Village Thanksgiving

So I've had a busy week. Doing Thanksgiving stuff with the kids, making pie from scratch and packing stuff up and cleaning before I'm gonna be gone next week to Plovdiv for IST (In Service Training).

For the school I made a presentation about what Thanksgiving is and what we do to celebrate, and then I went to each class over Wednesday and Thursday and told them about it. We made hand turkeys, and turkey origami for the older ones. The kids really enjoyed it, some of them got really creative with the turkeys.

4th Grade

2&3 Grades

2nd Grade

2nd Grade

2nd Grade

2nd Grade

2nd and 3rd Grades

1st Grade

7th Grade

So I photo documented the process of pumpkin pie making because I assumed it would be labor intensive. I started on Monday night, and finished on Thursday night. Monday I cooked and scoped out the pumpkin; attempted to mash it but it didnt work out too well, it was stringy and clumpy.

On Tuesday I got a mixer from my landlady, aka Baba Stoyka, to try and fix this problem. It helped, but wasnt quite enough. So on Wednesday, when the pub was open, I took my pumpkin down there and asked if they had a blender, or food processor. They didnt, but Chris said he had a smoothie maker so he went home and brought it over. I had to do it small batches, but it worked!

Then I went home and made evaporated milk. To do this from milk you need to cook it on low for like 2-3 hours. I was not down for this so I bought powdered milk and reconstituted it with only 40% of the water. It worked nicely.

On Thursday after dance I went home and made the crust (which I hate doing) and put it in the fridge to set. It was during this time that I realized I didnt have a rolling pin. So I used my SIGG water bottle my mom got me for Christmas a few years ago. You can see it here covered in flour:

thats my milk

mmmm pie

I havent tried it yet; but the little one is for the office and the big one is for dinner so I will eat some of it sometime today. It smelled good though, so I have high hopes for it.