A British Take On Canadian Thanksgiving: A Photo Essay

The second Monday in October is officially designated as Canadian Thanksgiving. For the past two years we have been fortunate enough to be spoiled by other people and you can read about our previous Thanksgivings here.

As as we have temporarily moved 10 hours north of anyone we know, this year we were left to our own devices. Here's how our attempts at a two person Thanksgiving went...

Cheese, Glorious Cheese

I have mentioned it on this blog several times, good cheese is hard to come by in Canada. European cheese costs a lot to import and a lot to buy in the shops so sadly we only allow ourselves to buy it for special occasions.

We started our Thanksgiving celebrations, therefore, with a huge plate of cheese and a bottle of red wine, sharing a delicious Tim Hortons "Apple Pie Dream Donut" for dessert.

Mimosas and Facemasks

We definitely overindulged on Saturday night with the excitement of cheese and wine, and we both felt a little bit worse for wear on Sunday morning which was less than ideal considering that was meant to be our big eating and drinking day!

We eventually plucked up the courage to start celebrating around 12:30pm and I started us off with some smoked salmon cream cheese bagels and mimosas. We started getting into the swing of things and Rich made us mimosa based cocktails adding in a liquor that he found hidden at the back of the fridge - we think it was a cheap version of Aperol.

We spent the early afternoon in a post-brunch coma, then moved onto some craft beers and I treated Rich to a peel-off facemask.

Maple-Glazed Mayhem

Suitably refreshed, and a little bit tipsy, it was time to start cooking dinner. As there were only two of us, we'd decided against a turkey instead opting for a pre-cooked chicken, so that took care of the bird.

For sides, I was in charge of pigs in blankets, roast potatoes, roast sprouts, maple-glazed carrots, stuffing and gravy, whilst I left Rich to deal with the sweet potato mash. I was relatively successful with the exception of the carrots, with the maple burning them to the extent that they were bitter and leaving Rich running round the house opening doors, windows and trying to waft smoke out of the house without alarming the neighbours.

Rich was in charge of the sweet potato mash and it's safe to say, he totally nailed it. Having sat and watched me work away whilst he merrily drank beer, when it was time to reverse roles, his first idea was to make a sweet potato buddy - who he then promptly decapitated.

After a few hours of cooking, drinking and briefly almost burning the house down, it was time to open a bottle of wine and enjoy our first homemade Thanksgiving Dinner. We enjoyed every second (except the awful carrots!) and even had room for some traditional pumpkin pie and ice-cream - shop bought, but maybe homemade next year!

Falling For Fall

The next morning was actual Thanksgiving Day so Rich had the day off work and we had a lazy start. I was determined to reach my inner Canadian goddess and put the maple syrup to good use, so for breakfast I made us brie and cranberry sauce bagels, with maple glazed bacon. Fortunately, it was a hit and my permanent residence status is safe for now!

We haven't really been leaving our Airbnb much since we got here, but we do have a small lake just down the road so we wrapped up and took a quick walk around the block. Canada in Fall truly is one of the most beautiful places in the entire world and I loved walking around our neighbourhood taking in all of the different Autumnal colours. We were feeling pretty chunky after our indulgences so I put together a "small" cheese plate for dinner and we had round two of pumpkin pie.

Rich went back to work on Tuesday, but we still had a whole tonne of food in the fridge, so we decided to extend our celebrations and had another full roast dinner on Tuesday night!

And that was that for Thanksgiving 2021. Currently, we have no idea what city we will be living in for Thanksgiving 2022, but I'm so excited to see what the next 12 months has in store for us as a couple, and I am truly grateful to be on this incredible journey with the best partner I could ever ask for.