Giving Thanks

Image from www.outblush.com

I thought it would be really fun to host an authentic American Thanksgiving dinner here in Vienna. We'd do it on the Saturday of Thanksgiving week - invite a few friends, cook up some goodness, and share a holiday that M and I both love. Simple.

Simple, except for the following slight challenges:

1) We have never entertained here. We invited some friends. One set of friends brought a friend. Two sets of friends have little kids. We ended up being, including us, nine adults and several children under the age of five. Dinner for, let's say, 11 and a half. We had to do a lot of chair-finding, plate-finding, and seat-arranging. We also had to try to make sure that our fairly sharp-edged apartment was at least slightly child-safe. A note on that: M and I agree both that a) places don't need to be "child-proofed" because there's really no such thing, and b) that children, in a new place, should know not to touch things or run around banging their heads on sharp-edged things. Clearly, M and I don't have children.

2) The size of our refrigerator.  It is small - it holds a couple days' supply of food for two. 

Shopping ahead of time was going to be a problem. As I began my menu planning, I made lists of everything I would need. There was no way it would all fit in the fridge. We have a storage room that is unheated. I decided that produce could all go in there for a few days. As I began to prep things, they went in there, too.

That's the bread for the stuffing drying out. In the upper left is a bike helmet and squash racquet. You will also note on the left the ridiculous amounts of butter I thought would be necessary for Thanksgiving.

3) Turkey. I abandoned the idea of doing a gorgeous whole turkey fairly quickly, for two reasons - the first is that they are hard to find and expensive. I could have gotten a Butterball at the UN Commissary, but... the second problem is the size of my oven:

It is small. It couldn't hold - from top to bottom - a turkey the size we would need to feed our guests. What to do? Turkey parts. A couple breasts and a couple legs. I could reconstruct a turkey! You know me.... for a few moments I even entertained the idea of trying to sew the cooked turkey parts together after roasting so it would look more like a turkey.... I thought about it, but I didn't. 

So, turkey parts it would be. I'd seen them before at the supermarket. I talked to the poultry people there, and asked them if I should order parts ahead of time. They said they would make sure that I could get them on Saturday morning - that way, I wouldn't have to store them in the aforementioned fridge. Good plan. I got them on Saturday - WHAT WAS I THINKING?!? There was quite a lot of turkey flesh. I got two enormous turkey breasts and four turkey legs. What kind of hybrid turkey was I trying to create? On I went.

Here's what I ended up with: (please note the trussing of the breast, since I had never trussed a blessed thing in my life before):

Next to those monstrosities is the stock I'd started earlier. I had to start it early because I knew I'd need that pot later for several things in succession.

What else? On the menu I planned ahead

- and revised liberally throughout the days prior (and during the day itself) - was: the aforementioned turkey, green beans with shallots and walnuts, the stuffing (whose bread dried for a few days before), mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (oh my goodness, I needed to find marshmallows in Austria), roasted vegetables (brussels sprouts, carrots, shallots, beets), and apple pie.

After an extensive search of reasonably-priced stores, I found the marshmallows at Julius Meinl:

Without boring you [further] about each detail, let's just say there was a fair amount of juggling going on in that kitchen. And a lack of a proper pie plate. You don't - DO. NOT. make a Thanksgiving apple tart. You make a pie. Even if it's in a tart plate. Because we don't have a pie plate and you cannot find one in all of the sparkling city of Vienna (I looked). So....

Oh, and I didn't have a rolling pin:

We told our guests to arrive "around 3:00 or 3:30." When our door buzzer rang, a little after 3:00, I was (of course) not clean, not really dressed for company, kitchen was a mess, nothing was really done, except.... M made gorgeous, gorgeous, keep-people-fed-while-his-crazy-wife-cooks-like-a-maniac hors d'oevures:

Oh, and wine and other drinks: 

In the end, here's what we served:

It was a wonderful, chaotic, and heartwarming Thanksgiving. Our guests were funny, gracious, and it was a delight to have them at our table. Having friends here is a great thing. We're so lucky. And thankful.