1st Thanksgiving dinner: Thursday with my school
I sat at the “cool kids” table. Katie, Michael (who never fails to surprise me with how friendly he is despite how handsome he is) and Luke (who is the directors son and who is incredibly friendly) were those I sat closest too. The dinner and company was splendid. The conversation was definitely the kind I prefer: Pokémon, Harry Potter, D and D, Settlers of Catan, school, languages, why languages rock… playing soccer like an Italina vs. like an American. In general, the types of things we would talk about at Thanksgiving in my family.
I also sat near Peggy and Maiju so I was able to talk with them. They are the ladies who help make the whole program work. It made me feel like I was at home with family—adults, people my age, and “kids.”
Dinner was alla Bolognese and absolutely fabulous.
1. Bread and wine
2. Potato and mushroom soup (a lot like mashed potatoes)
3. Fish risotto (which I was initially weary about but was delicious)
4. Turkey with blueberry dressing (surprisingly tasty and not too heavy) and some mashed potatoes (which were like cement)
5. Pumpkin cake with marscapone yummmmm
6.my apple pie. We were told that if we felt like preparing a pie, then we should. So, I made an apple pie thinking other people would bring some pies too. But they didn’t. Everyone had a small piece of the pie and greatly enjoyed it. I was pleased, but it was funny cause it was certainly not one of my better pies.
Every one I sat around explained their Thanksgiving traditions. It was great fun learning what others do for Thanksgiving: green bean casserole actually does exist. There was wonderful live entertainment provided by fellow classmates. A few played the piano. I did not bother to mention I was capable of palying the piano, because I have not practiced in months and thus I would make a fool out of myself trying to play anything. I got back home full and happy as could be.
2nd Thanksgiving: Friday at my house
We were a significant number of people: Sara, Hanna, Keyleah (Stacy in photos), Maja, Leo, then Katy, and me… oh and Fred the huge TURKEY!!!
I picked up Fred the day before. He was easily about 7 kg. I almost broke my arm trying to carry him home. The next day I was getting ready to cook him but did not have a big enough pan. The lack of a pan lead to me ringing bells in my apartment complex asking for pans, but with no success. After ten minutes of hunting I gave up, went back up the stairs, and began preparing Fred. I finished de-feathering the monstrous bird, which took at least half an hour. Then, I gave Fred his first, and last, bath. Just carrying him to the sink nearly broke my back. The monster in my sink was actually not really in the sink. Only about half of Fred fit in the sink, the rest was protruding out rather unceremoniously. I was laughing so hard I could hardly bathe him. Then I had to stop to take a few photos of the absurdity taking place in my kitchen sink. After I had successfully bathed Fred and placed him back on the table, I had to go out pan-hunting.
I found a huge tinfoil pan and decided with three, it might just hold all of Fred without breaking. I grabbed the meat thermometer the pans and headed back home to finish preparing the monster sitting on my table.
I dressed the monstrosity in butter, salt, and pepper; stuffed him with apples, onions and lemons; finally, I put a tent of tinfoil over Fred. When all was done, he was the same size as my oven, which I was NOT prepared for. I had the rack in the middle of the oven, like the directions said, but Fred did not fit. He was so enormous that I could not put Fred in the oven, and so as I attempted to abort the mission, without burning myself or the bird, I almost made the oven fall over. I put a 7kg. bird on the door of the oven and almost ended up pulling the oven on top of me and toppling Fred onto the floor.
I was yelping and laughing with surprise. I yelled for Hanna to come help me. I left he bird on the door and just held the oven in place, which was a lot easier. Hanna came to the rescue, helped me move the monster back to the table move the pan, and then together we finally got Fred in the oven. He just barely fit. The legs, which we had tied together rather “artfully” (another way of saying ridiculously) with string, were smashed up against the door of the oven.
After the near disaster of loosing the bird and almost the oven, I ended up burning my fingers and a few parts of my hands. But, with the ice water that comes out of our faucet, I managed to stop most of the swelling.
While Fred cooked (four hours) I made the stuffing.
