New Traditions

One of my friends recently brought to my attention that I haven't blogged in awhile. Busted! I never like to admit to laziness so I'll say I really haven't had anything interesting to write about. I was thinking about this today and how after being here for awhile, things that I used to find abnormal are just everyday life. I could do an entire blog post about how I hail gypsy cabs everyday, but it just seems so normal to me now. Other things I find to be normal... Stores never have change, celery costs 10 dollars, unedited gangster rap playing at the supermarket, restaurants not having items listed on their menu, and the list goes on.

Anyway, since today is an American holiday I would like to share with you how I spent it being 6000 miles away from home.

For as long as I can remember, my parents had Thanksgiving at their house. I would wake up in the morning and find my mom at the dining room table making unique place settings for everyone. My dad would be in the kitchen chopping onions and carrots and celery for his delicious stuffing. We would then watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade and then the dog show. I love watching dog shows with my dog, Jasper. He thinks the tv is magic and all the dogs must be behind it. Poor fella. My grandma, grandpa, and mom's brother would come over and we would all sit around the table and eat until we were too full to move.

The next day, my mom and I would go shopping for Black Friday sales. My dad would turn the leftover turkey into soup to take to his hunting camp the following Monday in hopes of getting a deer for the first day of buck season.

Now things have changed. I am sad to not be there with my family for the second year in a row, but I am excited about trying things out for myself. Therefore, this year I decided to make my very own Thanksgiving feast for Charlie and I. I enjoy cooking and tend to make unusual dishes. I rarely make the same thing twice. Besides looking up some cooking times and temperatures, I decided to make up my own recipes and start my own tradition.

Obviously today is not a holiday in Kazakhstan so Charlie had to go into work. After feeding and walking the dogs, I drank some instant coffee, threw on some make-up and off I went to the bazaar for some fresh fruits and veggies. I opted to take the bus since it was 10 am and I assumed traffic was not bad. The bus wasn't crowded so I took a seat, put in my ear buds and dozed off during the hour long trek across the city. I love shopping at the bazaar during the week because they are practically empty. There are rows and rows of vendors selling fruits,vegetables, spices, nuts, canned goods, and the list goes on.

I walked up to one that caught my eye because she was selling enormous, bright orange persimmons. I bought a kilo of those, some deliciously tart mandarins which she let me test, and a couple apples.

Right beside her a woman was selling vegetables so I bought a huge piece of pumpkin, a butternut squash, green turnips, basil, and the 10 dollar celery.


Before leaving I wanted to find some frozen cranberries. No luck. I had to settle for red currants. And of course I stopped and bought a jar of peanut butter and some treats for the dogs.







I hailed a gypsy cab and made my way back to the apartment.

After I arrived home I decided to start with making my fake cranberry chutney. I emptied the frozen currants into a saucepan and let them heat up. Meanwhile, I decided to take the handful of kumquats I had leftover from a previous shopping excursion and put them in my chopper. I mixed them in with the currants and added some sugar.

Kumquats

Chutney

I then decided to move onto the stuffing. I chopped celery, carrots, garlic, onions and butternut squash. My goal of the day wasn't to be healthy so I sauteed all of it in a "healthy" dose of butter, added some chicken stock, dried cranberries, and some bread cubes I had drying out on a tray since last night. I also used this same mixture plus beets and minus the bread to make a gluten free stuffing since my good friend who can't eat gluten was joining us for dinner.


 My gluten free friend came down to spend the afternoon with me and she brought her two dogs to play with Phantom and Mishka. They all enjoyed the chewy bones I bought them at the bazaar.

After taking a break from the kitchen, I returned to take on the turkey. I purchased a turkey breast at the market on Sunday and it was thawed out and ready to go. Let me tell you a little something about our apartment... We don't have an oven. Scratch that. We have a toaster oven if that counts. I wouldn't have even been able to make a whole turkey if I wanted to because it wouldn't fit in the toaster oven. I placed the turkey breast in a pan with some butter, basil, salt&pepper, carrots and onions, covered it with foil and set the time for an hour. While waiting I made some homemade mashed potatoes.


The chutney turned out a bit sour and the turkey was dry (nothing some gravy can't fix!). The stuffing was excellent. I think I'll have to have a throw down with my dad. The dried cranberries I added to mine really added an interesting touch. We sat down to eat around 7 and finished the meal off with some pecan pie.

Even though I wasn't with my loved ones back home, I spent the day with a great friend, wonderful dogs, and Charlie. I enjoyed creating my own new tradition. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!