Living in Slovakia: Thanksgiving

To spread the joys of Thanksgiving to the people of Slovakia, I had some locals over on Tuesday, and as you can see, I actually cooked some food. My Mom is an excellent cook (hey mom!), but I didn't get any of her culinary genes, so it was a Russian Roulette meal.

Although I cooked by myself, no one got sick from the food, which was the main goal. I really liked Belascio's beer-butt turkey recipe, but I couldn't find any beer cans, and I though that using a bottle might take away from the flavor.

First, I whipped up some of Mom's green been casserole, Slovak style, with frozen beans and corn:

I also made some roasted garlic mashed potatoes, which ended up being the crowd favorite. Here's the recipe:

But what about the bird, you ask? I couldn't figure out the Slovak word for turkey, and I was too lazy to try to cook one in my gas stove. Instead I went to the Tesco, where they had some delicious rotisserie chickens pre-cooked. Not very traditional, but I was the only one who knew:

For dessert I whipped up my patented canned peaches and strawberries in a light syrup. Surprsingly, canned strawberries are pretty good:

It was a good time because many people showed up ready for some chow. There was Virginie and Mishka, who came dressed for the occasion in a traditional Russian shirt:

Also, my neighbors Toby and Lukas showed up, and brought some excellent reggae music to enhance the mood:

My friend Vlado, from Presov, came with his very nice girlfriend, and was kind enough to pretend to punch the camera:

Soon we all sat down for dinner, and I made everyone say something they were thankful for, like having legs:

At one point, Mishka rose to give a toast in Russian. If the translation was correct, he said that I was a great man for getting the chicken from Tesco. I was touched: