Thanksgiving in the Netherlands
It's been less than a week since I bought my oven and I've already put it to great use.
Specifically, a quickly assembled Thanksgiving get-together materialized this week! Two of the other American students found a whole turkey at the Saturday market, so a few of us got together to celebrate. But of course, since we're Americans overseas, and students, this was even more complicated than normal Thanksgiving!
First of all, the others did a really great job roasting the turkey. Only one person had an oven large enough to fit the turkey, but only a different person had a room large enough to host the party. So they shuttled the turkey back and forth. Plus, since we didn't have the day off from school and had class 9-5, they roasted the turkey a bit the night before, and finished it the day of. (And then it was finished off even more in the host's combi microwave-oven since some of the dark meat was a bit red... yet everything was still surprisingly juicy!)
I had the assignment of making the stuffing. I used my favorite cornbread wild mushroom stuffing recipe. Mixed wild mushrooms come in exactly the same package as if they were from Trader Joe's, so that wasn't a problem. Pecans were a problem. They were €2 per 50g at Albert Heijn, and I needed 450g worth for the stuffing and the pecan pie (below). €18, or $27, just for pecans? I don't think so. Thankfully the Wednesday market has a dried fruit and nut seller, and I got 500g for €6.75 (about $10/lb, but still). Then, corn meal isn't really available since corn in every form seems to be a really American thing. So I just bought a french bread loaf, cut it up, and set it out to dry overnight. Turned out really well.
With my pecan problems solved, I still needed to solve a couple other issues with my other assignment, pecan pie. No corn in every form also means no corn syrup. And I don't have a food processor and that's the only way I know how to make pie crust (along with shortening and vodka). So I switched to pecan pie bars using honey as a thickener.
The pecan pie bars went in a shoebox, and the stuffing went wrapped up in the foil I lined my one baking dish with (same that the pecan pie bars were in), put it all in a blue Ikea bag and biked 30 minutes.
Not very traditional conditions, but a surprisingly traditional dinner was the outcome. My first Thanksgiving as an expat, and it was a good one.
