sausage and voila, a simple yet AMAZING dish.

 Here you can see them cooking the migas in a big frying pan:

This is similar to how people get together to make giant pans of paella. These are things that are easy to make in great quantities. Spanish people use food as an excuse to spend time with friends and I love it. We also enjoyed croquetas, albondigas (meatballs), jamon (cured ham), cheese and Spanish omelette. The food was fantastic!

 This is my plate of migas, yummmmmmmm:

Needless to say that today we are taking it easy on eating. A salad and maybe some turkey day leftovers while we watch our first Christmas movie together and relax.

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