Finding a turkey can be tricky, but in October, I had the forethought to ask if we could order one through our Happy Turkish Butcher. "Evet, Evet" (yes, yes) he assured me. When the time came to order, I sent Jim, all by himself, with a picture of a turkey, and "Hindi" ("turkey") written below it. Transactions done in foreign languages always unsettling. When Jim came home he said, "Well, I'm not sure if I just ordered one turkey that weighs 6 Kgs or 6 turkeys."
Lucky for me, it was just one turkey, because that one turkey cost 148 Turkish Lira. That translates to about 100 American dollars. Ouch.
I had made plans with my friend Jamila, (one of the Halloween planners) to have Thanksgiving together, along with a few other families that live near by. Jamila had planned to host it, however two days before Thanksgiving, her husband and son came down with the flu. So we changed the locale to our house. It just so happens that my new Turkish maid comes on Thursdays, so while I was busy cooking in the kitchen, she was busy cleaning the rest of the house. May I say wholeheartedly, THAT is the way to do it! I never had to worry about a thing, except the food, which is the way it should be on Thanksgiving.
We had around 20 people, kids, teenagers and adults. Between Jamila and I, we made two turkeys, a ham, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots, swiss chard, cornbread, biscuits, cornbread stuffing, cranberry sauce and pumpkin cheesecake. Hatice (from Turkey) brought homemade dolmas (stuffed grape leaves), Elisa (Italy) brought chocolate salami--not salami really, just a yummy chocolate dessert in the shape of a salami, and Trisha brought the treat that every kid there was drooling over -- a box of real Krispy Kreme donuts!
Here's Tuncay, Hatice's husband getting ready to dig in. Jamila is tossing her steamed broccoli and carrots with olive oil and lemon. As you can see, everything is on the table but the turkey. I really goofed. I didn't remember to have Jim carve the turkey till everything else was on the table and ready to eat. But the guests were very gracious about it all.
Here's Jim, Elisa (from Italy) and Joan (from Washington DC). Joan's working on her master's degree in Art History. I guess because I was concentrating on getting photos, I forgot to tell Jim to carve those turkeys. But then once I remembered about the meat carving, I forgot to take any more pictures.
There were no football games on television, nor did anyone get the day off. It was a regular school day for the kids. But, as the house filled with good company, laughter, and the aroma of roast turkey, it really was a day for which to be thankful.
