Happy December!
It’s been a hot second since my latest Newsletter, nevertheless I want to share my amazing experience from the end of November, as I experienced a wonderful dinner and share a special message for someone I feel extremely grateful for.
It has been a month filled with all kinds of social events, dinners, birthdays, farewells, Christmas parties and trips, in addition to several projects and work I’ve been juggling with. However, the absolute highlight from November was the Italian Thanksgiving Dinner a few weeks back. So sharing this post with the mindset of better late than never.
I felt immense gratitude to have experienced it, and I share here what we ate, drank, and what I felt grateful for. I hope you enjoy it!
Cari Saluti,
Emilia in Bologna
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I got invited to our good friend’s (hi Cole!) house here in Bologna to celebrate Thanksgiving a few weeks ago. The idea was that each guest would bring a dish to share. We were nine guests in a rather intimate space, but miraculously we all fit there perfectly, and it served as a great reminder of how sometimes a smaller space creates a warmer ambience for the guests.
The dinner crew included our wonderful American hosts, one German, two Finns, and four Italians. Each guest brought a different dish to share and the table was overflowing with amazing vegetarian dishes.
I learned an interesting fact that night that an Italian never shares the recipe, hence I don’t have those to share, but I hope this post provides inspiration to your next dinner party and some great seasonal appetizers and sides to make this time of the year.
The Thanksgiving Menu
We started with small crostini appetizers topped with a goat cheese and diced pumpkin, and oven roasted grapes. Those grapes were absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait to try to make them. We then continued with a dish of green beans and a wonderful sweet potato mash with mint and pomegranate seeds - absolutely delicious. The next dish was mashed potatoes with garlic, rosemary, butter and parmesan served with a mushroom gravy. It was divine. We ate it with a pumpkin loaf filled with mushrooms.
The German element of our dinner was Kasepatzle - a type of ‘mac and cheese’ topped with fried onions. This too was absolutely a fantastic dish, which I had never tried before. We also had fried brussel sprouts, falafels, glazed sweet potatoes, homemade foccaccia and stuffing. Mamma mia how much food there was! Everything tasted absolutely amazing and the ambience through out the whole dinner was wonderful.
After the several appetizers, mains and sides, we started with the desserts provided by mostly the Italian guests. The first dessert was dried fruits: figs, ginger and oranges dipped in dark chocolate and rolled in pistacchios. I will definitely want to re-create these treats. They were really tasty and could also make an excellent gift.
Next we had a typical Fior di latte, which is basically the local version of a Creme Caramel made by one of the local Italians. Unfortunately the recipe was a secret.
Next dessert was a pear pie, and finally cookies made with molasses and spices. The dinner lasted for almost five hours, as we were eating, drinking and enjoying. Our conversation flowed from Italian to English, and I felt extremely grateful to have experienced this Thanksgiving dinner.
Feeling grateful
One of my favorite moments of the dinner was giving thanks. It was the time to reflect and share to a table filled with basically people I had just me what I felt grateful for. It felt great and empowering to share this with the new people at the table, so I wanted to share this with you as well my dear readers.
I am so grateful for my amazing husband Carl who has supported my dream to live in Italy, and even now as he has moved back, he has continued to do so from Finland. He is always lifting me up, believing in me and supporting my goals and dreams.
It isn’t always easy, but boy do I feel grateful for his support and courage to let me fulfil this dream and finish this chapter in Italy. So a big shoutout to Carl, I am extremely grateful to have you by my side, even if not physically in Italy. <3
I also feel very grateful for each of reader of Merenda as there’s quite a few of you today. So thank you to each and every one of you!
The Recipes I cooked for the Thanksgiving Dinner
Here you can find the recipes, which I made for our dinner. They are all seasonal so I highly recommend trying them for your next dinner (party).
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