Thanksgiving Dinner - Two Days Early

I wrote yesterday that I was going to make a Thanksgiving dinner of sorts for my Mexican family.  Alejandro and I drove to the nearby Chedraui Supermarket hoping to find a pre-cooked turkey breast similar to what we had seen at City Market.  We asked the ladies at the deli counter, and they didn't have anything like that, but one of them brought out something the size of a large ham that was made with pressed turkey meat and stuffed with plums and almonds.  I wasn't exactly what we were looking for, but we had them cut off eight thick slices.

Back at the house, I placed the slices in a large Pyrex baking dish.  I didn't want it to dry out when I heated it in the oven, so I poured the two cans of turkey gravy that we had previously purchased over it.  Alejandro also suggested putting pats of butter on top.  (Sure!  Nobody ever said that Thanksgiving was supposed to be low in calories!)  After about a half hour I took it out of the oven, and it was hot and bubbling.

I also prepared the bag of spaetzle that I had bought at City Market.  This was imported from France and was Alsatian-style spaetzle.  Apparently, in Alsace, that border region where French and German cultures have melded over the centuries, spaetzle is more like noodles than the little dumplings typical of Germany and Switzerland.   After boiling and draining the spaetzle, I added butter, a chopped onion that I had sauteed to the point of caramelization, and lots of grated cheese.  (Lots of butter and cheese!  Again, Thanksgiving dinner is not supposed to be low-cal.)  Probably, Gruyere or Emmenthal cheese would have been more appropriate but, lacking that, I added Manchego cheese.  (Why not make this even more international with some cheese from Spain!)  I tasted the finished product, and it did taste like the "Spaetzle mit Kaese" that I have had at a German restaurant back in Cleveland.

It was time to serve dinner.  Really the only thing on the plate that was truly typical of a Thanksgiving dinner in the U.S. was the can of Ocean Spray cranberry sauce.  However, the entire meal was something very different from what the family had ever had before.

 And what was most important was that the entire family liked the meal.  In fact, they are talking about buying some more of that turkey roll for Christmas Eve supper.

May all of my readers from the United States have a wonderful Thanksgiving!