Pages

27 November 2010

Thanksgiving Abroad

Merlin: This was our Thanksgiving morning - a few inches of snow on the ground and more in the air. We are in Riga, the beautiful capital of Latvia, and this picture was taken at eight thirty a.m. We are at 56° 57' north, so it takes a while for the sun to come up.
Rebecca: For all those who have no idea what that means (which included myself until Merlin explained it), New York City is at 40° 47' north and from the equator to the North Pole is 90 degrees. So, yeah. We're quite a bit higher up here than at home. It's funny, because just ten days ago, on a particularly hot day in Lithuania, I remember saying "You know, Thanksgiving has been this early some years and I remember it snowing when I was a kid." And then it did.
Merlin: We went to the central market to gather ingredients. It's a very big place - acres and acres of stalls, some inside, some out in the snow. I felt bad for the people who were standing in the cold with running noses, trying to keep the flakes from piling up on their apples and persimmons.
Rebecca: We were going to get some cranberries, but opted instead for currants, which we had been seeing around markets since Poland. We figured it would be a good regional play on tradition - and that they would take less time to cook.
Merlin: We were able to get everything that we needed before lunchtime. We could even have bought a turkey, but that seemed a little excessive for one person (Rebecca doesn't eat meat). One of the more difficult things about shopping at these markets is that its hard to tell which of the dozens of identical stalls sells the best meat, dairy, produce, etc. I chose between the six or eight chicken-specializing places (as opposed to the pork or beef butchers, or the stalls with smoked ducks and turkey legs) based on the size of the birds that they offered. When I picked a chicken that looked right the woman held it up for me to inspect and urged me to smell it. It smelled perfectly fine, so I took it.
Rebecca: That's our lunch above, from a little shop in the market. They had a few shelves behind a window with bowls and plates showing what they offered, which was helpful on our second day in Latvia, not yet knowing what the words for anything are. I chose a soup that I suspected had a little meat, (which, thankfully, wound up being bits of mushroom) and Merlin chose a sausage plate with mashed potatoes and some strips of raw squash. Any American knows that calculating when and what to eat before Thanksgiving dinner is tricky but important. We felt good about our early afternoon plates of food. Not too much. Not too little. Definitely Latvian.
Rebecca: We picked up the brown bread on Wednesday night, seeing it in a bakery and not wanting to pass up its wonderful seed-and-nuttiness. Merlin correctly reasoned that it may be too dense for a stuffing, so we bought this light wheat country bread at the market. Our stuffing was mostly that bread with accents of the darker variety. This is our very first Thanksgiving where we were solely responsible for our own meal. So, we wanted the stuffing to be awesome (and vaguely European).
Merlin: Another thing about shopping for food: it was so nice to be able to go shopping on Thanksgiving morning and not feel like we were entering some kind of war zone.
Merlin: I made a sauce with the red currants, but we also put some in the stuffing. I mixed them in with the sauteing onions and celery so that they would soften up a little. The sauce was made by cooking the currants in a little water with honey for half and hour, until they had begun to break down. I mixed in half a shredded, cooked beet (I know, I know... shredded beet again!) and a little salt. The mixture was so powerfully red that I had visions of the pink bathtub ring in "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back," which stains everything in the house.
Rebecca: It was our "cranberry sauce" sans cranberry.
Rebecca: And here is our table! Please ignore the plates. They were really ugly, but being as they came with the apartment we rented (for the specific purpose of having an oven on Thanksgiving) we didn't care too much. There's the sauce, the stuffing (which also had a good amount of mushroom and was delicious), Merlin's chicken, the potato, carrot and onion roasted with the chicken mushed up into a brighter play on mashed potatoes and a big bowl of sauteed veggies (shredded brussels sprouts, spinach, onion, apple and pumpkin seeds).
Merlin: Also, about a quarter cup of gravy. Everything was good, and we had great leftovers too. As a consequence, we really haven't eaten much outside our home.Merlin: Here's Rebecca's first plate of food. She took a little bit of chicken, which was a generous gesture.
Rebecca: Every year, I wind up sneaking into my mom's kitchen for some turkey skin. So, Merlin repaid my nugget-of-flesh generosity by allowing me to take any and all the bird skin I wanted. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving. We both got to call our parents (Skype), hole up, cook, tell each other over and over again just how thankful we are and then...
Merlin: ...we watched football, illegally, over the internet. It was almost like we were home in America, except that we were drinking Lāčplēsis Dižalus beer.

