Thanksgiving with the Putins

Can you imagine eating Thanksgiving dinner with Putin?  You'd be eating a turkey that he obtained by swimming the black sea on the back of a dolphin to a forest full of tigers which he wrestled with his bare hands until he reached the one turkey to be found in Russia and killed it with his icy glare.  You'd go around the table and say whatever you were thankful for: "Our wonderful and brave prime minister!", "The United Russia party and the greatness it has brought to Russia!", "My fearless leader Vladimir Vladimirovich!", "My cats and my family!" (Putin sends his death ray and *poof.*  That person has nothing to be thankful anymore.)

Well, enough fantasizing about what a great time that would be.  We had a pretty awesome Thanksgiving here in frozen Russia.  We gathered at 10 am to begin prep and cooking.  We made turkey, chicken, boiled beets with glaze, green bean casserole, corn, two kinds of stuffing, and apple crisp.  Plus some sangria.  All of it was DELICIOUS.  Alton Brown has a very good recipe for homemade green bean casserole.  We had to make quite a few substitutions and leave some things out that they don't have here.  Like sage.  We happened to buy some cloves that we didn't really need, so we boiled them with the beets.  That was really good; not an overwhelming flavor, just a nice clove-y aroma.  It smelled like Christmas while we were boiling those.  We ended up having way more than we could ever eat, and we all had second helpings of everything.  It felt just like Thanksgiving, being stuffed almost to vomit threat level.  It was so nice to have that little slice of home here.  And boy are we good cooks.

I wish I had brought my super warm boots.  I don't know how I convinced myself to leave them; maybe because I wore the boots I have here in January in Russia, and I managed.  I wore two pairs of socks today, including one thick wool pair, and my toes were still frozen.  I'm considering buying some ridiculously cheap Ugg knock offs simply because they look super warm.  It was -12 C today, and it's only going to get colder.  Oh dilemmas.