A Thanksgiving Feast

Many of the reasons which make Easter my favorite holiday- namely an importance of gathering with friends and family and sharing a sumptuous meal and the lack of presents- also make Thanksgiving one of my favorite holidays. This year, in Berlin and far away from my family, I decided to have a Thanksgiving gathering at my house. And gather we did! About 12 people came over to share in my very traditional Thanksgiving fare, conversation, fun, and games- it was a hit.

The planning for the festivities began last week when I realized that although I would be attending Thanksgiving dinners on Wednesday and Saturday, I actually had no plans for the Thursday. This made me profoundly sad- what would I do? Make an extra pumpkin pie and eat it alone, most likely. I decided this type of gluttony and isolation was not to be borne and that I should instead throw a Thanksgiving dinner of my own. So, heady with plans and nightly dreams of Thanksgiving treats dancing in my head, I set out to celebrate a very American holiday in Berlin. After the week of planning, days of cooking, and multiple trips to the grocery store- my friends and I enjoyed the most traditional of Thanksgiving dishes:

• Turkey (the first I have ever made and it was very moist and tender, all were impressed and doubted my novice claims)
• Mashed Potatoes (delish and very silky smooth, the lack of potato masher obliged me to use my sieve once more!)
• Green Bean Casserole (with no french onions to be had, I made my own croutons and topped it with them- a very nice twist)
• Candied Yams (lacking marshmallows- I couldn't find them and my attempt to make them didn't entirely pan out- I need to further develop my confectionery skills!)
• Stuffing
• Gravy
• My Grandma Sharon's Dinner Rolls (oh so good!)
• Cranberry Sauce (making your own is surprisingly easy and quite delicious)
• Lentil Nut Roast (my friend Lydia made it and it was quite a hit- very yummy)
• Salads (Marie brought salads which were a perfect accent to all the warm food!)
• Pumpkin pie (you've heard the story already)
• Snickerdoodles (quite a surprise hit, everyone wants the recipe)
  

And it seems everyone who came brought the standard bottle of wine- it was quite a nice evening, more then enough wine, the perfect amount of food and marvelous conversation throughout the evening- it sure beat eating a pie by myself!

And now that Thanksgiving is gone, I am at liberty to begin the Christmas season- it is 24/7 Christmas tunes for me and the snowflakes have gone into full production.

Thanksgiving

This is my Thanksgiving bounty from a small-ish Thanksgiving gathering I had last night. I'd expect a full story later- for now, enjoy the sight of the delicious food!

Pumpkin

There is a very good reason for the existence of canned pumpkin. I lived this reason today, when I spent the better part of the day preparing pumpkin puree for the rapidly approaching Thanksgiving holiday. I am attending two Thanksgiving dinners and hosting another small one- for all of these events I shall be making pumpkin pie, however, canned pumpkin is not something to be easily had in Berlin. I am sure I could have found it in an American store or at KaDeWe and have paid a ridiculous amount for simple Libby's canned pumpkin, but I thought, why not use fresh pumpkin? And hence two hours spent filtering mashed pumpkin through a sieve.

After baking the halved and cleaned pumpkins in the oven for an hour and a quarter and then letting them cool sufficiently, I undertook the messy job of scooping the pumpkins' insides out and then mashing together the bits not as soft (my oven runs hot and has a hot back right corner). This was nothing, however, in comparison to the joy of pushing the mashed pumpkin through a very fine strainer. Because, you see, in order to have silky smooth pumpkin pie- as any custard pie should be- you ought to make sure all the stringy bits are gone- so the sieve comes in handy. It is hard work and hopefully not thankless. If these pies are not among some of the best pumpkin pies ever created, I just might cry. Or be really sad. Either way, they better be amazing!

So now that my day has been spent among the pumpkins- with no great pumpkin to be had- I am going to veg.

Fudge, Bond, Friends, and Shabbat

Friday was a most excellent day. I began the day with my friend Lydia. We made most delicious walnut-raisin fudge together. Oooooo...fudge, it is beginning to feel even more like the holidays. I have never made fudge before, and while my confectionery skills are not as highly developed as my other kitchen related ones- I was quite pleased with the outcome. Delicious fudge, luckily it is very rich- and thus challenging to eat too much at once. Unfortunately, I like challenges!

After making Fudge, the fun continued. My friend and I went to see the new Bond, our fudge in tow. While enjoyable and Bond, the film was a depressing Bond. Not once did an echo of warmth break through the cold exterior of the film. I laughed occasionally- but it had more to do with the ridiculousness of action scenes or something equally laughable- not true humor. Once, there was a glimmer of Bond wordplay, but it was quickly over and I wasn't sure if it had really happened afterward! I was reading the NYTimes review of the film, and they asked the question I was asking throughout- when did Bond become a tragic hero? Maybe he'll grow out of it. That all said, it was great and I would recommend it.

