Whichever way you want to spin it, Thanksgiving 2010 was a blast. Some highlights:
-Adults: 9 (From Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, South Carolina, California, Louisiana, and Romania)- 5 of the 9 are professional basketball players; Two Kids, ages 3 & 5 (just to add to the chaos); Venue: two-room apartment (and every inch of counter space, chair, dish, and utensil was put to good use.)
-The first guests arrived at 1 p.m. The last guest left at 1 a.m. Now that's a full day of celebrating.
-Gone in a Flash: Terri's Praline Sweet Potato Casserole. Apparently, she got her recipe from the Baylor University Alumni Cookbook, but similar recipes are available online. Mark my words: we will never have a Thanksgiving again without this side dish on the table!
-Second Most Popular Side: Terri's Homemade From-Scratch Green Bean Casserole. I, for one, love the green bean casserole, and grew up having it at every holiday meal. Of course, the traditional U.S. recipe includes 2 cans of green beans, a can of Campbell's Cream of Mushroom Soup, and a container full of Durkee french-fried onions. Sheer marketing genius on the part of a few smart food companies. In a conversation back in 2004 with "real New Yorkers" about what's on the menu for Thanksgiving, I overheard the green bean casserole referred to as, "White Trash Casserole." Instead of taking offense, I swore to proudly refer to it as that for the rest of my life. I thought I might have had to change the name to "Euro Trash Casserole" after this Thanksgiving, but Terri's discovery and execution of a "from scratch" version of the dish has redeemed the dish entirely! Why consume all the preservatives when you can just make it yourself, using sour cream, cheese, and real onions that happen to be fried? If this dish starts showing up in traditional Romanian cuisine, we'll know why; we can credit our Romanian guests, who loved the dish and got into the American spirit of even helping themselves to seconds!
-In an odd twist of fate, Rob likes lingonberries better than cranberries. Looks like we'll be making trips to Ikea to stock up on Lingonberry preserves (or having our good friends in Europe ship them over to us) before future Thanksgivings in the U.S.
-After the second round of eating, which occurred around 9 p.m., all of the leftovers were officially devoured. Finished. Gone. Gata (as they say in Romania.) I guess that's what I get for inviting 5 professional athletes over for the day.
-Adina, my best friend here in Romania, was the quietest I've ever seen her during dinner. As she told me later, Americans talk waaaaay faster (and much less clearly, and with a ton more slang, and even with different accents, considering the Southerners of the group) when there are a bunch of us together. I also think that she and her husband were a bit taken aback at the sheer gluttony of dinnertime. Since we were packed in like sardines around a small table with a lot of hot dishes to pass, we basically were offered a wonderful prayer and then said GO, proceeding to pile our plates high, and began eating (again, pretty traditional for Americans at Thanksgiving, but I can see how it would be just a little overwhelming for an Eastern European!) Honestly, we are civilized people (sometimes.)
-Speaking of prayers, Theodore, the 3-year old son of not one, but two pastors (two of our guests for the day), had a perfectly rehearsed prayer which he recited once and then we all repeated, to his utter delight. If I had had my camera ready, it would have been a perfect Thanksgiving Day video moment to capture and remember always.
-The day wouldn't have felt half as "real" without tuning into (via Internet, plugged into the HDMI output of the TV, live, but airing late evening through early morning over here ) Thursday's NFL Football Line-Up. And then, of course (for those of us who were still awake- i.e. not me), some late-night Skype calls to family in the U.S. We're incredibly thankful for technology!
-As evident from the last couple of posts, I put a lot of effort into planning this dinner. It was a true labor of love. Working with a limited amount of kitchen space and utensils, I thought through which dishes would go into the oven at what time. I started making applesauce and pies a few days ago. I carefully assigned side dishes for Terri and Adina to bring. It was planned out to a T. Dinner would be on the table at 2:00. And then, one of Rob's teammates, who had, to my surprise, offered to make a Sweet Potato Pie, called us at about 1:30, complaining that the supermarket didn't have any pie crusts. In his defense, apparently he'd found them there before, but knowing what I know about grocery shopping in Romania, I never would have expected that something specific would be there when and where I needed it. Honestly, I never would have expected that Romanian grocery stores would sell pre-made pie crusts. But anyway, as I was in the critical moment of deciding that the turkey was indeed done, Rob told me his teammate's dilemma and I told him I'd make him a pie crust. Ten minutes later, he showed up at the apartment, and I went to work- food processor, butter, flour, stir the gravy, ice water, stir til the dough forms a ball, open up the cans of corn, rotate the casseroles into the oven, clear space on the counter top, cover it with flour, get out the rolling pin, oh and "Of course you can make deviled eggs," I said, as the same teammate proudly presented a huge carton of 24 raw eggs because "We always have deviled eggs for the holidays," he said. Only then did we realize that he didn't have a pie plate either-- nothing to do except to painstakingly (attempt to) remove my nice, neat homemade pumpkin pie from the pie plate, set that pie aside, clean the pie plate, and fill it up with the crust and his sweet potato filling. Somehow, I kept it all together and can even laugh about it now.
-By 10:00 p.m., as we sat around having a drink or two, watching football, talking, dozing, our stomachs stuffed to the brim, warm and comfortable in our cozy Romanian apartment, it dawned on me that I couldn't ask for anything more in life. I'm thankful for my wonderful family back home in Pennsylvania, who I'll get to see in just a couple of weeks. I'm thankful for my brother, who made the decision to move back to California after six years, and is happily (and bravely) setting his sights on a new career. I'm thankful for my amazing boyfriend Rob, who indulges my desire to play Martha Stewart from time to time, who takes me with him (and/or accompanies me) to amazing places around the world; I couldn't be luckier, or happier. I'm thankful that I've started teaching again, and that my tax business is gaining momentum year by year. I'm thankful for the great friends that we've met in Romania, Rwanda, and elsewhere we've lived; they make this experience fun and without them, a professional basketball career, or an ESL career, would just be a regular job in a strange place away from our families and friends back home. I'm thankful that we have a special day to sit and reflect on what really matters in life and all the blessings that we've been given. Thanksgiving (whether multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, multi-generation, or (d) all of the above) is about as good as it gets, as far as I'm concerned.
No comments:
Post a Comment