Thanksgiving Dinner

For those of you who facebooked me asking whether Germany had its own Thanksgiving, and if it was really days before the American one, here's your answer.

No, Germany does not have Thanksgiving. Actually, I decided to celebrate Thanksgiving and show my family what one would traditionally prepare for a thanksgiving dinner. I celebrated it on Sunday, because naturally on Thursday we all have to work and go to school and not many people would be able to come. Also, next weekend, my family is already having people over for dinner, so it'd be too much to do all in one weekend. Hence, I chose last Sunday as the day.

To begin, buying traditional Thanksgiving foods is not easy in Germany, but luckily my fellow PPPler C-, who lives literally like a hop, jump over the autobahn and skip away from me, has a military ID and we were able to go to the US Military Commissary in Wiesbaden and buy the groceries that we needed.

I decided that I would first buy everything that I needed at the commissary since 1) it would be cheaper and I could pay in dollars, 2) anything they didn't have I'd buy elsewhere, 3) we were being driven to the commissary which makes life a lot easier.

I've never been to a commissary before and I had no idea what to expect. It's so funny when you're in a foreign country like Germany, you're used to everything being a certain way, even when buying groceries. You expect that you're not going to get this or that, because it simply doesn't exist here. But then you go to the commissary and your whole view changes.

We arrived at the commissary just in the knick of time to get the shopping we needed done. C- registered me into the commissary and as we filled out paper work, I was looking around the store from the entrance. At this moment in time, everything was black and white. The transition from Germany (just right outside the doorway) to the commissary is stark. As you walk in the sliding doors, you see the bright fluorescent lights, the large isles with signs written in English, and shopping carts whose wheels only swivel in the front. These minute differences you notice when you jump (literally through the threshold of the doorway) between cultures as I did.

Once in the commissary, it was strange to see the prices, (in dollars). At first it seemed expensive to me, but then I realized I had to stop thinking in Euro. I was able to buy so many things that I dreamt of buying but couldn't. Normal sized romaine lettuce, sweet potatoes, peanut butter, canned pumpkin, chocolate chips, tostitos tortilla chips (scoops version), brownies, cranberry sauce, stuffing, Edy's Ice cream (french silk and mint chocolate chip), cereal, orange juice (not from concentrate - there are no orange trees in Germany), cranberry juice. I was sort of in heaven. It was unbelievable, and everywhere you went, you saw people speaking English (although mostly with southern accents).

So there my adventure ends at the commissary. I was able to buy everything I needed for a small amount of cash and it was great. I didn't have to go anywhere else, and I had everything I needed for my dinner.

Lastly, going out into the parking lot was also funny. All the cars are the American versions, just with tiny German license plates to fit the US standard. I saw Tahoes, Suburbans, Hondas, Jeeps, all cars that you never see in Germany, and there they were all parked in the parking lot. Very strange.

When I got home, I thawed (or as we say in Michigan dethawed) the Turkey. Since I was cooking it the next day, I couldn't let it thaw in the refrigerator, so I filled the sink with cold water and let it sit there. I've never cooked a Turkey before, and so this was my first time.

I left the turkey in the water overnight. I was prepared to wake-up early the next morning to begin cooking, but the instructions said it only needed to thaw 6-8 hours, which was perfect. My turkey (a butterball) was 12lbs. Sort of small, but remember, ovens here are also smaller, and I didn't want so many leftovers as is the case with Thanksgiving.

I prepared the turkey, made the stuffing, and right before I put the turkey in the oven at 160°c, I stuffed it with my stuffing. Luckily of us Americans, all the directions are already on the packages. I placed the Turkey in the oven at 12:10, and then I got going on the other things. I had also prepared to make sweet potatoes, mashed garlic potatoes, stuffing (more), salad, and pumpkin pie.

I had helpers coming over to help, Max and KC, and they were supposed to arrive anytime between 1 and 2. So I decided to peel all the sweet potatoes and potatoes. Everything was prepared so that when they came, we could continue working. D- (my host father) also helped me by putting an additional leaf in the table (I wasn't even aware that our table expanded). So we preped the dining room, expanding the table, and N- (my host sister) helped set the table.

KC worked on the salad, which had dried cranberries, almond slices, tomatoes, spinach, romaine lettuce and croutons. Max worked on the pumpkin pie recipe, and I worked on boiling the potatoes. It's always great to have help, but you can't have to head chefs in the kitchen, and sometimes Max is hard to deal with because he's used to a quality and way of doing things. Max is pretty stubborn when it comes to most things, cooking not withstanding.

The turkey we basted with vegetable oil and its juices. It was interesting to see how it was cooking. The first two hours, we had the over at 325°F and in convection oven mode, and then we turned off the convection and just had heat from below and above. After 4 hours, we took out the turkey (it was the first thing done) and put the potatoes to bake. It was sort of an acrobatic act because we had to constantly keep switching things in and out of the oven so that it would stay warm. Now I know why American households usually have two ovens. It's all about Thanksgiving.

People started coming over at 4:00pm, exactly when I told them. This was expected but at the same time sort of annoying. In the US, we say 4pm and people come 4:15-4:30. German's come at 3:59pm. Anyways, the only thing done at this point was the turkey and so we weren't going to eat until later. I predicted that things would be done at 5:30pm, and I was right, but we didn't sit down to eat until 5:45.

In all there were 12 of us, unfortunately M- (host mom) was sick and didn't join us as she feared she's contaminate us. In the end, the dinner was successful, and everything tasted so good. It's good to stick to some traditions even when abroad. I feel now I am ready for the holiday season. You can't have Christmas without celebrating Thanksgiving.

By the way, my Turkey was juicy, and the stuffing that was inside was the best. Max and KC also made gravy, and I ate it with the cranberry sauce. There was enough food for 12 people, so if you don't want left overs, buy a smaller turkey.