Hello

How was your Thanksgiving Day? Did you have a great time with family, friends and or loved ones?

I hope you did because I was wishing that for you.

I had a great time and my cousin came in from Texas. We had lots of food and fun!

Before I share a bit about what we did, I would ask you; what did you do?

Do share!

Thanksgiving Day for me signifies that Christmas is around the corner. It can be a time to start fretting about what I need to get done for Christmas or what needs to be bought. I have come to learn that, even if I have a full wallet to spend or have nothing with which to buy what I think I want to for Christmas, I will still give thanks 😊

When my cousin arrived on Wednesday, I was still at work- I had not even finished all the cleaning as you’d see in the pics that I had wanted to do (anyone relate?) but I had told myself, this time was about being with family not time to pretend that my house was always spotless! We went out to eat for dinner and then came home and slept.

Thursday Morning, we had breakfast/ brunch and then went to Walmart! Yes, we did.

We needed a few more items for the day.

I want to stop here to say a big Thank You to the people who worked the stores during the Thanksgiving Day- You people are the real deal! I was surprised to say that I had good customer service at the store- I thought I was going to meet people who did not want to work but the people I met at the store were happy to help and answered my questions.

Okay, back to what I was saying; We got what we needed and came home. By the time we got home, the turkey was almost done (thanks Hubs 😍) and BOY! Did it smell great? We then started cooking after the turkey was done.

Sigh! It was 3 pm when we started cooking.

The Menu

Turkey,

Moi Moi

Jollof Rice

Rice and Stew

Fried Plantain aka dodo

Mac & cheese

Mashed Potatoes

Collard Greens

Curried sweet potatoes

Sides: apple pie, Patti LaBelle’s Sweet Potato Pie, Cranberry Jelly, cookies…

We ended up with a few items rather than all that was listed on the menu because we started so late in the day! I baked the moi-moi to save time, my cousin made some delicious jollof rice and some good tomato stew to eat with white rice. For the dishes often seen on TV for thanksgiving, we had the staples; dressing, collard greens (first time on the menu), turkey, cranberry jelly (I had some this time- it should be called Cranberry Wiggle) and I gotta stop! We had a lot of food.

We had food and family and that was enough for me!

Every Thanksgiving, I am blessed to do something different in the kitchen but a few staples remain- turkey, jollof rice and lots of love and gratitude!

I hope you had a great Thanksgiving and I hope that you were able to not only eat too much as I did, but you were also able to rest too!

Until the next episode,

God bless you.

Always,

Ezanya

Ps.

If you want recipes for the Nigerian dishes mentioned, let me know and I will share them with you!