Thanksgiving in Holland

So with the family and the holidays, I took a breaking from blogging, but I plan to be back at it again! This coming week I have two finals, but figured I could procrastinate a little bit

As my sister, two cousins and I were over in Europe for Thanksgiving, I had invited them to come to Holland and celebrate with me and my friends and roommates.  My sister's friend was also able to come out, so that was nice!

Two weeks before Thanksgiving, I went with my friend, Iris, to the Poelier (poultry butcher) to order a 9 kg Turkey (20 lbs) to feed around 20 people. The woman was surprised at the size I requested as this is not a normal size.  All the turkeys are ordered fresh, not frozen and usually during the Christmas season.  Fortunately, they called the supplier and they had a turkey for me at a whopping 90 Euro price! Haha, could get the same turkey for definitely less than $20 in America, but frozen and maybe not as high of a quality.

My sister flew in from Rome late that Wednesday night and Thursday, the actual day of Thanksgiving, we picked up the turkey and went to the grocery store twice in order to get all the food we needed.  I had decided to hold Thanksgiving on Saturday, as it is not a holiday recognized here, despite the fact that the original Pilgrims were in the Netherlands right before settling in America.  The turkey I ordered obviously could not be kept in the little fridges we have in my kitchen, so I kept it outside on my balcony until Saturday.

Gillian and I made 2 pies from scratch, the very American Apple Pie and my favorite Pumpkin Pie! That evening my cousin, Erika, arrived and we all went out to dinner at restaurant along the main canal in Utrecht.  This canal has two levels, the upper level lined with old cobblestone streets, railings, retail stores and bars, while the lower level is even with the actual canal and where a variety of restaurants are located.  After dinner, we met up with some Hydrology classmates of mine and went to a local Irish pub.

Friday, Gillian, Erika and I slept in and went into to Amsterdam for the afternoon meeting up with my sister's friend, Sara, who flew in from Madrid.  This was my second time in Amsterdam in the fall and I had yet another lovely time there.  We walked around the Red Light District, even down a really narrow narrow alley that was naturally sketchy even in broad daylight.

The layout of the city is like a upside rainbow of canals and streets with the central station at the top with a river behind it.  We decided to walk south towards the "I am Amsterdam" sign located on Museumplein.  Along the way, we stopped off at the Flower Market (lots of tulips of course), a store with lots of Gouda and an Oliebollen (donut) stand After taking the obligatory pictures at the sign, we went to an area called "Negenstraatjes" - a series of 9 little streets with cute shops and restaurants.  As one of the few foods the country is known for is its pannenkoeken, pancakes, and poffertjes, little pancakes, we stopped off at a pancake house in that area.  To end our day out we went to the Anne Frank House, which was turned into a museum by Anne's father after the Holocaust.  I really enjoyed walked through the layout of the house and seeing her dreams of being published come true and the extent of her impact.

Saturday was the big day! Gillian, Sara and I got up early that morning to wash and prepare the turkey for the oven.  I planned to roast it for at least 5.5 hours (after talking with my aunt the night before to make sure I cooked it correctly the first time!).  Iris's family was able to lend me a huge roasting pan for the turkey and it just fit into the oven at a diagonal.

 In between checking on the turkey, I took many a cat nap in a room full of sleeping girls. Saturday night was the most crowded with me and my cousin in my bed and the other 3 girls on the floor once my last guest, my cousin arriving Saturday.  Around noon some friends from another apartment came over for a brunch where my sister and I made American pancakes and French toast! (I think I may make some French toast for me now to eat!)  For us Americans, it was really nice to have an American style breakfast since most of us hadn't since we first arrived in Europe in August/September.

During the afternoon, my family and I prepared the side dishes of string bean casserole, macaroni & cheese, stuffing and gravy.  Everyone starting arriving at 4 pm and we all gathered together at 5:30 with a toast and lots of good food, drinks and friends! My friends, Sebastian and Andrea, carved the massive turkey, which turned out wonderful if I do say so myself.

The biggest hits were probably the Stuffing and Andrea's sweet potatoes with marshmallows, so yummy! I was very glad that many of my roommates were able to attend and then some classmates and other friends.  This way us Americans (8 in all), could show other people exactly what Thanksgiving was all about and why we make sure a big deal!

So basically we ate and talked and ate some more until about 9 pm.  Eventually we had to stop eating as we were so stuffed of food!  Everyone was super helpful too and cleaned up all the dishes and put them away!  In between all of this my family and I were able to do a Skype video chat with our family out in California, which was a nice way for us all to be together.

I am happy to say that the first Thanksgiving without our families was a great success! And I will definitely be happy to do it again next November, especially now that I know that the fresh Turkey was absolutely amazing and it was not messed up one bit, whew!