It's an Ameroccan Thanksgiving

Yep, you read that right - we had an American/Moroccan Thanksgiving Feast. We went out to U. Don and A. Esther's a little bit early to help with dinner. Little did we know we'd be shredding pounds of chicken for a Moroccan dish (Pastilla) that was to be a part of our meal. I was a little worried when we started on all that chicken that THAT was going to be our dinner. (Not that anything would be wrong with that, I was just looking forward to some turkey!) I was sure glad when U. Don started carving the turkey's - yep 2 of 'em! One oven roasted and one smoked - yum! 

Les snapped a picture with his phone...

...and a bit later Brianna got one the short time Les was helping. 

Not that he would have minded helping, but when little Claire comes up to him and wants picked up... What would you do!? Cuddle with the cute little girl instead of shred chicken, of course! Claire doesn't know Les at all, so we decided that maybe she thought he was Ed - they kind of look alike. Whatever the reason, she didn't want to get down either.

And then of course when Nick comes in and tells Les it's time to play football and he needs to come out now - well, ya know how that one ended. Really, that one ended with Brianna leaving the chicken to Tiff, Kit and I and her going out to play football, too. 2 girls and 11 guys - yep, that's my Brianna.

Tiffani took over the camera and took lots of shots of lots of things. The table, waiting patiently for the rest of the food (mostly the Pastilla).We had the turkey, potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn, rolls and salad - plus the Pastilla and another salad.

Half of the dessert table.

The reason we had this special Moroccan Wedding dish was the wife of the family that was staying with U. Don & A. Esther wanted to make it for everyone. It is a very special dish that is generally served at Moroccan weddings along with the salad. I don't recall the lady's name but it sounded Hawaiian, but she is Irish and her husband is from Japan.

So this is the assembly line for putting the Pastilla together. The Irish lady is making some juice with rose water. I think Becky was getting ready to assemble... Tiffani was taking pictures and by this time, I either was taking a plate of food to Mom or was cuddling babies in the dining room. :)

The stuff in the pan at the top is a custard of sorts that has the chicken stock, a LOT of eggs, and spices in it. It was cooled and crumbled and kind of resembles bread crumbs here.... the white bowl is full of sliced almonds, golden raisins, regular raisins, and powder sugar for the top when it come out of the oven.

There are multiple layers of phyillo dough, spread with melted butter and then piled high with all the other stuff, folded over and baked.

This is a completed one - not yet cut into - on the back. And the remains of one after it was cut into pieces.

 

The is the beginning of the special salad - lots of parsley, tomatoes (I think Katie cut 3 or 4 and the lady asked her to cut "oh, about 10 more. I think that should be enough"!), green onions, pine nuts, couscous and lots of lemon juice. I haven't found a recipe online, but that's what I remember going into it.

Served up with lime and lemon slices.

Lots of babies at the dinner... Brianna and I were quite content holding little three day old Elijah. 

And yes, we did kind of "hog" him a little bit, but he'll definitely be out of that newborn stage before we see him again. So I had to get all the baby snuggles I could!!!

This is sweet Gracen. Such a doll - wish this picture showed her curls on top - she looks a little like a mini Claire.

And Max - not really baby anymore, but just as cute.

When we left one Giesbrecht house, we stopped at another. Had to get the Levi fix in, too. ;) We also got the chance to visit with Alan and Heather, Wally and Sue and Brad and Ashley - a nice added bonus.

Tiffani took a whole LOT of rapid fire shots, hoping for a good one of Levi smiling, but not even that worked! So here's the best of over 200 pictures...

30 pictures of this - Levi is in different stages of climbing up on the chair and the other 3 hardly moved - I don't think Ella even blinked!

 

Almost 100 shots of this - trying to get Levi to look at the camera and this is the best Tiffani got. He loves that little kitten.

That was our Thanksgiving. We headed back in our separate cars on Friday - Les and Tiffani in his pickup and Brianna and I and the dogs in the other. Drove straight past our exit and went to Nampa so us girls could go see the movie "The Help". Les took the dogs home and we watched the movie (great flick, by the way) and then did a little bit of shopping before coming home.

Saturday, Brianna and I did some more shopping for gifts and spent some great mom/daughter time together and then she was off again for another 3 weeks till we get to see her again. All these visits the last couple months is sure going to make that January to May stretch a l-o-n-g one till we see her again!