We hope everyone enjoyed their fill of feasting and family dysfunction! Over here in the middle East, we had a delightful American Thanksgiving all our own. It was a bit of a labor of love, but in the end it was absolutely worth it.
See this face of utter bewilderment? This was halfway through the day, just after taking Will to the doctor for an acute ear infection that surfaced around noon. Guests were due at 6 pm.
Check out those quills! They were all over every inch of that sucker.
Wait, let me back up a bit and start at the beginning.
The first dilemma of Thanksgiving abroad is: to have or not to have. We could have skipped it altogether. We could have prepared a simple meal. We could have even eaten out at the one American Restaurant in Tel Aviv hosting their Thanksgiving plate special. However, once the Embassy advertised their "feather free" butterballs for sale at the handsome price of $60 per 10-12 lb. bird, we decided to go for it. We invited three sets of neighbors to join us, and the planning began.
Now, procuring grocery items for a traditional American Thanksgiving in Israel is not the easiest task. Here's a few unavailable items:
- stuffing
- cream of mushroom or chicken soup
- chicken broth
- marshmallows
- salted butter
- fried onions
- apple cider
- pumpkin
- condensed milk or evaporated milk
- cranberries of any variety: canned, fresh, frozen, dried
Thankfully, between our dry goods shipment, care packages from friends and family, and a little online Netgrocer shopping, I had most of these items on hand. Except marshmallows. Which is why our sweet potato casserole was topped with these:
Israeli banana flavored and shaped marshmallows. It was either these or strawberry. Weird, but Stewart insisted on marshmallows, so there you go.
I digress; back to the bird. So, it turns out that a "feather free" turkey isn't necessarily "quill free." Or "neck and innards free." Stewart was my absolute hero and knight in shining armor. He offered to de-quill and clean our little avian friend for me. I think he knew that if I were left to the job, there might not be a turkey come next year. So, he pulled out some pliers and worked on the gobble gobble for over an hour.
Check out those quills! They were all over every inch of that sucker.
One by one.
Gross... but that's how it's done.
The next hurdle was fitting our bird in our oven. Our oven is a little on the small side. Like more similar to a microwave than an oven, really. It only fits up to one 13 x 9 size dish in at a time. Thankfully, by placing the rack on the lowest setting, we were able to just barely fit the turkey inside. Whew!
After all was said and done, the turkey cooked beautifully and turned out to be the most scrumptious one we've prepared yet. Will had a nice long nap, and the antibiotics kicked in, so he was in the clear. Lydia finally dropped her fever the day before (yes, we truly have been chronically ill for the last two months), so she too was good to go.
Out of the neighbors that joined us, only one couple had ever partaken of a thanksgiving meal and even then it was only one time. They were all very curious and excited about the event. They kept saying things like, "We've only seen this in the movies!" & "We've always wanted to see a Thanksgiving meal and try the food." With eager, grateful company, good wine and good food, we had a wonderful meal and evening. We also took time to introduce our traditions of reading scripture, saying grace, and going around and sharing the things for which we are thankful. We learned a lot about each other, and relationships were forged a little deeper. Of course, I said I was thankful for my family and the chance to be living in Israel, but what I really wanted to say was, "I'm so thankful I didn't ruin the food and the turkey isn't full of quills and feathers!"
"Happy Thanks Holiday"
Shalom Y'all!
