WEDNESDAY 27th NOV - Attending my second (or third) Thanksgiving in Berlin, this year was an 'American' Thanksgiving, hosted by one of my brother's aquaintance and friend Mike, at his wine bar La Cave. Everyone in attendence was to bring a dish from home.
Following our lengthy Wednesday night, Zach still had some ingrediants to aquire. After striking out and returning, he finally got me up - having decided I would also cook a dish (our Mom's feta/artichoke dip). So it was 11:30, and we were hoping on the tram to go shopping for the last of ingrediants for a 6pm dinner.
After nearly forgetting to take the green beans out of the freezer (for the casserole), around 5pm we were nearing the end of our prep work: pumpkin pie, artichoke/feta dip, green bean casserole, and a mushroom boullete (something new).
We timed the oven use with the four dishes, running over plates to La Cave while the oven kept working (electric - not gas...). On the second trip, I slipped on some wet cobble stones and nearly lost the mushroom boullete out of my hands.
With 16 attendees, it was a full house - and a plentiful presentation of food choices in various colors and tastes. We slid three tables together for the food, and the turkey flew solo.
A note about the Turkey: on Wednesday night we bumped into Jared at Salt&Bone (my brother's 250th night in 3-years as it turned out), he had just finished seasoning and prepping the turkey. We were delightfully informed that when he picked up bird earlier that day, he was informed it had been killed in the last +/-24-hours. And I must say, this was the juiciest most tender turkey I have ever had the pleasure of eating.
As Mike poignantly pointed out for those unfamiliar: while Thanksgiving has a dark history, for those of us growing up in America this holiday has always centered more around family, getting together, and spending the day in each other's company. And we choose to celebrate this aspect, a mixture of people from different parts of the world (and America) enjoying a homemade family style Thanksgiving meal in Berlin. Hats off to everyone.