Thanksgiving in Romania

Thanksgiving day in my courtyard.  It looks shockingly green.

Paul and Michelle (the Fulbrighters with the family) were kind enough to host a Thanksgiving dinner at their house, and it really was like a real t-day celebration because there was such a big group of people!  But, let me start at the begining.  I decided to bring bread, pie, and something else and ended up cooking all morning.  It went well and involved only 1 trip to the grocery store! 

It is strange to see so many people around - just a regular workday for them!

I made two different kinds of beer bread.  One with smoked cheese and dried chedder.  The other had grated parmesan and dried basil and oregano.  They were both delicious, and if you have never made beer bread, you must!  It is the easiest thing.  3 c flour, 1 tbsp salt, 1 tbsp sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 1/2 c beer, and anything else you want.  Just mix together and put in parchment lined bread pan (no kneading or rising!) and bake 45 min at 375 degrees.  Of course, working with my tempermental oven here, it tends to be finished around 30 minutes, but that is even better because you can eat it sooner!  It is delicious warm but also nice cold, not that there will be many leftovers. 

So delicious!

I also created a creamed corn recipe, which also was delicous.  Oh, it was so good!  First, I cooked some onion and garlic and then made a roux - with milk but also some cream and later some cheese.  After mixing that with the corn, I also added some fresh spinach and chopped roasted red pepper.  I then baked it a little with some more cheese on top.  Not the healthiest thing in the world with the cream, milk, butter, and cheese, but it was so good.  And, it just seemed perfect for Thanksgiving and the fall.

Okay, now this was just ridiculously yummy.  And, it makes a pretty good picture :)

To finish things off, I made another newly created recipe - pear raspberry pie.  It was super easy and pretty tasty.  I also added a little nutmeg to the dough, which gave it a nice tast, too. 

All th thinly sliced pears.  Not much waste there!

Two crusts.  And, parchment paper in Romania!!

In addition to all of the things I brought, Michelle made pumpkin pie, a white bean and green bean dish (delicious, I need the recipe!), mashed pumpkin/sweet potatoes with banana and walnut (not my favorite but lots of people loved it), mashed potatoes and parsnips, stuffing, turkey, and cranberry sauce.  I think that was it, at least.  It was all very tasty!  At dinner, there were the 4 members of the family, me, 2 visiting family members, and 3 Romanian couples (about 4 kids among them).  A nice big, rag-tag group.  Exactly what Thanksgiving should be! 

The t-day "spread," if you will.

Part of the crowd.

Last year I was home with my family for Thanksgiving for the first time in 10 years, and that was very nice.  Luckily, this was nice as well, and I really wasn't homesick, which is pretty easy to happen on holidays when you are far from home.  I think it probably was a more different Thanksgiving for my family since neither my sister nor I were there (the first time being gone for here!), and one of my grandmothers wasn't there either!  I guess it is just one of those holidays that will change a little bit each year, which I think is okay.

A delicious cake that one of the couples brought.  And, another new kind of Fanta.  Lychee in Cambodia, and something called shokata in Romania.  It apparently is elderflower.  How strange is that?  It has an odd flavor - kind of perfumey.  Not my favorite, but definitely better than the lychee version!