Turkey Time

It’s here… it’s finally here, time to pull out that old (or new) turkey recipe and get it going on in the oven. We don’t really celebrate Thanksgiving per say, but it is a long weekend, and turkey is not available all year round. 'Tis the season for turkey! And it's really the only time we get access to turkey, especially the Halal kind.

As we mentioned from yesterday’s post, we had some hardships getting a large turkey, so we end up with 2 smaller turkeys. Every year, we try to out-do the previous year. Last year, and the year before, Thanksgiving coincided with the Muslim fasting month. This year however, Thanksgiving weekend came after EID. So this Turkey feast is also our Raya Open House. We’ve been planning it for a while now.

So we have 2 birds and 1 oven. That won't do. So for the first time since coming to Vancouver (we're had to borrow ovens for turkey before, in New York), we have to “borrow” an oven from the other Malaysian students. We prepared everything beforehand, rubbed in the spices, put it in the bag (literally), and then delivered it to the their house with baking instructions. Hopefully, it’ll turn out all right. We started the party at about 6 pm. The turkeys didn’t take too long to bake. We had meat thermometers, and the turkeys were done before the time we set. We were a little worried, but they looked cooked. What do you guys think? Mmm…. Yummy!

We had lots of guests. Baby Adam and his parents were here to enjoy they’re first taste of turkey. I hope they enjoyed it.

There were also a few new Malaysian students (new to UBC, that is) we invited, whom we met at the last Raya open house. This is probably their first taste of turkey too. If so, we’re honored.

Oh… If you recall at the last CG Open House, I mentioned that we were roped into performing at the MABC Deeparaya festivities. We took this opportunity to practice for the show. Jehan, Mira, Shahrir and I will be performing a couple of Raya songs, hence the guitar. Wish us luck. We perform next weekend.

Anyway, overall I think everybody had a good time. The kids certainly found ways to entertain themselves (after stuffing themselves with turkey). They played a few games of checkers, which they learned recently. I'm really proud of that. I had lots of fun too. Love the turkey. I wonder when we’ll get to have turkey again. Well, I guess I’ll be having turkey leftovers tomorrow, and possibly the day after. But what about AFTER that? Christmas maybe?

For those who celebrate Thanksgiving, we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving. For my fellow Muslim brothers and sisters, Eid Mubarak! And for everybody else, hope you had a fantastic long weekend. This is a good time to enjoy a good meal with family and friends, no matter what you celebrate. Enjoy the long weekend!

Happy Thanksgiving!

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