Phew, what a weekend! And by weekend, I of course include Thursday, as my Friday class consists of waking up at 7:30 to go sit in a room pretending to translate things of which I have only a limited understanding in Ancient Greek.
For those of you unaware, our plan for Thanksgiving this year was to invite all of our enthusiastic Erasmus friends over to give them as American a Thanksgiving experience as humanly possible. Anya and I joined forces with two other Americans to share in the food preparation workload, which turned out to be a good idea, because we barely accomplished our share!
I was--rather by default--in charge of Mr. Turkey, but I also decided I would make homemade rolls, non-vegetarian stuffing, scalloped potatoes, and our gravy, because really, when am I happy just making one thing? I did some shopping at Kaufland earlier this week to scope out the turkey options, and lo and behold, found whole frozen turkeys under the large "Geflügel" (flying things, essentially) sign in the frozen section (other signs include "Kartoffel", "Fertiggerichte", and "Kuchen und Torten"--potatoes, ready meals, and cakes and tortes...priorities, people!). The largest turkeys they had were 5.8 kg, so I grabbed two of those suckers, considering we were feeding approximately 24 people, and each of those, at around 12lbs, fits the 1lb/person minimum recommended under copious online searches), and stuck them in my fridge to defrost on Monday and Tuesday...they both still did some time in the sink, but it was minimal. Special thanks go out to my parents, who reminded me that if a turkey is, in fact, frozen, they do..er...actually need time to become un-frozen. The things you learn from your parents...
Real preparations began on Wednesday night when I returned from my English course and went to purchase the rest of my supplies. I whipped up some dough for Parker House Rolls, and at about 1:30am left them all ready to go for their second rising on my makeshift cookie sheet. I woke up at 7 to remove the first turkey from the sink so my housemates could actually use it for breakfast prep, and went back to bed for an hour and a half before I had to really start the cooking. I then proceeded to chop, bake, roast, creamify, and otherwise fill our house with delicious smells until 5:30 when our guests started arriving. At that point I'd shepherded two separate turkeys through individual roasting processes and was packing everything into foil to haul it across the hall to Anya's, where we'd set up a large table as a buffet.
Our English-Irish contingent, for which we're still trying to find a shorter name, arrived first, as promised, and Ivor began mixing up his enhanced Glühwein with traditional store-bought mulled wine and his own delicious additions. Josh announced he wanted to see my turkeys, so after a good few minutes of trying to dodge inunedos, I took him over to inspect the birds. They were received with awe and lots of exclaiming, but we realized neither of us felt prepared to carve them in a manner fitting the occasion. Ever capable, Ivor asked for a large knife and two plates and went. to. town. The legs and wings came off, the breasts came off, and before my eyes they were turned into two empty carcasses with beautiful plates of artfully displayed turkey on the table.
The rest of the guests began to arrive and the other Americans set out their contributions (pumpkin bread, peanut butter pie, broccoli casserole, "strawberry fluff", rolls, delicious bready dumplings, and deviled eggs). My wonderful tandem partner and her friend joined us, as well as a couple of my and Anya's housemates (who weren't out of town or busy studying for exams), and then we had what was nearly the entire compliment of kommilitoren/innen (classmates) from our Startkurs language course in September. We had friends joining us from Germany, England, Ireland, Poland, Lithuania, Spain, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Taiwan, China, and Brazil, and it's safe to say that the food was a huge hit. After concern over preparing my mom's scalloped potatoes properly and not being able to find a meat thermometer in Kaufland, I received boatloads of compliments on everything, particularly the turkey, which--if you'll permit me a little bit of gloating--was essentially perfect.
Here are some photos, as promised!
One of my turkeys
My first ever attempt at homemade stuffing: bread, seasonings, homemade "Italian sausage", chicken broth, apple, and sage. Delicious.
Some of the spread, and Ivor taking apart the birds
The other half of our spread, and some very excited revelers (Josh and Rachel)
My tandem partner, Maria, and her friend, Manuela
More excited guests enjoying food
The original photo was supposed to beof me walking around with my glass of wine and the champagne Ivor had handed me. Then it turned into everyone (Ivor) handing me their alcohol...
More happy revelers! (Sinead, Sera, Ivor, Anya)
Beige leftovers the next day with Sinead (and a healthy dose of knitting!)
While I was really sad to have missed Thanksgiving at home, I'm so grateful to have made such wonderful friends in Tübingen who were able (and more than excited) to celebrate with us. We had a really great evening with lots of delicious food, even if we did, for once, promote the stereotype that Americans eat too much! We did explain that it's a very specific part of the tradition, but I was assured that in both Poland and Slovakia (and I'm sure elsewhere, we just didn't the specific conversations), holiday overeating is exceedingly traditional as well :)
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday weekend with family and friends!
(P.S. T-5 days until Gilder's visit, and T-25 days until my triumphant return Stateside for Christmas and New Year's. I can't wait!)
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