Two Thanksgivings in three days equals roughly seventeen single meals and four times that in dessert weight. I love American Holidays, and extending this one "hands-across-the Atlantic-Style" to G-Town gave much reason to be thankful.We hosted Thanksgiving at our place on Saturday evening for a few neighborhood and lab friends. Our flat has comfortable living, but it's not ideal for hosting large events, so our invitation list was modest. We had a blast, but I always wish we could have invited more people. It's hard to be exclusive when we're surrounded by so many people who are very, very helpful and genuinely nice. Of course, seeing four people try to work in our kitchen preparing food confirms why we could only host 8 (total) last night. Wait until you see our kitchen in person. It has everything you need like cabinets full of random glasses and the standard utilities (oven, micro-fridge, etc), but I think our balcony has more space.
Here's a quick pic of Petra (Pay-truh) and Guillaume (Gee-ohm) preparing some foodstuff in the kitchen. Actually, Guillaume made fantastic mashed potatoes - using a ricer (presumably for potatoes?). Amazing!Everyone's foods were great. Petra brought a dish of green beans (with magic spices yet to be determined; please be not MSG!) and another of a baked red and yellow bell peppers casserole. Beth, Sean and Tad brought corn casserole, stuffing (yum) and an Apple / Apricot dessert (as well as graciously supplying a unified set of dishes from which we ate), Shravanthi brought a muy tasty salad and pear crisp dessert, and in addition to Guillaume's potatoes he also brought a French Apple Tart (which he made) and a bottle wine from his family's vineyard.
Here's a pic of his fam's wine label; if all French wine even hints at this flavor then bless me a winesnob and know that I'm heading there right after Munich and Prague to tour the Alsacian region from where his family lives. Alsace is to wine what Illinois is to corn. The Alsacian region has a historic identity crisis. German and France have fought over ownership of this region for many years (click on Alsacian region to read more).
Between cooking and hosting, I managed to snap a picture of Tad during a more complacent moment. He's a great kid, and I'm jealous that he's learning English and Deutsch simultaneously. His understanding of "mein" and "nein" are unprecedented. :) Plus, his parents are generous and very supportive. Psst, hey kid. Just remember the good times when your angst fully matures at 16. Besides, your parents were the ones who suggested taking a walk to a nearby lake (Bärensee) between dinner and dessert so we could (in my words) fit more goodness in our bellies. Smart & European (they're Americans). Good Times.
The night's many conversations evolved from holiday tradition to local music to Geocaching Riddles to Guillaume's secret ingredient (marzipan)to a second dessert - and somehow to this re-enactment of a rugby scrum:
Did I say good times?
We hope you all had a great holiday, and that you had as packed of a dinner table as we did! Hello from Partyland Deutschland:
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