We are heading down to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) soon to start production on our documentary Eating Up Easter, so we are busy planning what to bring. Most of it includes a ton of camera gear, super heavy hard drives, and lots of other fun production stuff, with just a little room on the side for us. Good thing I’m pretty skilled at packing light after my last two-week trip to Rapa Nui in which I only brought a carry on.
One of the big things about this trip is that we’ll miss Thanksgiving, probably my favorite holiday because food, to me, is so much better than gifts. It’s that experience, that transcendent place you reach when you savor a long, excellent meal with all your favorite people around you, that stays with you forever, much longer than any tangible gift given at Christmas or a birthday. That’s why I love creating experiences and cozy special moments during the holidays, because those are what are most meaningful to me. So I was pretty sad at first to be missing my favorite holiday and the chance to spend it with family in the States. But then I realized, we don’t have to give it up. Even though they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving on Rapa Nui, it doesn’t mean we can’t make a special meal to be shared with family there. 
This was our first solo thanksgiving, in which we made the whole meal ourselves with a few friends….it felt so great to know we could make all the dishes ourselves. Maybe my most “adult” moment yet.
Aren’t those purple mashed potatoes gorgeous?
I love thanksgiving food like pumpkin and cranberry….foods that you definitely can’t get on the island (and shouldn’t expect to….as we are exploring in our documentary). But would it hurt to bring some of that (but take the packaging trash home with us) to re-create a thanksgiving-like meal there? Sure the food will be different than people there are used to, but it could be a fun chance to share a different cultural tradition. I figure I can cook a chicken (no turkey there), make stuffing (the family hotel always has leftover bread from the breakfast buffet) and well, sweet potatoes are local. Thanksgiving can still be ours in Rapa Nui! 
I found this gem looking back on Thanksgivings passed…
I was so excited when I found these cardboard pumpkin and cranberry boxes….they are lighter (a little) than brining cans, and they can be flattened after use and easily brought home with us to recycle. Since our documentary is partly about the increasing waste issues from imported goods on Easter Island, we can’t exactly be adding to the island’s waste while filming that, right? I still don’t know if I can fit these in under the weight limits for our bags, but I’m sure gonna try, because a little holiday flavor on a tropical-ish island would just be so fun. 
I’ll keep you updated on how we make out and how we creatively create a “Rapa Nui Thanksgiving” with what we have available. I’m excited for the challenge.
One other reason I’m a little sad I don’t get to be at home making our own Thanksgiving, is that Bon Appétit Magazine just came out with a Thanksgiving app that helps you find recipes from their website (all the recipes I’ve ever made from the magazine have been incredible, I completely trust them), plan your meal (you pick all the recipes you are making right in the app….although they have to be recipes from their website), and time things out (it makes a breakdown for you of when you should start and finish each dish based on the time you are serving the meal). No, Bon Appétit did not compensate me in any way to say this….I just love them that much. So, if you are a food-lover like me in charge of the meal and you decide to try the app out, let me know if it works. As a planner and a recipe lover, it sounds like a winner to me! And it’s free!
Happy weekend!