I can tell you one thing
about Thanksgiving… It doesn’t matter where you are, whom you are with, or what
you have to cook on, it is a day to be treasured.
Thanksgiving is quite
possibly my favorite holiday of the year.
It is a day centered on family, food, and football. It commences the holiday season, although
Costco might disagree as I bet their holiday décor has been displayed since
before Halloween. I knew that when I
applied for Peace Corps, that I would be spending at least two holiday seasons
away from the comforts of home. Upon
arrival in this country, I was already actively figuring out how to make the
holidays the best possible. Here is a
condensed how to guide.
1 – Assemble a group of
wonderful PCV’s at a predetermined location, preferably one with cold drinks in
stock.
2 – Have one of those
wonderful PCV friends bring a turkey.
Essential for a traditional meal.
3 – Ensure that another
one of those wonderful PCV’s is willing to kill and prepare the turkey.
4 – Spend Thanksgiving
morning together chopping, dicing, and slicing all the food for the feast. This includes potatoes, garlic, string beans,
peppers, onions, cheese, carrots, chives, cucumbers, and tomatoes among many
others. Oh and please make sure all
fingers are out of the knives way.
Rookie mistake Tara. Rookie
mistake.
5 – Begin lighting the sigiri’s,
charcoal stoves, and brick oven; because here in Uganda you do not always have
access to those appliances that simply require the push of a button.
6 – In an organized
fashion, cook each dish. This has to be
organized in that pots and pans are limited.
It should go something like this… Turkey first. Toast bread for stuffing. Break into pieces. Boil the potatoes. Boil pumpkin for miniature
pies/brownies. Make the mushroom soup
for the casserole and chicken stock for the stuffing.
7 – Take a break to play a
round of Apples to Apples.
8– Begin to assemble the
dishes.
9 – Once the food is
prepared, dispense into clean basins.
10 – Let the feast of
turkey, green bean casserole, garlic mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese,
stuffing, salad, and individual pumpkin pie brownies commence.
Now to go into a little
more detail…
My first Thanksgiving in
Uganda was spent with 12 newfound friends at a wonderful place called
Kalebas. My fellow PCV’s and I
discovered this wondrous place during language training. It changed our world. It had a mini trampoline, cold drinks, pizza,
speakers we could play our American music on, running water, beds, and a bon
fire pit. This was to be our
Thanksgiving destination.
We arrived there after
spending a day in Mbarara shopping for the epic feast that was to come. Three of my fellow PCV’s and I took on the
task of shopping and organizing the cooking.
Now none of us had done this in the States, so why now you ask? My answer: What better place to practice than
Uganda. If we could accomplish that here
then the States has nothing on us. From
Mbarara the eight of us were able to take a private hire (taxi) to Kalebas with
all of our food, luggage, and a live turkey in the boot (trunk). We spent the night eating pizza, drinking cold
beer and soda, reflecting about the past six months in country and predicting
what the following 18 or so more will turn out to be like. The highlight
of the evening was when Robyn,
a fellow PCV, finally arrived with her mom and sister, who graciously brought
us American goodies. Pistachios, Peanut
Butter M&M’s, and organic fried onions for the green bean casserole.
Fast forward to
Thanksgiving morning. No Macy’s Day
Parade, morning hike, or trap shooting with the family. Rather we spent it drinking instant coffee
and eating fruit salad, bread with butter, and eggs. Then we went to town.
We had to clean pounds and
pounds of potatoes in basins among peppers, tomatoes, and other
vegetables. This then required us to
chop away. Now Ugandan knives are
absolutely terrible and dull and some do not even have a handle. We chose to use three Swiss Army Knives for
the endeavor. After four hours of
slicing and dicing, we finished.
We then sat around staring
at all of the food, contemplating how to go about cooking everything in a
timely manner and most importantly, how to have it all ready at the same
time. Well, we just went for it.
First was the pumpkin pie,
which required cleaning it out, saving the seeds for a snack, and boiling the pieces
on a sigiri. Then we put the cooked
pieces into a basin and with a pestle, made the filling. With a lot of milk and cinnamon, we managed
to get a pumpkin pie consistency and taste.
This was added to our shortcake cookie crust, which was made ever so
fine by the fingers of our hard working pinchers.
Garlic mashed potatoes was
next, which went surprisingly fast. Over
a wood stove, think an open fire with bricks to lift the pit up off the coals,
the potatoes were quickly brought to a boil.
Again with a pestle, the potatoes were mashed, cream was added, salt and
pepper to taste, and garlic to top it off.
The macaroni and cheese
was all Robyn. She made her delicious,
one of a kind cheese sauce over a small gas burner. The pasta was all cooked over a sigiri. In two takes since we had three bags. We might have over estimated that one a
bit. Again in a basin, everything was
brought together and topped off with breadcrumbs.
Now you might be wondering
about the turkey. Robyn’s vegan sister,
Bailey, is a turkey connoisseur. She
helped ensure that the Ugandans were properly butchering, cooking, and
seasoning it. She did a phenomenal
job. It tasted wonderful!
Back to more food. The stuffing.
My Mama’s stuffing recipe. Now my
Mama’s cooking is one of a kind delicious.
She sent me the recipe and I attempted to live up to it. Mission accomplished. Everyone loved it and needless to say, I am
looking forward to the day when I can make it for her and the rest of the
family during Thanksgiving 2014. Anyway,
after sautéing onions, chives, peppers, carrots, and garlic, three loaves of
toasted, bite-size pieces of bread were added with approximately six cup of
chicken broth. Lawry’s poultry seasoning
gave the dish that something special.
This was all done over an open fire, which resulted in a lot of smoke
inhalation. Pop this dish in the brick
oven for a crispy top and voila!
The salad was simple. Chop up cucumbers, tomatoes, garlic, and
peppers. Then carefully find that
perfect balance of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Serve.
Last but not least was the
green bean casserole. Now I never ate
this in the States. Funny coincidence
though, as I was on the phone with my family during Thanksgiving I found out
that my Baba Mila was bringing green bean casserole. The one-year I am not home. We made some instant creamy mushroom soup,
added fresh green beans, and let the beans cook in that. The secret.
Use milk instead of water. It
makes it so creamy! While we waited for
the beans to soak up a lot of the soup, we pan fried the onions. Add those to the top and you got yourself a
casserole.
Well, there it is, Thanksgiving
in Uganda using traditional cooking apparatuses. Together we feasted, shared stories, watched
Ugandans eat their first taste of Thanksgiving side dishes, and then fell to
the inevitable Thanksgiving nap. We
awoke to a bon fire, phone calls to loved ones back in America, and a sense of
accomplishment.
Total cost of Thanksgiving
meal: 168,000 Ugandan Shillings ($67.20 USD)
Cost breakdown for each
person: 14,000 Ugandan Shillings ($5.60 USD)
Spending Thanksgiving with
Andrew, Brittany, Chelsea, Griffin, John, Kendra, Michelle, Murph, Patrick,
Robyn, Robyn’s Mom Sharon, and Robyn’s Sister Bailey: Priceless.
No comments:
Post a Comment