Fri 29 Nov 2002
At first thought, I had decided that since Thanksgiving would be no fun without all the favorite foods, I would just skip the whole ordeal. After seeing the poor, pathetic look on Ken’s face when he was faced with a year of no pumpkin pie, I changed my other mind and dug into a little research. I discovered several recipes that were related to a Thanksgiving dinner and also ones that I could find ingredients for. Thanksgiving day had come so it was to late to celebrate on Thursday with everyone else. But hey, when it is only the two of you and some kids that do not know the difference, you can pull anything off. I then played hooky from school last night (shhh…don’t tell Ken!!) and went grocery shopping to my hearts content. I found the ingredients on my list, and that was no small feat! It took trips to 4 different stores, constant reference to the German dictionary, and the help of one very patient sales clerk. There is one thing I have learned about living in Germany: everything is cooked from fresh foods. That means no canned goods that you really want.
I then spent the entire day (and I do mean ENTIRE DAY ) chopping, cutting, slicing, and dicing. I chopped carrots, diced celery and onions, cut pumpkins and bread, and even sliced my finger really good. In the end my menu consisted of turkey, sausage stuffing made from fresh bread, carrot salad (carrots, pineapple, raisins, marshmallows, and dressing), oranged cranberries simmered on the stove all day, and corn on the cob (just was not possible to do the favorite T-day veggies here so we made do). I have to admit that the hard work slaving in the kitchen paid off. the dinner turned out very nicely. To top off the wonderful dinner, I even convinced myself to go through the trouble of pumpkin pie made from none other than fresh pumpkin and whipped topping from scratch. (You guessed it…no canned pumpkin or cool whip here!!!) There is however something to be said about pie made completely fresh. “Divine” comes to mind pretty quickly.
I had managed to keep all of this a secret from Ken. I was anticipating the look on his face when he laid eyes on the stuffing and pumpkin pie, and even told Carissa about the excitement of the surprise for daddy. After the cooking was complete we headed out to pick him up from work. Would you believe the first words out of Carissa’s mouth were “daddy we made you a surprise! (whispering now) It is pumpkin pie!!” I could not believe what my ears had just heard! I now know to NEVER trust a 3 year old with secrets.
We sat down to a great meal and worth every labor of pain it took to make. Only sweet potato casserole and family could have made it better. It has been 3 hours since we ate and I am still stuffed beyond imagination.
You know what? SSSHHHH….listen. The pumpkin pie is calling my name. Do you here it calling???? Sorry, gotta go now!