I had to look up about 3 different recipes in an attempt to figure out what I could do with the ingredients I had. I also wanted to find a recipe for a stovetop stuffing that were not simply the directions to the classic “stovetop stuffing” you can buy at the store. After reading the various things I might need, the various ways I could cook it, I proceeded with my own interpretation of how to turn an “in-oven” stuffing into a “stove-top” one. It turned out to be absolutely delicious. I made two because I needed one with meet and one without.
Meet:
First, I sautéed onions, garlic, and parsley in a large pan. Then I added some pork sausage, which in Bologna is the best kind. Once the sausage was cooked, I added at least three cups of corn bread and one of normal bread, followed by 2 eggs (well mixed), some salt pepper, oregano, basil, and a cup, or a little more, of vegetable stock. Lastly I added some apples. Sara stirred it for about fifteen minutes. It turned out amazing. If you are looking for a tasty homemade stovetop stuffing that is not too soggy and not too dry, then I guarantee this will be a tasty success.
Vegetarian:
If, perchance, you have a vegetarian in the family, or you just prefer your stuffing meatless, then you can make the exact same stuffing as above, just without the meat. It tastes even better if you add raisins and walnuts. Again, it will be just perfect.
With the help of Sara, Hanna, and Keyleah the potatoes were pealed, cooked, and mashed.
While the three of them worked on that, I made pasta for Keyleah. As usual, I forgot she was a vegetarian until after I had dressed the ravioli in Nonna sauce (which is a pork sauce). In order to make sure she would have enough to eat, and get to enjoy some pasta herself, I made some home-made pasta. I have now officially made pasta and ravioli in about every way possible. I do not have a pasta maker in Italy (ironic I know) and so I had to use a rolling pin. When I made the ravioli, I had to use my fingers to make the pillows and then I cut them with a very poor ravioli cutter. The pasta I rolled as thin as I could. Then, I cut it the way I learned at my cooking lesson in Siena—roll it up, and then take a sharp knife and cut the pasta roll to make beautiful pasta. Then when I cooked up the pasta, I put some pesto on it. Turned out tasty.
Finally, I made another apple pie (I had made the one for the Thanksgiving with my school already so I knew the recipe well). The night before I was up late making pumpkin pies. It is hard to make the perfect crust however, because I do not have the perfect recipe (I left it at home) and I do not have the utensils to measure everything out properly; so, even if I had the perfect recipe it would not help much because I have not way to properly measure everything. None the less, the crust was tasty.
The entire cooking process was obviously greatly enjoyed. We laughed, talked, laughed, sang, talked, danced, and had a jolly good time.
We decided that we were in need of more people to share our Thanksgiving feast so we called Maja, who brought along Leo, and Katy.
Pietro and his family could not come because his mom, Silvia, was not feeling well. I was bummed but glad that everyone else was able to make it.
We finally took the monster out of the oven. Fred was beautiful. Golden-brown, juicy, and ready to be eaten. I made gravy, but I it turned out a little strange. We finally ate around 9pm. We did not finish eating until at least 11pm. We started with the ravioli/pasta. Then we ate turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and gravy. By the time we had had a little of everything we were ready to burst.
Around 11 we ate dessert. Hanna was begging me to serve desert about fifteen minutes after I had finished my plate. I looked at her and told her she was crazy. We had to wait at least an hour. There was no way I could eat anything for a while, and the oven needed a brake. It had been working non-stop for the last four hours. When we got around to dessert, we had the pies with gelato to put over hot apple pie from the gelateria next to my house. It was absolutely delicious.
After we had gorged ourselves to the max, I taught them Pidro and we played two games (Sara, Maja, and Leo left… tired and full, and Pidro is hard to learn in another language. Besides it is only for 4 people)
We had good games and we played for hours. Then Katie and Keyleah went home at around three or four. Hanna who is the cleanest and tidiest housemate you could ask for cleaned up the rest. Then, we showered and went to bed around 6am. An entirely fulfilling and filling evening.
3rd “Thanksgiving”: Leftovers and birthday party
Obviously, with Fred being so fat, we had way too many leftovers that we had ANOTHER Thanksgiving.
