Thanksgiving

We can draw the conclusion by this comical Swedish Chef YouTube clip that Swedes obviously don't know much about the American holidays, so I am here to change that! 

This is actually going to be the first Thanksgiving dinner I have been in complete charge of. During previous years, the most responsibility I had was setting the table and making the mashed potatoes so this year I’m taking a huge step up!

The first thing I had to do was to make a menu. The ambassadorial meal consisted of turkey, a sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy ,stuffing, a green bean casserole, a spinach casserole, strawberry and banana jello with marshmellows on top, corn, cranberry sauce, a nice loaf of bread, a green leafy salad, and for desert, a scrumptious pumpkin pie. Once I put all of these delectable foods on paper, then I had to make a grocery list including all of the items I would need for each and every one of those dishes, and also to translate some of the names into Swedish!  For instance... turkey... can anyone guess what that is in Swedish?... (it's Kalkon!) I had a pretty fun time running around the grocery store trying to find things like sweet potatoes and artichoke hearts! 

The next task on my list that makes my Thanksgiving just a tad more difficult than the norm is the fact that after I got all of the ingredients, I had to convert all the measurements, including size, weight, and temperature! Lots of work but when we were eating it was totally worth it! 

Finally, the big day was here. After a week of planning, watching video after video and reading page after page of how to cook a turkey and keep it moist, and more planning, my test was upon me!

I started preparing the turkey at 10 a.m. on the day of our Thanksgiving. I decided to go with a pesto dry-rub, (it was delightful by the way). I prepared a bed of veggies for the turkey to rest on, and then it was time for the dirty work. (The rest of this paragraph is not for the faint of heart!)  I stuck my hand in and took out the giblets and washed the turkey off, which actually wasn’t too bad. After I made sure that the blood was gone and then the turkey was dry, I commenced with the seasoning. I watched a few videos, like I said before, and the advice I got from them was that I should peel the skin apart from the meat, and rub the mixture in there! After a nice coating of pesto on the meat, I put the excess around the outside of the skin. After THAT Maja helped me brush melted butter over the bird to get a nice crisp skin. I set the oven to 246 degrees Celsius (475 degrees Fahrenheit) and put the turkey, covered, in at that temperature for 20 minutes to crisp the skin and keep in the juices. After that twenty minutes I turned the oven down to 121 degrees Celsius (250 degrees Fahrenheit) and slow-cooked the turkey for 20 minutes per pound. Our turkey was 5 kilo, (Approx 11.5 pounds) so it was in the oven for 3.6 hours!

The turkey being taken care of for a few hours, I had time to prepare for the rest of the evening. I cleaned up the kitchen, decided a place to have the table so that all nine eaters could sit together, and set it all up.

I had written down all of the recipes for the casseroles and everything else on paper, with the converted measurements to ease up the process a bit. I found dishes for each item, and started finding the ingredients and putting them together to again, ease the process. The turkey was going to be ready around 4 pm, so I wanted to start preparing the casseroles so they could be put right into the oven after the turkey came out.. that way the turkey had 30 minutes to rest while the casseroles had 30 minutes to cook. 

When Caroline and Alicia showed up, that’s when I started feeling a little pressure, it was coming down to the final hour and I would now see if all of my planning had paid off. All the women worked together on the finishing touches, making the salad, completing the casseroles, warming up the stuffing, peeling and mashing potatoes, it was a beautiful sight I’m sure!

Time was up for the turkey, now was the scary part! I was sure that something horrible was going to happen, like in the movie Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase and how when they cooked the turkey and it got so dry that it exploded! I was positive that was going to happen to me! Anyway, I couldn’t find out how it was until 30 minutes after it had rested so I waited painfully for that time. With the casseroles in the oven and the turkey resting, the only thing left to do was to wait. During this time I called everyone into the kitchen and told them the story of Thanksgiving. First I told them about the Pilgrims and how they didn’t know how to grow food to last in America, and they were all dying of starvation and sickness that first winter. Then I told about how the kind Native Americans came and showed the Pilgrims how to grow corn. When the Pilgrims had enough to eat, and they survived happily that next season, they decided to throw a feast, Thanking the natives, and God for being alive and well. Then I went on saying how nowadays we celebrate Thanksgiving with the same kind of attitude, how we celebrate what we have, where we are, who we are with, and how thankful I am that I can be in Sweden this year celebrating it with them. 

When everything was done at once, my head was spinning. First we took out the casseroles and set them on the table, then everyone gathered around to watch me cut the turkey. I had also watched a few videos on how to do this properly, and unfortunately for me I was the only one of the group that had any kind of knowledge on how to do this. Before I started, Greta came to me and told me that I could use these BEAUTIFUL knives that’s handles were made of elk antlers. I felt so proud at that moment! My first cut was into the leg. It was going fine until I hit the joint, which I could not for the life of me cut through. Goran stepped in and also tried to cut it but it was impossible, so I took the drumstick in my hand and twisted the leg off! It probably wasn’t the prettiest sight but it got the job done! Then I sliced half of the breast off and started cutting that into small pieces, I snuck-tasted a piece and to my relief it was PERFECT, tasty and moist! With the turkey sliced up and on a platter, we all came to the table and sat down. I told everyone that this is when traditionally we would say a grace and I asked Goran to read off a paper that I had written down a thanksgiving poem on. The ‘grace’ been said, we started filling our plates! Everything was absolutely wonderful, and I think everyone enjoyed… everything! 

And after we started to slow down on the actual meal, round two came with the pumpkin pie, which everyone also enjoyed thoroughly. 

All and all, this was a very successful first, (first for the Swedes, and my first Thanksgiving put on all by myself) Thanksgiving! I'm so happy that I could enjoy my favorite holiday with my Swedish family, and I am so thankful that I have them here with me, and that I have gotten the chance to meet them! 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!