Thanksgiving
November 25, 2007
People have wondered if we managed to celebrate
Thanksgiving here in Tasmania, and whether we had a turkey. Indeed, we had a
great Thanksgiving, although we celebrated it on Sunday, so that we had a day
to cook and didnÕt have to have it on a school day. Whew! We were all tired the
next day, but ate very well! The turkey was most delicious, and the stuffing
came out especially well (I added pecans and sage, but no celery). No trouble
getting a turkey – people eat it here for Christmas, so you just order it
from the butcher. But the turkey came empty! No giblets or neck! And I only
found out as I was getting ready to stuff itÉ What to do about the gravy?? It
was a dilemma. I even called the butcher to see if they sold chicken liver or
if I could buy the giblets, but no (they sounded rather surprised). So I ran up
to the One Stop Shop and bought some chicken drumsticks to make stock. Not
perfect, but still quite a tasty gravy. The only difference was that we
couldnÕt buy fresh cranberries here, but there were 3 kinds of canned sauce
available. The other handy difference was that all the stores were open and
they werenÕt out of all the things we wanted!
In fact, I had several interesting conversations with
people at the store about Thanksgiving. The cashier, who had helped me find
several items, noted that it looked like I was shopping for something in
particular. I told her that it was an American holiday, and she had heard of
Thanksgiving, but wasnÕt really sure what it was. They all thought it was odd
that we would have a big eating holiday right before Christmas! They wanted to
know what the holiday was for, so I got used to giving a two-sentence
explanation (and you couldnÕt have the word ÒpilgrimsÓ in the explanation,
because they wouldnÕt know what it meant).
We had invited Dot, a scientist in the Plant Science
department, who came with her family, husband Gary and two girls, Naomi (11)
and Lauren (8). We had been their guests at Tasman house, a research station
owned by the University located on the Tasman peninsula. We had spent the
weekend with them, and enjoyed their company. Dot had done a year of research
in Boulder Colorado during graduate school, so she had experienced an American
Thanksgiving, but I donÕt think the others had.
Dot brought the fixings for two lovely salads, and put
them together here. We had the usual running around like crazy getting
everything on the table and the turkey carved, but it was a delightful evening.
They had brought champagne for the adults and orange juice for the kids
(AussieÕs appear to be crazy about orange juice, especially with extra pulp).
We had a lovely time!
Somehow the girls have decided that they both have to make
dessert on Thanksgiving. TheyÕre both accomplished bakers, so thatÕs not a
problem, it's just a matter of how many desserts we need after an enormous turkey
with all the trimmings! Anna made a pumpkin pie, a pecan pie and then she and
Eileen made an apple tart with star pastry cutouts on top. Yum! Anna made it
all herself! I just gave advice on pans etc. Rama had brought the canned
pumpkin from the US, so it was authentic – just the way it ought to
taste!
Eileen made chocolate chip cookie bars, perhaps not a
Thanksgiving tradition, but very American nonetheless! They turned out quite
delicious and she made them without any help at all - very independent! They
were definitely the favorites of both Naomi and Lauren. Chocolate chip cookie
bars are a fairly standard variation on the recipe at home, but were completely
new here. So it was a good American dish to have.
A feast of professional desserts!
The younger kids had fun playing and Anna joined us for
conversation. It turns out that Gary, a geologist at the university, is the
coach for the Taroona Underwater Hockey team!! (see earlier blog posting for
details) Such a small world!
Anyway, I managed to pull much of the meat off (it was
quite a nice bird!) and put it in the stock pot while we chatted. The next day
we had a lovely turkey soup with the leftovers. We never DID manage to make it
through all the pies (including the practice pumpkin pie Anna made the day
before. Our strange oven burnt one side of the pie and Anna was too proud to
serve it. She HAD to make another the day of ThanksgivingÉ) Oh yes, and we
found a specialty store downtown, ÒSweet ConnectionsÓ, that specializes in
sweets and other specialty items from the UK, New Zealand and the US, that
carries Crisco! So the pies were authentic. They also have graham crackers, which are completely unknown
hereÉ
Now we have to order what we want to have for Christmas
dinner. The order lists have been up at the butchers and grocers for a couple
of weeks now. yikes! must get planning...