Thanksgiving in Norway

Thanksgiving makes me think of family. Twenty or so people gathered at my Grandma or Aunt’s house, all the women in the kitchen and the men watching the game and entertaining the kids (specifically my dad, who for some reason, children love to climb on. I don’t know why, but since we were kids he’s called it “The Batman Climb” and has to sing the theme while you’re climbing, so I think of that too.) This was my Thanksgiving tradition up until last year, when I was in Norway for Thanksgiving.

The first thing that was different was that I had brought some of the specific ingredients (pumpkin pie mix and cranberry sauce) in my suitcase from when I was in the States because I wouldn’t be able to find them in Norway. The second was that not only would I be cooking everything, I would be doing so in a very tiny kitchen.The third being that even though I was set on cooking the whole Thanksgiving-shebang, I would only be serving four people; three of which had never had Thanksgiving dinner before. My husband, and my two sisters-in-law were super excited for dinner, and since it was the first really important meal I would make from scratch, the pressure was on. We decided to try and not waste food, we would have an eating contest. We bought a food weight and Alexander printed up scoring sheets.

I started cooking early on and it’s safe to say I really had no idea what I was doing. I was googling everything including cups to dl conversions (forgot those handy measuring cups back home!) and F to C as well. Luckily, I had all the Thanksgiving episodes of Friends streaming on the XBox and I had my apron on; it was business time. I punched out the pumpkin cheesecake pie early on, complete with from-scratch-pie-crust, and threw the turkey in shortly after. This thing was a beast. It was the last one at the third store I had looked at (note to self: don’t wait until November 25th to buy a turkey). I slathered some butter and soy oil on it, with spices that sounded good (salt, pepper, garlic, parsley, and poultry seasoning, and popped it in.

If you know me, you know that I’m REALLY impatient. I didn’t really factor in that the turkey would take the longest, and I couldn’t really make the other sides until it was close to being done because they would get cold. I spent all day pacing around, checking on the turkey and the pumpkin pie in the fridge (like it would have left? I don’t know.) Finally I was fed up and decided to start making the other sides. This may be the most difficult part of cooking Thanksgiving dinner: you have to do nothing for hours while the turkey is cooking, then all the sudden you have to make four things at once. I started boiling the potatoes, and getting the stuffing prepared (from scratch! yes – I’m going to keep saying that).

I started getting the Waldorf salad prepared, and getting some of the turkey juices out of the oven for the gravy (can you guess what I’m going to say? Alright, I’ll spare you this time, it’s just gravy). It was nearing four o’ clock, the time we usually start eating, and it was go time. I started stressing. Literally, there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and I was doing too many things at once. I had just got some turkey broth in a cup from the oven and a second later, without thinking, touched it. Simultaneously burning my hand, I knocked the cup over and spilled the broth all over Alexander’s phone. Don’t feel too bad, I got him an iPhone for Christmas…

Finally, after caring for my hand and attempting to revive the now dead (and delicious smelling) phone, dinner was ready. I set everything out. Me and my sisters made our tiny little Ikea table as charming as possible, and I laid out our feast on my kitchen counter. Turkey, stuffing, mashed taters, gravy, cranberry sauce, and Waldorf salad. Before we started the contest we decided to just have a nice first serving with saying thanks and tasting the food. I felt blessed to have made it through the day with very few problems/injuries, and to be able to have family with me while being so far away from home.

So the food… Yeah. Well, I have to say with all apologizes to the women in my family if they take offense but, this was the best Thanksgiving dinner I’ve ever eaten. The turkey somehow, miraculously turned out amazing. The cheesecake pumpkin pie is possibly the best dessert I’ve ever had, and the stuffing was about a million times better than any box version I’ve ever had. Now, the cranberry sauce from a can I can’t take credit for, but it was still pretty damn good. You shouldn’t mess with the classics anyway. After splitting up into teams of two, we had the eating contest, and I won’t get into details but at least one person got sick and we didn’t even finish the whole turkey; and I lost.

I really hope last year wasn’t just beginner’s luck because this year the stakes are a little higher. My mother-in-law will now be visiting so I have to bring my A-Game. I’m making turkey, stuffing, Ranch mashed potatoes, gravy, spinach-goat cheese-walnut-pear-cranberry salad, rolls, pumpkin cheesecake pie, and canned cranberry sauce. I’m also adding Egg Nog (…fromscratchoki’mdone) to the list to share with my mom-in-law and some of Norwegian friends, and possibly a few Americans. This poses another obstacle: there’s only three of us this year, and Alexander’s mom and I are the same size. So, who’s joining us for dinner this year? :D

The tradition at Thanksgiving is pretty self-explanatory, you say what you’re thankful for. This year I’m thankful for Alexander, school, friends (the real ones!… and the TV show), Oslo, not falling on the ice (yet), family, and Christmas in the States in less than four weeks. And that I’m gonna get a dog soon. And Kvikk Lunsj. And … Ok, I should leave some meaning to the rest of them. But Kvikk Lunsj is effing amazing. What are you thankful for?

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