8 comments:

  1. and i am very thankful that the heartfelt strings of nostalgia were pulled ever so gently for you..and that you both had a wonderful and happy time:)XOXO

    ReplyDelete
  2. NOW LIFE IS WORTH LIVING WITH THE HELP OF EDWARD JONES FINANCE {Jonesloanfinance@yahoo.com}

    Hello Every One, My Name is Trevor Cohen live in Texas and life is worth living comfortably for me and my family now. I really have never seen goodness shown to me this much in my life as i am a struggling Dad with three kids and i have been going through a serious problem as my son encountered a terrible accident last week, and the doctors states that he needs to undergo a delicate surgery for him to be able to walk again, and i could not afford the bill for his surgery then i went to the bank for a loan and they turn me down stating that credit score was bad, from there i run to my father and some of my freinds but they could not help, then when i was surfing through the net i came across a loan lender EDWARD JONES who provides loans at an affordable interest rate of 2% and i have been hearing about so many scams on the internet but at this time, in my desperate situation i had no choice than to give it a try and surprisingly it was all like a dream, i received a loan of $85,000.00 and i payed for my son surgery and thank GOD today he is okay and can walk. I could in turn start something profitable with the remaining amount and i said to my self that i will shout loud to the world of the wonders of GOD to me through this GOD fearing lender EDWARD JONES and i will advise anyone in genuine and serious need of loan to contact this GOD fearing Company via: Jonesloanfinance@yahoo.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Loan offer with 0% interest contact Lightstreamloanlender@gmail.com for any Financial help....Business loan, loan to acquire a House or a Car etc....

    ReplyDelete
  4. My name is Mrs Aisha Mohamed, am a Citizen Of Qatar.Have you been looking for a loan?Do you need an urgent personal loan or business loan?contact Dr James Eric Finance Home he help me with a loan of $42,000 some days ago after been scammed of $2,800 from a woman claiming to been a loan lender but i thank God today that i got my loan worth $42,000.Feel free to contact the company for a genuine financial service. Email:(financialserviceoffer876@gmail.com) call/whats-App Contact Number +918929509036

    ReplyDelete
  5. Dear Sir/Madam,

    Do you need a quick long or short term Loan with a relatively low interest rate as low as 3%? We offer business Loan, personal Loan, home Loan, auto Loan,student Loan, debt consolidation Loan e.t.c. no matter your credit score.

    * Personal Loans (Secure and Unsecured)
    * Business Loans (Secure and Unsecured)
    * Consolidation Loan and many more.

    Contact US for more information about Loan offer and we will solve your
    financial problem. contact us via email: markthomasfinanceltd@gmail.com

    Whats-App no +919667837169
    Company Name Ronnie Finance Ltd
    Dr. Mark Thomas

    ReplyDelete
  6. Apply for loan here personal loan Easy Loan's available here apply from $3,000 to $20,000,000 within 24 hours upon request. Other types of loans are also available in less than 48 hours. Contact me as needed. Contact Us At : abdullahibrahimlender@gmail.com
    whatspp Number +918929490461
    Mr Abdullah Ibrahim

    ReplyDelete
  7. My name is Samuel, I was in love with my wife and we were married for eight years with a son his is Liam,I loved my wife so much she had access to all my bank account and even my cash app which my accountant agreed to and said it was a great idea, then it took my wife and my accountant two month to get hold of all my properties,all accounts but I had a cash app which they knew nothing about,I was thrown out of my own house was sleeping in a hotel for weeks she also took possession of my son could only see him once a week then I found out she was in love with my accountant all these while so I went online and I came across a Russian private investigator who help me get all my properties and my accounts back even my company back how he did these I don’t know but I gave all the information he asked for and followed all his instructions and now I’m happy my life’s better now.
    Thanks to premiumhackservices@gmail.com
    I just said I should share my own story here
    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lost Crypto Assets Recovery Expert; CaptainWeb Genesis.

    Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency scams are becoming rampant as the day goes by. One should be careful when dealing with unauthorized online investments firms especially when it has to deal with fake Brokers. I had been Scammed recently for a large sum of my funds . Getting back your stolen Crypto is very easy but there are also lots of fraudulent recovery firms out there so you need to be careful not to end up being defrauded again. CaptainWeb Genesis is the most trusted and reliable Crypto Recovery Expert who helped me recover my scammed funds back. CaptainWeb Genesis specializes in recovering bitcoin and tokens that have been taken from you by Scammers. Reach out the expert through;

    Email ;Captainwebgenesis@hackermail.com
    WhatsApp +1 (447) 442-0456.

    CaptainWeb Genesis provides excellent services.

    ReplyDelete