I’ve spent Thanksgiving away from family but I’ve never been abroad during the holidays. This year I didn’t watch Jennifer baking Mama Tine’s cornbread for dressing or Julia making asparagus casserole or Brooke adding apricot jam to the cranberry sauce or Mark making drinks or Dad and my brothers sneaking bites of the ham or Amy whipping the cream for ambrosia or Mom making her sweet potato casserole or Jessica chasing Hudson through the kitchen or Susan advising with her 3 ring binder of recipes or Pamela breaking open the boxed wine or Papa OJ observing all the organized chaos from the kitchen table.
What I did have was 15 wonderful expats who each brought their own tradition to the Thanksgiving table.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays so I knew ahead of time there were certain dishes I needed to make the holiday complete. Luckily I have very generous friends and family at home who understood that too.
A BIG shout out to my parents, my aunts Julia and Pamela, my cousin Gretchen and my friends Julie and Oren for their awesome care packages!
So what dish did I contribute to Thanksgiving Kyrgyzstan 2007? One of my top 3 favorites….. Sweet Potato Casserole. For the un-initiated, SPC is mashed sweet potatoes mixed with butter and brown sugar then topped with marshmallows. The marshmallows are added the last 5-10 minutes of baking and come out of the oven golden, puffy and just a touch crunchy around the edges. Oh- it’s heaven! See the picture? Doesn’t it just look like heaven? I bet you are wondering why a whole edge is missing? That’s a story for later….
By the morning of Thanksgiving only Cousin Gretchen’s box had arrived. The can of sweet potatoes she sent only served 5 people but 3x that were expected at our dinner. I fretted to my friend Becky about what to do! How do I satisfy 15 people with this one can? Then it hit me….. what also tastes good with brown sugar, butter and sweet potatoes? APPLES! So I bought a kilo of pretty red apples (6 large ones) and took them home to make an applesauce to combine with the potatoes. Becky peeled while I grated. I mixed in the same proportions of brown sugar and butter the SPC recipe called for and 30 minutes later had a nice mixture. It tasted just like apple pie. I feared overpowering the potatoes with the flavor of apples so I mixed it in 1 cup at a time. 3 cups later I had tripled the recipe and you couldn’t even taste the secret ingredient.
When I got to Colin’s the stove was occupied with the turkey. Yes. We have turkeys in Kyrgyzstan. And they are delicious! Of course the turkey took longer to roast than expected so when it was time for me to bake the SPC, it was also time for Becky to reheat her green been casserole and for Theo to cook the stuffing.
Colin’s oven is half the size of an American oven and contained only one baking rack. So, how are 3 people supposed to cook their dishes at once??
Peace Corps volunteers are nothing if not resourceful. Theo found a couple of pairs of chopsticks so we stacked each pot on top of the next and used the chopsticks to separate them. We only had a couple of mishaps. First Becky removed all 3 dishes at once and her casserole fell into my SPC. That was before the marshmallows were added so no harm was done. Then when it was time to remove my dish…..I got a little excited and the puffy golden marshmallows crashed with the edge of the oven. That is why my SPC is smiling.
During dinner Becky was the only one who knew of the secret ingredient. I kept asking everyone what they thought of the casserole – especially since it’s not a traditional dish at every Thanksgiving – and everyone thought it delicious! After it was all gone I spilled the beans. I know I came off a little bit boastful but I was just so proud of myself of finding a way to triple the dish and share a little piece of home with all of my friends here.
What I did have was 15 wonderful expats who each brought their own tradition to the Thanksgiving table.
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays so I knew ahead of time there were certain dishes I needed to make the holiday complete. Luckily I have very generous friends and family at home who understood that too.
A BIG shout out to my parents, my aunts Julia and Pamela, my cousin Gretchen and my friends Julie and Oren for their awesome care packages!
So what dish did I contribute to Thanksgiving Kyrgyzstan 2007? One of my top 3 favorites….. Sweet Potato Casserole. For the un-initiated, SPC is mashed sweet potatoes mixed with butter and brown sugar then topped with marshmallows. The marshmallows are added the last 5-10 minutes of baking and come out of the oven golden, puffy and just a touch crunchy around the edges. Oh- it’s heaven! See the picture? Doesn’t it just look like heaven? I bet you are wondering why a whole edge is missing? That’s a story for later….
By the morning of Thanksgiving only Cousin Gretchen’s box had arrived. The can of sweet potatoes she sent only served 5 people but 3x that were expected at our dinner. I fretted to my friend Becky about what to do! How do I satisfy 15 people with this one can? Then it hit me….. what also tastes good with brown sugar, butter and sweet potatoes? APPLES! So I bought a kilo of pretty red apples (6 large ones) and took them home to make an applesauce to combine with the potatoes. Becky peeled while I grated. I mixed in the same proportions of brown sugar and butter the SPC recipe called for and 30 minutes later had a nice mixture. It tasted just like apple pie. I feared overpowering the potatoes with the flavor of apples so I mixed it in 1 cup at a time. 3 cups later I had tripled the recipe and you couldn’t even taste the secret ingredient.
When I got to Colin’s the stove was occupied with the turkey. Yes. We have turkeys in Kyrgyzstan. And they are delicious! Of course the turkey took longer to roast than expected so when it was time for me to bake the SPC, it was also time for Becky to reheat her green been casserole and for Theo to cook the stuffing.
Colin’s oven is half the size of an American oven and contained only one baking rack. So, how are 3 people supposed to cook their dishes at once??
Peace Corps volunteers are nothing if not resourceful. Theo found a couple of pairs of chopsticks so we stacked each pot on top of the next and used the chopsticks to separate them. We only had a couple of mishaps. First Becky removed all 3 dishes at once and her casserole fell into my SPC. That was before the marshmallows were added so no harm was done. Then when it was time to remove my dish…..I got a little excited and the puffy golden marshmallows crashed with the edge of the oven. That is why my SPC is smiling.
During dinner Becky was the only one who knew of the secret ingredient. I kept asking everyone what they thought of the casserole – especially since it’s not a traditional dish at every Thanksgiving – and everyone thought it delicious! After it was all gone I spilled the beans. I know I came off a little bit boastful but I was just so proud of myself of finding a way to triple the dish and share a little piece of home with all of my friends here.
3 comments:
Israelis use a thing called the "wonder pot." You put it on a stovetop burner and it works like an oven. See if you can find one.
Kelly, I loved your Thanksgiving post. When I saw the picture of you holding the sweet potato casserole, I couldn’t help but notice that both you and your SPC were smiling. I laughed out loud when I read your description of the SPC, because you noticed the smile, as well! I am so glad to hear that your Thanksgiving celebration was a success. We love you, Kelly!
Hugs and Kisses, Mom
I love your smiling sweet potato dish!
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