Pre-T-giving Pot-Luck
Trip Start
Apr 06, 2003
1
38
69
Trip End
Ongoing
Amsterdam,
Netherlands
Sunday, March 7, 2004
Long time no hear? Ok, so not so true. But since we are so behind on this t-pod, I figured I would crank it out. And since it is from our T-giving pot-luck party on Nov. 16, now was as good a time as any. So here it is...
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The idea of hosting a T-giving pot-luck prior to the actual T-giving holiday was something that my old college roomie Justin started a few years ago. He invited all of his friends over and as the tradition continued over a number a years, Julie and I really began to love the day. We were both pretty sad that we wouldn't be able to join Justin, Erin, Jason, Jimmy, and the rest of the usual characters in Chicago this year so we decided that we would export the idea to A'dam for a few years until we could rejoin the group.
So, we invited our American friends that were looking for a T-giving environment. And our non-American friends who don't celebrate but wanted to share in the food and atmosphere.
It started a few days before our party...we had to place a special order for our turkey ("kalkoon" in Dutch) from the butcher since the grocery store was not exactly stocked with T-giving foods. I had to carry the turkey home from work one evening. It was very odd. I held it like a football - high and tight - and hoped to make it home before the bird was destroyed. You see, it wasn't one of those frozen Butterballs so as I grabbed it under the wings, I could feel its legs dangling. It was very weird. And I carried it in a plastic grocery bag.
01. Julie preparing for the party
So as I stood on a crowded Dutch tram with the legs almost sticking out the top of the bag, turkey tucked under my arm, I plowed through the wall of passengers who insisted on standing in front of the door as my stop approached. I felt like I was diving through the line of scrimmage en route to the endzone.Anyways, the turkey did not have one of those cool thermometer that pops when ready so Julie had to really watch it. This, of course, was after she finished preparing it which included removing several dozen feathers (see Pics 1-3) which were not removed prior to purchasing it - but at least the butcher removed the head and insides! Also involved in preparing the turkey was the task or de-croutoning the packages of onion soup mix that we bought to season the turkey with.
Other than the turkey, Julie also prepared a few other little things (mashed potatoes, stuffing, cranberries, and pumpkin pie). While she prepared the food, I ran around A'dam getting all the last minute things. Julie's mom sent many of our T-giving items (including a paper T-giving tablecloth and napkins) but I had to run to the Expat Shop to pick up a few last minute things that they don't carry in the normal grocery stores. Things like tollhouse chocolate chips for EUR 7 a bag...$9 for chocolate chips seems a bit excessive to me. I also had to pick up some eggs at which point I realized something I had never realized before...the Dutch sell eggs in cartons of 6 of 10...10 eggs? Who sells 10 eggs? I also had to find toothpicks for Julie's first crack at those little cocktail wieners that is an absolute necessity of her family's T-giving.
02. Julie plucking features from the turkey
Unfortunately, the only toothpicks I could find were for the hygiene ones and I didn't know how well the mint flavor would go with hot dogs. Finally, I found what I was looking for.Anyways, we had asked our buddies to bring their favorite T-giving treat or "holiday" food, if this was going to be their first T-giving. This is commonly known as a pot-luck, as all of you know. But as it was, a few friends were unfamiliar with the phrase "pot-luck" and since it is A'dam, they weren't all certain what was so "lucky" about "pot". Ironically, I also learned that the phrase "going Dutch" is known as an "American party"...pretty weird huh?
And it worked out great. We had Korean dumplings. We had Greek dolmas. We had Dutch leeks. We had French cherry pastry. We had Turkish baklava. There were a few other non-T-giving "holiday" foods but given this was 5 months ago, I'm at a loss...but I know it was all wonderful!
This was our first attempt at making a turkey. It was a big one, 6.32 kilograms (almost 14 pounds). We put it into a roasting pan but the pan didn't even fit into the oven. So we somehow squished it into a smaller pan. The turkey barely made it into the pan but it really worked out just fine.
And Julie did an unbelievable job! And with some last minute coaching from Julie's dad, I carved one hell of a nice bird (see Pic 4). While I was a bit unsure of myself, I asked my Dutch friend Vincent to help out (see Pic 5) but if I don't mind saying so myself, I did a MUCH better job than he did!
