Thanksgiving...Vienna Style

The day is done, the food has been cooked and eaten, the dishes washed and I am EXHAUSTED! I love cooking, but wow, its so much work. I began cooking the food last night, mainly the pies and some of the appetizers, then kept right on cooking today. Kevin took care of the turkeys, and with the help of some of my awesome students I cooked the rest. Jameson was in the very capable hands of other students so that I was free to do whatever needed to be done. I will post more later, but here are some fun photos throughout the day. This is by far my favorite group dinner of the year, and its most definitely the most work, but the pay-off is great, and the students really appreciate it being so far from home. If we can't be home with our families (we miss you guys and are VERY thankful for you!) then here in Vienna with our students is the 2nd best place to be!


By chance we ended up "renting" out a restaurant. Our group took over the back three rooms and the oh-so-cool industrial kitchen to cook our 3 turkeys totaling almost 40 pounds, 11 pounds of potatoes, 9 pounds of green beans, 4 boxes (I know! I know!) of stuffing, 4 heads of red cabbage, 4 cans of cranberries, 3 pumpkin pies, 2 apple strudel, 1 apple pie and 6 pounds of sweet potatoes. We went through (3) 1000 gram bags of white sugar, (2) 500 grams of brown sugar, 6 cups of butter, way too much salt, (1.5) 1000 gram bags of flour, a half bag of marshmallows, 12 granny smith apples, 200 grams of pecans and a multitude of other items, that I am too exhausted to think about at the moment. The restaurant was a lifesaver, I think we are doing Thanksgiving there from here on out (if they will have us). We did all the cooking and they did the dishes, how much does that rock? Anyway, here are a few pics from tonight:

Cooking the red cabbage; notice the gi-AN-tic pots (that's an inside joke for any former Wiener studenten).

Carving one of the three turkeys.

Jameson loves the ladies!

Hanging out before dinner

Look at that serving line!

A beautiful plate of food!

Jameson likes pearls, apparently.

Dr. Pfabigan talking with two students

This may be the family picture that you see (ignore the exhausted sweaty looks of the cooks!)

But this is really what our family picture should look like! We love our students and we are so thankful to have them!

By the end of the night this is how we all felt!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!