After the movie, I traveled West to attend the Shabbat dinner to which I had so kindly been invited. I came an hour early, to speak Yiddish, and had a great time. I found out that my friend was a fighter in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and continued with the Resistance throughout the war. He showed me pictures of his family, friends, and talked to me about his life in Yiddish. His Polish dialect was occasionally difficult to understand- but fortunately as a more common Yiddish dialect- I have some experience with it. It was a marvelous evening, so much food, so many Yiddish songs, so many compliments (I've never been complimented on my beauty so much) and so much friendship. Two friends of his came to dinner too, two women he knew from a now defunct Jewish organization in Berlin. They were adorable and spent an half hour arguing over the safety of my taking the metro home at 12.30 when our evening came to end. Eventually, it was decided I'd be okay- but I'd have to call when I got in. As it was close to 1.30am when I did get home, I thought it best to call when I woke up the next day. Well, at 9.30am I was awoken by a call from my Yiddish friend to make sure I had arrived safely. It was adorable, and I think I have made some new friends.

Yiddish! in Berlin

Well, it has finally begun- my Yiddish language circle. This past Monday I met with a professor, a very nice native Yiddish speaker, two middle aged women, and a girl a bit older than me to speak Yiddish. Besides myself and the native Yiddish speaker, all were German. The evening was very nice- we read some Peretz and spoke for a bit. There was however quite a bit of code switching going on- I was never quite sure when I should have been speaking in German or in Yiddish. This may have something to do with the fact that all the members of the group were German speakers and their Yiddish was fairly influenced by German- but it was nevertheless confusing. I spent most of the summer attempting (with varying degrees of success) to break myself of my "daytshmerish" Yiddish habits, that is my overuse of Germanisms. Now I find myself flung into a world were either they are switching languages willy-nilly, or their Yiddish is so inflected by German that I cannot tell what they are speaking!

Now some may say, hey Jenna, wait a sec, aren't Yiddish and German really similar?? Well, yes and no. There are very different vowel sounds, constructions of the past tense, and basic rules of word order in Yiddish. Often, these giveaways seemed to be missing, and I wasn't sure what we were speaking- but I guess I'll figure it out. Previously it is always been very clear for me when someone is speaking German and Yiddish. Hopefully we'll figure this odd group of people together.

Beyond the confusing code switching taking place, the evening was a success. I was able to speak some Yiddish and was invited to Shabbat at the very nice Yiddish man's house this Friday night. He is a Holocaust survivor, and as I mentioned, a native Yiddish Speaker. At language circle, he kept asking me what songs I knew in Yiddish and seemed to like me, so I think it'll be good. I am to come a bit early, so we can speak Yiddish together. I have the feeling that I may be invited every Friday night, which means...Yiddish every Friday night! Way to go!

Visitors from France and Other Exciting Happenings

This past week, an old French friend of Melanie's and her friend came to visit Berlin. They are musicians and we had the most marvelous time together. I think I shall miss those funny Cabaret singing women now that they have returned to France. Night before last, they performed part of their act at a local French bar. The bar was great, apparently a little piece of Paris in Berlin (and only a 25 minute walk or so from my apartment). I drank an exciting wine, listening to their music, and had fun switching between German and English, explaining repeatedly that I did not, unfortunately, speak French. I think it will be next on the list.



The weekend just kept getting better too. Last night I went to Yorckschlößchen, this Jazz/Blues club to check out the music and the possibility of going there with Melissa and the Grandparents for New Year's eve. The club was awesome, the band this time was a Jazz Hip Hop group from Switzerland. Their Swiss German was funny and incomprehensible, but they would switch to Hoch Deutsch when speaking to the audience, thankfully! The club was quite cozy with good wine (though not as good as the French place) and awesome music. I'm going to call this week and make reservations for New Year's. I found this picture of the bar in winter, ah...I wonder if it'll look like this???



The icing on the cake, however, was the amazing and surprising news that Cordelia is coming to Germany during her Spring break! I was teasing her and said she should fly here tomorrow, she looked at fares and found a great deal in March, during her spring break. SO she's coming! I feel like dancing on air, I am so excited. I think we may go to Poland together, because what could be better than going to Poland with Cordelia?

Rings

Oh no! I've discovered something quite shocking. It seems, in Germany, wedding rings are worn on the right ring finger! Now, as you know, wedding rings are worn in the US and many other lands on the left ring finger according to a belief that a vein led from that finger directly to your heart, the vena amoris or vein of love. Apparently the Germans went with the Medieval idea that Right was good and Left was according to the Latin- sinister.


Except all this does not hold entirely true for the society- in Berlin, a land of multiculturalism and heavily influenced by American pop culture, you will see couples sporting rings both ways. Older German couples tend to opt for the Right hand, while youngsters go in for the Left. This, it seems to me, would lead to quite a bit of confusion. I am personally not sure what I should do. I generally wear one ring at a time, on my right ring finger. I suppose I could switch to wearing rings on the left, but that a) feels weird and b) all my rings are sized to my right ring finger and like most people my right and left ringer fingers are different sizes. In the meantime I have given up wearing rings entirely, which makes me quite sad- I like wearing rings.

Either way, I've come up with a new game while riding my morning train- spot the wedding rings. I think I might start to keep track of the right and left hand frequency.