Thanksgiving Day 2012. All the cruisers and expats were ready for the big Thanksgiving feast starting at 2:00. It cost 50 pesos each (about $4.00US) and you were to bring a side dish to share. Seating was limited to the first 200! Penny brought several cans of Cranberry Jelly to share and we agreed to make gravy for the feast with Ellen and Ian. Mike was kind enough to loan us his house and he had 8 packs of gravy mix. All you had to do was boil a gallon of water for each of the 8 bags and then when a good rolling boil was achieved, you slowly added the gravy mix and stirred with a whisk for 10 minutes. Ever try to stir for 10 minutes over a hot stove? I had carpel tunnel in both hands later that night.
After your gallon of gravy was finished you poured it into the Coleman cooler. Well we filled one cooler with 4 gallons and luckily Ian had another one in his car. During the boiling and stirring period Ian managed to sharpen all of Mike's kitchen knives and Mike was very happy. Shelly was there too and making scalloped potatoes and Penny and Ellen popped Sue's stuffing in the oven to cook. They also went to the tienda down the street and bought us some drinks while we slaved over the hot stove.
At 10 to 2 we were finished and headed for the dinner with 8 gallons of gravy. The dinner was well organized and we had a table for 7 of us and the playing card on the table was a queen. When they call your card you can get up and go through the line. We were with Al who picked up 21 turkeys and delivered them to a house where they had a huge oven in the back to cook all 21 at once. Once done, Al picked them up in his truck and delivered them where the carving crew took over. The helpers got to get in line first and Al had his plate full at our table. He didn't feel comfortable eating before us so he got his friend to call the Queen and up we went.
The food was plentiful and outstandingly delicious. Some of the best ever that I have had. Complete with all the sides you can think of and some that you wouldn't have thought of and many deserts. The gravy was fantastic of course and we later found out at the end that 4 gallons would have been plenty as we had 4 gallons left over! That worked out to about 2.5 ounces per person but we were ready for 5 ounces per person. I suggested we take the leftover to coffee the next morning with some bread and have hot bread and gravy but no takers. I think the leftover food was donated to a charity.
Fun was had by all and it was a quiet night in the marina with the exception of all the guys snoring during their nap. No football or TV down here.