If there is one holiday (other than Christmas, of course) that seems to mean nothing unless you are with your family, it's Thanksgiving. This year, my mom had Thanksgiving at our house with my grandparents from Wheatfield and my Aunt Julie and Uncle John. Now, I know most of you do not know this, but there have been many Thanksgivings where I have begged my mom to stay home for the holiday rather than travel to extended family's homes. I have a near obsession with cooking Thanksgiving 'linner' (lunch/dinner). I don't care who comes over for the festivities -- so long as I can work with my mom to create the menu, and then go crazy in the kitchen. And, after a growing list of years of traveling to visit relatives, the relatives finally came to us -- and I wasn't even there to relish it!
This was my first holiday away from home (including all of my summer birthdays), but somehow, I think that this might be the one holiday that I may never forget. It began with the countless grocery stores, food stands, and specialty stores we had to travel to in order to conjure up an all-American Thanksgiving feast. Note: Foods that are not accessible in Irish food stores: corn-bread mix, creamed corn, canned green beans, French fried onions, canned pumpkin, cool-whip, Jell-O, frozen pie crusts already in the pie tin, pie tins/pans themselves, and cranberries. I have never had to make so many 'homemade' substitutions before in my life.
Jeanine, Elizabeth, Monica and I did some thinking. We decided that because the boys (Adam, Derrick, Joe, Jake, and Brian) would not be able to attend our celebratory meal (their school took them out for a free 3-course meal that they did not want to pass up), we wanted to share our tradition with two of our Irish professors (Mary Moloney and Mairead (pronounced Mer-raid)), one Irish woman we have conversed with at many of the extra nutrition-related seminars we have attended (the other Mary), our Dean-lady (Brid Ann), and a woman very famous in the nutrition world from Tufts University, Johanna Dwyer. Brid Ann and Johanna only came for dessert. It made for a very creative evening.
Oh, you want to know that menu? Well, we wanted to make Thanksgiving an extra-special affair as we all just wanted to be home with our families, and we are most thankful for our family. So, we made a whole turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato souffle, fruited stuffing, yeast rolls, strawberry pretzel salad, cornbread casserole, green bean casserole, and homemade cranberries. For dessert...3 pumpkin pies, 3 pecan pies, 2 apple pies, and one apple tart that Johanna gave to us as a gift.
There are bits and pieces from the above few paragraphs of which I feel obliged to give you a detailed synopsis to better illustrate the evening (aside from the photos). First of all, Dad, you would be so proud. I cleaned, spiced, salted, and marinated the turkey overnight (we named him Tom). I put him in a roasting bag, and he cooked up P E R F E C T L Y. The meat was 'falling off the bone' as you would say in your oh-so-proud manly cooking moment.
Mom, you will be proud to know that I planned the oven swapping of food quite accurately (with a little help from the girls, of course). And, I don't know if you remember photos of our tiny oven from one of my previous blog entries. Please, refer to photos of the kitchen. In fact, this would not be an ideal sort of cookery equipment for anyone save the typical college male. However, with proper planning, a late up-'till 2 am baking the previous night, and Jeanine's 3-hour afternoon availability for food-prep, the evening began and ended without a hitch.
Now, let me begin to discuss with you a few of our lost ingredients.
1. Cool whip: When I asked the 2nd-year girls (in my class) if they sold this in Ireland, they looked a bit puzzled. It was when I began singing the old Cool-whip commercial that is tuned to 'Cool Jerk' by the Capitols that I really got some demented looks. I felt very foolish, but no harm in asking, right? So, after much online searching, I found I brand that I recognized in Irish grocery stores...Bird's. It is just like 'Dream Whip' ...the dry powder that you whip into a delicious American Cool-whip. It was absolutely necessary for my strawberry pretzel salad. Who would have known that Cool-whip is just the convenient made-up American version of a
dry powdered whip and milk? Haha.
