A feast, a rescue and an aurora.

Happy Thanksgiving fellow harvest celebrating European descent readers! Last night we joined in on a potluck feast where there was turkey, potatoes, stuffing and pies and we all ate until bursting.

yum!

The people of Garden Hill seem to be divided on whether or not they celebrate thanksgiving. Some families do, likely because of the strong Christian associations the holiday has, and some families do not because it is not an Oji- Cree holiday.  In some ways, being here is like being back in Scotland where we took for granted that not everyone celebrates the same things we do.

Alex and I contributed apple pies to the potluck. I decided to dress them up a bit for the amusement of our host Rachel who is a math teacher. 

 before

after

After dinner we played a game called Werewolves which is you’ve played Mafia you’ll understand. We were first introduced to this game by our friend Tamara in Ontario and we have both been enjoying the opportunity to play it again here. 

Sheriff Lesley

 

We got back to our house around midnight and while we were getting ready for bed Alex heard someone calling for help outside and took off to go and see if he could help. Apparently some kids were playing in the woods (it’s not uncommon here for children to be out until 3 am on their own) and one girl became lost. In the end security was able to find her and get her home. 

Alex took off pretty quickly and though I got dressed and went outside intending to follow him I ended up hanging back when I realised he had the only key. While I waited for him outside I saw something out of the corner of my eye and looked up to witnessed my first ever aurora. It cut a dancing pale green line from one end of the sky to the other which occasionally would then become excited with purple flashed. It was by far one of the most bewilderingly beautiful things I have ever seen. I grabbed my camera but it did a poor job of recording the actual colours of the lights. Alex got back from the woods and assured me that the girl was alright so we stayed outside to watch the aurora until it died down. Apparently it’s most active in October and April so I anticipate a few more late nights over the next few days.

 

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And in case anyone is interested, here are the ingredients I used (roughly speaking) for the pies. I also don’t mix the apples with the filling, rather layer the two when I fill the pie because I find it's less messy and the results are the same. The trick with the pie crust is to keep the dough cold so the butter doesn't melt.

Crust

1 1/3 flour

¼ cup shortening

¼ unsalted butter

1tsp kosher or coarse gain salt

3 tblsp ice water

Filling

4-6 apples a mix of sweet and tart

Lemon juice

½ (ish?) brown sugar and white sugar

Tblsp flour

cinnamon

Pinch salt

Butter

Vanilla if it’s handy (it was not)

Egg wash  and white sugar for glaze

375F for 1 hour.