024: Thanksgiving Italian Style — turkey in a brick oven and NO pasta!

How do they celebrate Thanksgiving in Italy? Well, they don't. But WE do! So we invited a bunch of friends and family to join us for an American Thanksgiving here at Villa Cappelli. They were all terrified to come as there was no pasta on the menu, but....

Topics we cover

Paul's new favorite drink for winter, a Manhattan

Why we say the "locusts have descended" when the Italians come to eat Thanksgiving here

How the turkey here in Italy broke our first oven

A telemarketer calls, and we reveal our experience with them in Italy

Just how big the turkeys are here in Italy

Why Paul prefers I call our pizza oven a brick oven

How the turkey cooks in the pizza...oops, brick oven

Paul vents a little about his mother, like all Italian sons who love their mother

The range of people we had this year

How the Italians were afraid to come as there was no pasta on the menu

How we arranged the buffet using makeshift heating trays

Our challenge with cranberry sauce and how we made it this year with dried cranberries. Here's the recipe we essentially followed. I didn't use any cranberry juice, just all water with a bit of lemon juice and orange zest.

Why the mash potatoes are so good to the Italians

Why some types of vegetables are so hard to find for us here in Puglia, Italy

Heirloom carrots grown locally here in shades of purple, yellow and orange

And why carrots are mostly orange today

Desserts, including a chocolate cream pie, apple pie, pecan (or any nut) bars and brownies

We finished the meal with our Limoncello and Nocino

The destination wedding we had at the villa the week before

How the couple we know is from our reality show The Pitch.

How the flourist suggested the perfect spot for the wedding

Our latest product which makes a great gift: Red Wine Sea Salt