How do you celebrate Thanksgiving in space?

NASA’s astronauts gave us a quick look at their holiday feast from the International Space Station. NASA packed a fairly traditional meal for Scott Kelly and Kjell Lindgren: smoked turkey, candied yams, corn and potatoes au gratin.

NASA even sent up a classic post-Thanksgiving dish: turkey tetrazzini.

The astronauts also dished a little of what is more important at Thanksgiving: gratitude.

“We are incredibly thankful for the opportunity to be up here on the International Space Station, working and living in this amazing orbiting laboratory, a physical manifestation of what is possible when the great countries of the world work together with communication, cooperation and collaboration toward peaceful means,” Lindgren said.

“Since I’ve been up here, I’ve seen so many bad things that happen that often happen down there,” Kelly said. “We follow that on the news. And it just makes me really thankful to live in a country like the United States that provides us with freedom and opportunity.”

Kelly, who is taking part in a year-long experiment to see how the body handles being in space, marked his 265th day in space Tuesday.

As for the meal, of course the astronauts aren’t carving a piping hot bird up there. It all came in a pouch. The turkey seemed to be full formed and similar to a slice of turkey. As Lindgren took a small bite, Kelly joked that NASA didn’t send much up, so he just ate his Thanksgiving dinner. Kelly then opened the candied yams and gave the bag a small squeeze. The astronauts laughed as the gloopy orange substance began to float up out of the pouch. But Kelly said it tasted pretty good.

Some of the items still have to be rehydrated. Kelly mentioned that the corn was rehydratable. NASA posted a video that showed how astronauts would rehydrate the turkey tetrazzini. Nom.

NASA posted a recipe for one of its menu items from a previous mission, a cornbread dressing, on its website. The recipe is suitable for a traditional holiday feast, no freeze-drying or rehydrating required, unless you want to.

Out of this world cornbread dressing recipe

Ingredients:

  • 12 cups crumbled cornbread
  • 3 3/4 cups chicken broth
  • 2 1/2 cups chopped onions
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 3/4 tsp. salt
  • 1 1/4 tsp. poultry seasoning
  • 1/2 tsp. black pepper
  • 2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
  • 1 tsp. rubbed sage

Directions:

  1. Preheat convection oven to 325° F. Conventional oven should be heated to 350° F.
  2. Grease 9 x 13-inch baking pan.
  3. Peel onions and puree in food processor. Place in bowl. Set aside.
  4. Finely chop celery in food processor. Add to onion puree. Set aside.
  5. Heat sauté pan over medium heat. Melt butter and sauté onion and celery mixture until soft (about 5 minutes).
  6. Add to crumbled, prepared cornbread. Mix well. In a separate bowl, combine salt, poultry seasoning, black pepper, parsley and sage.
  7. Add to cornbread-sautéed vegetables mixture.
  8. Add chicken broth. Mix well. Spoon dressing into prepared baking pan.
  9. Bake for approximately 35 minutes at 325° F or 350° F, depending on oven.

For spaceflight preparation:

Baked dressing is transferred to metal tray and freeze-dried accordingly. One serving of cornbread dressing should weigh approximately 145g prior to freeze-drying and 50g after freeze-drying.

2015 ISS Thanksgiving message