While our friends relaxed over a few Heinekens (see Pics 6-12), I finished up with the turkey (see Pics 13 and 14).
03. Julie basting the turkey - looks good!
We had about 30 people, about half of which from my work and the other half Julie knows from the American Woman's Club. Attending were a handful of Americans celebrating T-giving with their "family" (from my work: Larry with his wife Ann and kids Peter and Jacqueline, Chris and Melanie, and Philip, a Korean-American; from the American Woman's Club: Jolie and her Belgian husband Sam, Katrina and John from Chicago, Jamison and Christine, and Pilar from Columbia with her American husband Tony). We also had a few experiencing T-giving for the first time: Bruce and Ange and Tom and Meeghan (Australians from my work and wives), Berryl (French from my work), Shelley (British from my work), Vincent (Dutch from my work with his 2-year-old son Egan), and Dogan and Deniz (our Turkish downstairs neighbor). It was a great mix.Other than turkey and other traditional T-giving food, we were able to supply our guests with a bit more of an authentic feel to the day by showing an NFL game which Jeff and Andrea had sent to us...I mean, what's T-giving without some gridiron...and the Packers won!
The ambiance was perfect, the guests were having a good time, I did the last few things to prepare the bird to perfection...now it was time to eat (see Pics 15-22)!
Everyone seemed to really enjoy him or herself and it felt nice to know that we had prepared such a wonderful T-giving. Those who had never had a T-giving before were really pleased and expressed excitement to participate again next year.
04. Stephen carving the turkey
And those who had spent their T-givings away from their normal T-giving, were also pleased and looking forward to next year.One of the more memorable things from the evening was my conversation with our downstairs neighbor Dogan. Dogan is a Turkish Jew. Neither Julie nor I had any clue however now that we look back, I suppose we are not totally surprised as his name is Levi. But I guess I didn't make the connection - or assumed that Jewish last names in the US don't necessarily mean they are Jewish elsewhere. What made our conversation even more memorable was that just the day before was when coordinated suicide bombers attacked the Istanbul synagogues. He said he spent the last 2 days monitoring the news. Dogan told me a lot about what it is like growing up Jewish in what he called "a 99.9% Muslim country". As a result of being a member of a community that is an enormous minority, the community is very very tight and was very very upset by this attack. Luckily Dogan did not know anyone that died however, he did say that his grandfather usually goes to one of the attacked temples (although he didn't go that day for some reason) and his dad's business was affected (although not destroyed) since it is on the street where the temples were. On a sidenote, Julie and I went our for dinner with Dogan the other night and he said that the temples are no longer holding services and that they are now "underground". Pretty sad! So Josh, despite your wonderful efforts to help raise money to rebuild the temples and provide aid to our fellow Jews in need, it appears that the Turkish Jewish community has suffered an attack they are not quite ready to rebound from yet.
05. Vincent helping to carve the turkey
But as Dogan pointed out, gunman entered the same temples and started shooting congregants during services in the 80s and the community eventually moved forward, so hopefully they will persevere again.Anyways, in the end, it was a very wonderful night. The food was perfect and in a very non-T-giving way, we had very little leftovers. This was a very good thing since the size of our refrigerator wouldn't allow much anyways. But while cleaning up, we did find one extra box of baklava, oh well.
It felt really great to have hosted this party! This day made it a bit easier for us to be away from our usual T-giving tradition in Milwaukee with Julie's family for the first time - although nothing can replace breaking down tables, trying to peer pressure Danny into eating an entire cheesecake, and fetching another Vernor's from the porch. But we were very pleased to have introduced T-giving to many who have never experienced it before and to have helped fill the void that some of the other Americans might also have been experiencing as their holiday away from their families drew nearer. Julie really did a wonderful job preparing the food and we came to the realization that we don't have to be in the United States and it doesn't have to be the last Thursday in November for us to get together to celebrate how thankful we are for the health, happiness, and fortune of our families and friends.
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Well, that was T-giving. I hope you enjoyed it as it truly was a wonderful evening. In case you don't remember, the actual day of T-giving was spent in Frankfurt, Germany.
Anyways, we hope to hear from you soon.
-Stephen
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