Turkey Perfection

Yey – aren’t the posts where this blog turns into a food-blog fun?
Our conquest of American culture began last week when Uri went to play football at the Johnson School’s annual Turkey Bowl (ie football game before Thanksgiving). That attempt was semi-successful. His team won, but he got a ball thrown in his face, ending up with lips so huge Angelina Jolie would be jealous.
Our second attempt was on a more level playing ground: yesterday was Thanksgiving, and we made Thanksgiving dinner. Here is the menu:
Roasted Turkey, Stuffing, Cranberry sauce, Green Beans with Beacon, Brussels sprouts with cheese sauce, Coleslaw with jicama, Onion tart-tatin, Savoy Cabbage with Worcestershire sauce, Boiled butternut squash with parmesan pangrattato, Sweet-potato mash, Pumpkin oatmeal bread with Squash and pecan butter. As for dessert: Butter pecan cookies and my tried and true pumpkin-cheese cake.

Everything was really good, but the turkey was incredible. It looked fantastic (the picture really doesn’t do it justice). Just like in the movies – beautifully browned, and needless to say very tasty.

We wrapped up the holiday with the one thing that is more American than apple pie: Shopping. For a few years now the Friday after Thanksgiving has been referred to as “Black Friday”. All the stores have really massive sales, and people line up waiting for the stores to open their doors. Uri, letting his inner anthropologist shine through, volunteered to stay up and go to Wal-Mart to buy us a microwave for $25. Just to be clear – he didn’t stay up that long after his normal bed-time :)



Last a few thoughts on the holiday:
1. It took us some time to process that since is not a Jewish holiday, the holiday starts on the day of the holiday, and not the night before. We kept expecting Thanksgiving Dinner to be the night before, but why would it be?
2. It turns out that in most American homes, Thanksgiving Dinner isn’t dinner at all but rather lunch. Most dinners start around 1pm and then last all day long.
3. We had a realization that Thanksgiving is the American Passover.
     a. It’s a holiday that passes on the mythology of how the American people came to this holy               land and why they deserve to be here.
     b. It’s a time where everyone gathers with their extended family
     c. It’s a day spent eating.