Pumpkin cookies
Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. To be fair, who doesn't love eating tons of delicious food, appreciating good company, and eventually passing out wherever the tryptophan kicks in?
This year was my very fist Thanksgiving away from my family. That's right - in all of my 23 years, Thanksgiving 2010 was the first totally and completely away from the Forbringer clan. Last year I tried to celebrate with Dan's family, but ended up flying back that weekend anyway. So this year was going to be something totally new; an exciting experience with the potential to be totally amazing or totally disastrous. I think we knew all along that there was no way it could turn out terribly, though I had my doubts when it came time to find the necessary ingredients.
There are quite a few Americans in Salzburg, so we decided on a potluck-style Thanksgiving feast, with each of us making enough of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes to feed an army of hungry foreigners. My tasks: pie and cornbread. Which quickly turned to pie, cornbread and cookies once I received the cookie cutters my mom sent me for Halloween. Though I couldn't quite justify the ghost and bat -shaped cutters, I managed to use the pumpkins and (my personal favorites) the cutters shaped like America. In addition, I helped the formerly vegetarian Maija with the Turkey (though she definitely did 99% of the work). The gravy, however, was 100% my job.
Finding the necessary ingredients was quite the challenge. There is no such thing as crisco here, nor is there a supply of canned pumpkin. All pumpkin comes from the vegetable itself, which (thankfully) I did not end up having to do. Even more challenging is the fact that ALL squash is called Kurbis - butternut, acorn, pumpkin, summer, you name it. No differentiation. Thank goodness my task was apple pie, not pumpkin. Still, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to buy pie tins in all of Austria (or Germany for that matter). I eventually used some makeshift, funny-shaped tins from IKEA that did the trick but weren't ideal. Also difficult to locate: vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar and turkeys. Yes, turkeys. We finally found two medium sized birds, unfrozen, and worked with those. Thank goodness - Thanksgiving just wouldn't have been right without one (or two) large turkeys.
Dinner itself was hosted at Maija's. As I mentioned, each of the Americans brought food to share. Our feast consisted of: antipasto, two turkeys, chestnut stuffing, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans with onion, cookies, apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Any Brits/Germans/Austrians who joined brought beverages as their contributions.
I think I would call it a success. I might even go so far as to call it a great success. Even without the company of my real family, my family of Salzburg Fulbrighters made it feel like a slice of home right here in Austria. And I came away with some stellar recipes - assuming Mom is willing to let us upgrade from Pepperidge Farms stuffing to chestnut stuffing.
This year was my very fist Thanksgiving away from my family. That's right - in all of my 23 years, Thanksgiving 2010 was the first totally and completely away from the Forbringer clan. Last year I tried to celebrate with Dan's family, but ended up flying back that weekend anyway. So this year was going to be something totally new; an exciting experience with the potential to be totally amazing or totally disastrous. I think we knew all along that there was no way it could turn out terribly, though I had my doubts when it came time to find the necessary ingredients.
There are quite a few Americans in Salzburg, so we decided on a potluck-style Thanksgiving feast, with each of us making enough of our favorite Thanksgiving dishes to feed an army of hungry foreigners. My tasks: pie and cornbread. Which quickly turned to pie, cornbread and cookies once I received the cookie cutters my mom sent me for Halloween. Though I couldn't quite justify the ghost and bat -shaped cutters, I managed to use the pumpkins and (my personal favorites) the cutters shaped like America. In addition, I helped the formerly vegetarian Maija with the Turkey (though she definitely did 99% of the work). The gravy, however, was 100% my job.
Finding the necessary ingredients was quite the challenge. There is no such thing as crisco here, nor is there a supply of canned pumpkin. All pumpkin comes from the vegetable itself, which (thankfully) I did not end up having to do. Even more challenging is the fact that ALL squash is called Kurbis - butternut, acorn, pumpkin, summer, you name it. No differentiation. Thank goodness my task was apple pie, not pumpkin. Still, there doesn't seem to be anywhere to buy pie tins in all of Austria (or Germany for that matter). I eventually used some makeshift, funny-shaped tins from IKEA that did the trick but weren't ideal. Also difficult to locate: vanilla extract, baking soda, baking powder, brown sugar and turkeys. Yes, turkeys. We finally found two medium sized birds, unfrozen, and worked with those. Thank goodness - Thanksgiving just wouldn't have been right without one (or two) large turkeys.
Dinner itself was hosted at Maija's. As I mentioned, each of the Americans brought food to share. Our feast consisted of: antipasto, two turkeys, chestnut stuffing, sweet potatoes, cornbread, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans with onion, cookies, apple pie, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. Any Brits/Germans/Austrians who joined brought beverages as their contributions.
I think I would call it a success. I might even go so far as to call it a great success. Even without the company of my real family, my family of Salzburg Fulbrighters made it feel like a slice of home right here in Austria. And I came away with some stellar recipes - assuming Mom is willing to let us upgrade from Pepperidge Farms stuffing to chestnut stuffing.
Pumpkin cookies and cookies shaped like America (thanks to Mom's cookie cutters)
The setup
From left: Dave, Mary, Ali, Anne Marie, Brendan, Nick
Leslie with one of my America cookies! They were a big hit
Maija, hostess with the mostest
The bird (one of two)
Me, making gravy. Photo courtesy of Ali
Some of the group hanging out waiting for the food to be done
From left: Emily, Ali and Nick
Happy Thanksgiving!
Cheers-ing
Ali's plate of food
A little mood-lighting
Leslie cracking up over Ja! brand whipped cream
Post dinner, when the tryptophan started to kick in
Dave and Brendan, enjoying the whipped cream
From left: Maija, Emily, me, Ali
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