Hanna, Katy, and I went to the ciaccoshow (chocolate fest) and got free samples of incredibly tasty chocolate. It was all too festive and amazing. All the Christmas lights were up and on, booths of chocolate everywhere, people everywhere. It was a lot like going to the lighting ceremony in Turlock, the day after Thanksgiving. The only that that made it better was the amazing presence of CHOCOLATE! There were also street performers everywhere. The first band we found was a real band and they were performing “O When the Saints” quite well and with great enthusiasm. There was a group of Spaniards on the other side of the crescent circle of spectators, who were singing and dancing just as much as Hanna, Katy, and I were. So we ended up having a little sing/dance off. They would sing one verse and dance, while the three of us would bounce up and down in rhythm; then we would sing and dance to the verses we could remember. The band played all the while, looking at them, playing to us. It was all together way too splendid. The next group we found was performing The Beatles and also lively. At one point the bassist (stand up bass) stood on his bass and played at the same time. It was crazy. As usual, Hanna, Katy, and I were the only ones dancing, clapping, singing and cheering. Italians will stand and happily watch the musicians, but rarely will they show enthusiasm, appreciation, or involvement. It is up to the foreigners to be involved and enthusiastic, then the Italians, occasionally, will slowly join in the festivities.
Unfortunately, I had only had apple/pumpkin pie with coffee for breakfast followed by all the free samples of chocolate, which meant I ended up with a rather painful tummy ache.
We got home around 9:30pm and began preparing the leftovers, of which we managed to eat very little.
Maja came over with Leo (her BF) and 2 incredibly handsome Polish boys who were visiting her from Poland (she is Polish). I mean, wow these guys were the definition of manly: Tall, buff, good eaters. They also had beautiful blond hair, strong face features. Polite and friendly, though shy. They did not speak Italian, and were afraid of speaking in English. But they were both quite adept at using English.
We used them as a way to get rid of more of Fred. They ate well and loved my food; which is always a plus when trying to make a good impression with me. Maja was so cute. She kept telling them they had to eat this, and that be cause I had made it by had and it is amazingly delicious! Then she would explain how you had to eat certain things, and some of the traditions. She was so involved and it made me feel like my cooking was more than a success.
Then, because I was standing there asking if they wanted more, if I could give them anything, eat eat eat, and in general keeping their plates full of tasty turkey, one of the boys said at the same time as Katy “I think I need to marry you! Can I?” I laughed, seeing as they had said it at the both time and because Maria, my housemate had already asked me a week or two before. I told them there was a long line.
From there we went to Daniel’s birthday. It was a lot of fun, but because it was a joint birthday it was really crowded. I talked to Artur (one of the polish boys) and then to Marcin (the other and by far my favorite). They were happy to practice English with me. They were nervous and embarrassed I guess, because they thought their English was not particularly good. In fact it was great. I understood them and we had long conversations. They just kept apologizing for their poor English. It made me feel like I should apologize for MY poor English, because in relation to theirs, mine was about the same.
After about an hour at Daniel’s party we went to Soda Pops, a fun, but always crowded place to go dancing. And that is where I fell in love with Marcin.
Marcin could dance! He could dance Salsa. Not to say the music was Salsa music, but we did not care. It is fun to dance Salsa, even when the music is not truly Salsa. And, as most people know, if you can dance Salsa, you gain at least a million awesome points in my book. I told him he was an amazing dancer even though he denied it. Then at one point, he told me he liked dancing with me. I got so many butterflies in my tummy and a silly smile on my face. He taught me a few moves and I taught him a few as well.
We literally danced all night long. I had not smiled that much while dancing since dancing Salsa in Santa Cruz. So obviously because Marcin could dance Salsa, he danced it with me all night, he loved my cooking (he asked me to marry him because of it) I fell hopelessly in love with him. But, it was a doomed love, because the next day he left to go back to Poland. Oh well, è la vita. I guess I’ll just go to Poland to dance with them.
Such wonderful thanksgivings.
Fred is still sitting in the freezer, one last Tupperware container. I don’t know how we will ever finish him!!!
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