Thanksgiving 2010
Last year’s Thanksgiving taught me two important lessons: 1) After many years of eating and assisting with my family’s Thanksgivings, I had acquired the skills to pull one off on my own—even for a big crowd; 2) All the fixins and big crowd around the table does not automatically make for a superb TG. So this year we downsized Thanksgiving and I had a marvelous time. Once again I made all the dishes that I grew up with but the guest list stayed small, this was a strictly family affair (Gabor’s family, I should specify).
Fortunately for me, a table full of non-Americans makes for a good TG crowd. Since they don’t sit around and compare your turkey and stuffing to their grandmother’s it definitely takes some pressure off.
Another joy of Thanksgiving in a far off corner of the Southern Hemisphere is being able to enjoy the meal outside among the trees and flowers. There are few times when I prefer cold weather to warm, and TG, I realized, does not require sweaters and chilly temperatures to be enjoyed properly. In fact, all you need is a few bottles of bubbly to create a festive atmosphere.
The TG 2010 dish that made me the happiest was my pumpkin pie. Do some googling for pumpkin pie recipes and you’ll see two familiar ingredients: a can of pumpkin puree, and a few tablespoons of pumpkin pie spice. In America once November 15th rolls around those ingredients are prominently displayed in any grocery store. In South Africa, not so much. But of course all things jarred and canned can also be made from scratch, so I’m here to tell you that pureed butternut and a mixture of a good many brown colored spices yields the same delicious results. And a pie crust is not at all hard to make from scratch. Who knew?! (Actually, Angela knew. Thanks for the tip, Angela!) With all the leftover spices I’m already scheming about making another one sometime in the near future. (This is yet another benefit of hanging out in another country, no one knows that it’s sacrilegious to eat pumpkin pie in months other than November and December. A dream come true!)
All in all it was a great day with good food and excellent company. I am already looking forward to next year.
