Giving Thanks

Everyone loves an American Thanksgiving meal. Last night, I was one of only a handful of Americans celebrating Thanksgiving with 40 or so people from Indonesia, Australia, Japan, and who knows where else. Forget Obama as the great world unifier. It's turkey.

What's great about spending Thanksgiving overseas is that I get more than one turkey dinner. Early in November we had a Thanksgiving meal at church, my Bible study celebrated mightily last night, and today I'm going over to Joseph and Karla's for a third delicious meal. And my Indonesian Thanksgivings always have something a little unique. At our pitch-in Thanksgiving last year, we had sushi and Indian food, and last night's dessert included chocolate cake and donuts.

I'm pie-maker again this year, and this time I actually have pumpkin (thanks to a little foresight when I was home over the summer and my mother), Crisco (thanks to Karla), and a rolling pin instead of a bottle of sparkling apple cider (thanks to my grandmother). My only trouble is that when I cook something more complicated than dinner for myself, all the deficiencies of my kitchen supplies become readily apparent. I'm supplying mashed potatoes, too for our dinner tonight, and so my thought process this morning went something like this:

Ok, the pumpkin pie filling is in my big red pot and the pie dough is in my orange bowl (thank goodness I planned ahead), but I need the orange bowl to take the potatoes over to Karla's and I need the red pot to cook the potatoes, so I need to make the pie early, so that I can wash dishes and use them for potatoes. The red pot is not that big so I'll probably have to do more than one batch of potatoes, but now that I've put the potato peelings in the orange bowl, I need somewhere to put the cooked potatoes until I mash them. Red cleaning bucket...? No, no, no. I guess I could use the blue strainer until the red pot is done cooking the potatoes and then transfer them to the orange bowl. But if I use the orange bowl for the mashed potatoes, then I can't whip the cream ahead of time, so I'll have to bring my hand mixer plus sugar, whipping cream, and vanilla. I hope Karla has a bowl in which I can whip the cream. Wait, how am I going to juggle mashed potatoes, pie, whipping cream, sugar, vanilla, and hand mixer in the taxi on the way there? Mmm, that pie smells good.

It's all going to be delicious, and Karla finally has an oven big enough to cook the turkey. Last year, Karla prepared the turkey at my apartment, stuck it in my oven and then I babysat it while she made other preparations at their house. We drove the turkey back to her house, and I got all the credit for a turkey I didn't really cook.

We're lucky that we don't have school today because Friday falls on the Islamic holiday Idul Adha. It commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac, and people generally celebrate by killing livestock and distributing the meat to the less fortunate. I think that spirit of generosity is very appropriate for Thanksgiving.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have some red pots, orange bowls, potatoes, and pies to attend to. Happy Thanksgiving!