2. Cornbread mix: This was another feat. I had no idea that many Irish had never had cornbread (nor heard of it) before. Next, I was on the prowl for cornmeal or maize. It took me awhile, but I finally found it in a fine, specialty store, and luckily, pretty cheap! Thus, we had to make our own cornbread. Again, who would have known the the made-up version was not already available on shelves? I am sensing a trend.
3. Pumpkin: Canned pumpkin...forget about it! Fortunately, Elizabeth had been looking for pumpkin months ago. And when Halloween season was near ended, we swiped some pumpkins from the grocery store, cooked them, froze the flesh, and saved it for our Thanksgiving pies!
4. Pie pans: We thought we'd luck out in finding some frozen pie shells already in the tins. No such luck. We did, however, find frozen pie shells. Then the pie pan/tin searching began. I even marched into a home store and asked if they had ever heard of pie pans. The man looked at me blankly, motioned for me to follow him to the section in which I had already scowered, and proudly raised.....a cake pan. The man seemed as if he had been working at this establishment for quite some time, so I kindly said, "Well, that is a cake pan. Do you have something that has edges that jet out a little bit?" He suddenly lost his enthusiasm, and acting as if I had just insulted him (in an 'I'll-show-you' kind of tone) he said, "You should have brought some from home." I immediately grasped that this man was not a fan of Americans, and quickly left the store. I know what a pie pan is, and a cake pan will just not suffice.
Around 7 p.m. on Thursday, November 27, 2008 (the first Thanksgiving day on which I have ever had to actually go to school), we had appetized on marinated wienies, sipped wine, and celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time with some Irish friends. We just decorated the house in preparation for our guests. You can see our stockings are hung by the chimney with care.
The tree was dimly lit.
Our table scape ready for dining.
The many wine bottles supplied by Mary Moloney and brought to us as gifts. We felt so civilized.
And these are our dinner guests. Mary, Jeanine, Mairead, Mary Moloney, Me, Elizabeth, and Monica. What a wonderful celebration!
Jeanine prepared the fire.
While everyone visited, I did some last minute preparations in the kitchen. I wore my favorite apron from home. In hindsight, I am very glad that packed this with me...I knew it would come in handy for some special occasion. Soon after, the eating began. Mary Moloney could not get over the fact that I had told her to wear her 'eatin' pants'. She must have retold this story three times. Our three dinner guests had never before experienced Thanksgiving, so I thought it would only be right to explain to Mary that this is just a big EATING holiday, and it is most important to be prepared for these kind of events.
And so, the eating began..
Mairead, Mary, and Mary were all very eager to fill their plates. We all thought it was very funny because I do not believe that I have ever heard the word 'gorgeous' used so many times in one evening. "Oh, this is just GORGEOUS!" "The colors are GORGEOUS." "Oh, these flavors...GORGEOUS." Sometimes all that came out was, "GORGEOUS." We have come to learn one of two things: either 1. Mairead, Mary, and Mary really liked our food or 2. They just like to say the word 'gorgeous'. We would like to think that it is a combination of the two.
And now, some of the photos of the prepared food:
And our delicious pies. Jeanine babysits for an American family here in Dublin. Somehow, this woman was able to access shallow pie pans at some trade market...and she just gave them to us!
And our guests eating the food. Before most of the consumption was through, I read a little story on Thanksgiving to share with our Irish guests the true meaning of Thanksgiving. They thought is was 'lovely'. :)
Adam even showed up for a little wine and dessert. The rest of the boys followed about an hour later. They were ready for some pie! So, we did get to celebrate with them a little bit after all:)
We congregated in the family room for dessert and were happy to have Brid Ann and Johanna with us during this time. More conversation began...
In the end, it was a lovely, lovely evening. I truly will never forget this Thanksgiving. Although I missed my family terribly (and cooking away with our normal-sized cooking equipment), I am grateful to have experienced Thanksgiving with people of whom I have become thankful to have in my life.
I asked Mairead how she felt after our Thanksgiving meal, and she responded...
Happy Thanksgiving!
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