Life: Idiotropic

On Sunday I'd made jars and jars of my homemade cranberry sauce. Last week I baked the two pumpkin cream cheese rolls that are sitting in my freezer now. On Tuesday I'd assembled two pans of my yummy zucchini dish and the cornbread stuffing. I don't remember now what I did on Wednesday. On Thursday I made pie dough enough for four pies and on Friday I baked the pumpkin and pecan pies, assembled the candied yams, carved mini pumpkins and gourds and filled them with floral foam and created floral arrangements in them. This morning among other things, I baked two Apple Galletes, stuffed the big turkey, and did a whole bunch of scurrying about decorating and cleaning.

Today we had 32 people at our house for Thanksgiving.

Both turkeys were brined the night before. Jeff and Kirk deep fried the 15lb one. The 21lb bird got stuffed and baked. We had regular stuffing and cornbread stuffing, mashed potatoes and candied yams, green beans and zucchini bake, great gravy, cranberry sauce, two salads, rolls, devilled eggs, stuffed celery, nuts, clementines, ham, a cheesy potato dish, a coconut pie, and all the above mentioned desserts also.

At two the guests began to arrive. The didn't leave until after 7.

I love Thanksgiving and living here has made Thanksgiving even more special because it's one of those few things that is truly American and truly wonderful. Last year I celebrated Thanksgiving in our tiny gasthaus with it's Barbie kitchen, easy bake oven, and refrigerator too small to fit a decent sized turkey even without the shelves inside. This year I still had to contend with a closet sized kitchen, but at least I have borrowed American appliances from the nearby Army base to make cooking in Germany a bit more normal.

I was excited to share this day with my non-American friends this year, so I invited a few people. Of the 32, we had Spanish from Madrid and Spanish from Majorca, a Frenchman with an Italian father from the French-Italian border, a Canadian from Quebec, a German from Frankfurt who now lives in Brussels and his Romanian wife, and then Tinny who used to live in our house and now lives next door. Then of course a couple Texans and a couple New Yorkers, a couple from the Midwest and a couple from the west coast... it was a great mix. Everybody talked together and laughed together. The food was good and it all went well. Everybody mixed well. There weren't any odd moments or uncomfortable quiet times. There were no quiet times at all. The house was full and loud, but wonderful. The only crazy thing is that once food was served, no one left the table. They all stayed and talked as the plates were cleared and even as dessert was eventually served. They were still there. I think our last guests left just after 7:30. Tinny was one of the last which surprised me. She was the only one who couldn't speak English, but there were a few people who could talk to her and when she wasn't talking, she was listening. I watched her as she watched and listened to the conversations, her eyes darting back and forth like a tennis match and her mouth turned up in a warm smile. She enjoyed herself. I think that gave me the biggest feeling of success - knowing that Tante Tinny had a nice time. Of course, I had a lot of helpers. Mom and Jeff were there and they both helped a lot. Kirk helped too. Our American guests all brought things, and it ended up really being a great holiday. Full of family and friends. It was the first time that my Spanish friends or our friends from Brussels had ever had an American Thanksgiving. It was Fabrice' first Thanksgiving too. It is safe to say that they were all a bit shocked by the quantity and everyone enjoyed it. We had TONS of food and sent a lot home with people. Alberto decided that he really likes American food having broken his previous idea that Americans eat burgers and fries all the time.

So, I'm already planning on next year... I'll have to borrow some more chairs because there are more people that I'd like to bring, plus everyone that came this year, but I'll cut down on the number of dishes, because we had almost too many options to fill the plates this year. People were getting full as new dishes were still being passed around with things to try. Next year I'll plan some things for the kids too. They all did great, but towards the end the older non-English speaking kids started to get bored and it was too dark outside for soccer.

So, the star dishes this year were the deep fried turkey of which there were absolutely no leftovers, my zucchini bake that has become an annual treat ever since I first tried it, the pumpkin roll that is also a must-make every year, and the apple galletes that are easier than an apple pie and somehow taste better. I'll try to post recipes here later... but now I'm still trying to play catch up from the visit.