Way back in September I realized that I would be spending my first Thanksgiving away from home. My friends Paul and Jess and I were commiserating about Thanksgiving, and we decided to organize a real Thanksgiving together and really do it up. Since my flat is quite large, we decided that my flatmates and I would host the Thanksgiving.
However, when we compiled our guest list, we realized that we had the possibility of almost 30 people attending Thanksgiving, which definitely complicates the logistics. The evites went out after Halloween, and we started planning for about 25 people to attend.
Our first consideration was how to make sure that all of the important Thanksgiving dishes were present. Since it is almost impossible to cook a full Thanksgiving meal for 25 in a small Swiss kitchen, we did a potluck, and had people sign up to bring the various parts of the meal. There was some concern for a while that no one was bringing green bean hotdish, which is an essential, so my flatmates and I decided to make it. A few reminder emails later, everyone was signed up for something and all of the major items were covered.
Check: Thanksgiving food.
Once we were sure that all of the important food items were covered, we had to figure out how we were going to seat everyone and with what people were going to eat and drink. From the start, I have been envisioning a huge sit-down meal with everyone at the same table and with real plates and silver and glasses, which made the logistics a little complicated. (But was totally worth it, I might add.) Luckily, we had enough tables, but we came up about 7 chairs short. So I poached some folding chairs from work that were being thrown out (not quite dumpster diving, but close...) and brought them home, and Paul and Jess agreed to bring over their plastic patio chairs.
Check: tables and chairs.
To make sure that we had enough plates, silverware and glasses, I made at least two trips to IKEA (and the bargain section at IKEA) to add to our supplies. Thank goodness for IKEA! I got some plates, silverware, water glasses and wine glasses, but still didn't have enough dinner plates. Since I didn't want to buy any more (who needs 25 dinner plates on a regular basis?), Paul and Jess agreed to bring over almost a whole set of plates, and our friend Rachel contributed a few dinner plates.
Check: plates and silverware.
With the general logistics out of the way, we began plotting the cooking logistics. As I have noted before, cooking here in Switzerland is just different from the US. I can't find things that I normally use and pans are different sizes than the US, so recipes have to be adjusted. Some of us have been practicing for Thanksgiving, making trial runs of the dishes that we were planning to bring to ensure that they turned out with all of the alterations that had to be made.
Take pecan pie, for example. For starters, I have no 9" pie plate, only a 13" tart pan, which means baking times are different. Also, corn syrup doesn't exist here, so I had to find a non-corn-syrup-containing recipe. I found a recipe that called for maple syrup instead, which I can find here. Third, there is no brown sugar here. So I had to have my flatmates Georgie import some brown sugar from England on one of here trips home. And, the funny thing is that pecans don't really grow here; they are all imported from the US (and really expensive!). Anyways, I baked a maple pecan pie in a tart pan, and discovered that pre-baking the crust may not be necessary in a deep-dish pie pan, but it is definitely necessary in a shallow tart pan. Somehow the crust migrated to a position between the filling and the pecans, which made for a interesting serving conundrum. I guess it was a good thing that I practiced, though, because I knew what to do when Thanksgiving actually came, after some frantic Google-ing of "how to blind bake a pie crust".
The turkey was another logistic problem, but practicing was definitely not an option. It might be possible to find whole turkeys in the normal supermarkets, but they are not always available. Even when you can find one in the supermarket, it is probably 4 or 5 kg maximum, which is not quite enough for 25 people. So, Paul made a special trip two weeks before Thanksgiving to the Coop with a fresh meat counter to reserve two of the largest turkeys possible. Turns out that the largest turkeys come is 6 kg (13.2 lbs), so we reserved two 6 kg turkeys and decided that Jess and I would each cook one. (Although, the ovens and pans are quite small here, so it's probably a good thing that they turkeys weren't much bigger.) Paul arranged to pick up the turkeys on Thanksgiving morning. We had no idea what exactly to expect as far as price, though, as the Coop didn't tell us the price until we picked them up. We just knew it would be expensive, as everything is here...
Besides a pecan pie and the turkey, my flatmates and I signed up to bring French silk pie (which required no practice or substitutions, thank goodness), as well as the green bean hotdish and stuffing, which both did required some strategerie to accomplish. When we make stuffing at home, my mom and I always use ready-made croutons for the stuffing, so I had to plan ahead to make sure that I had time to dry my own bread for the croutons. Thankfully that was pretty easy.
The green bean hotdish was slightly more complicated. Cream of mushroom soup in a can doesn't exist here, so I hunted down a recipe for homemade cream of mushroom soup. The onion topping is also not available here, so we searched for substitutes. Paul and Jess had found something similar at IKEA in the past, but IKEA has stopped carrying it. Luckily, my flatmate Stefanie was visiting her sister (who is currently studying in the US) just last week, so I ordered a bag of French's Fried Onions from amazon.com and had them shipped to Stef's sister, and Stef brought them back to Switzerland just in time for Thanksgiving!
Check: pecan pie, French silk pie, turkey, stuffing and green bean hotdish.
We had almost enough baking and cooking dishes to make everything, but we were one pie dish (or tart pan) short. So early this week I asked my Swiss colleague Rebekka if I could borrow a tart pan from her. I thought we had communicated quite well, so imagine my surprise when she shows up with a huge lidded pot in which you might cook pasta! I had been trying to ask for a round Kuchen (cake) pan, but she thought I wanted a Küche (kitchen) pan. Stupid umlauts! The funny thing is that my other Swiss colleague Michi had overheard the conversation in which I asked Rebekka to borrow the pan, and he said that he would've brought a big frying pan or wok! Heh. Thankfully, Paul and Jess also had an extra pie pan that I could borrow.
Check: baking dishes.
With that, everything was set for my first Swiss Thanksgiving!
However, when we compiled our guest list, we realized that we had the possibility of almost 30 people attending Thanksgiving, which definitely complicates the logistics. The evites went out after Halloween, and we started planning for about 25 people to attend.
Our first consideration was how to make sure that all of the important Thanksgiving dishes were present. Since it is almost impossible to cook a full Thanksgiving meal for 25 in a small Swiss kitchen, we did a potluck, and had people sign up to bring the various parts of the meal. There was some concern for a while that no one was bringing green bean hotdish, which is an essential, so my flatmates and I decided to make it. A few reminder emails later, everyone was signed up for something and all of the major items were covered.
Check: Thanksgiving food.
Once we were sure that all of the important food items were covered, we had to figure out how we were going to seat everyone and with what people were going to eat and drink. From the start, I have been envisioning a huge sit-down meal with everyone at the same table and with real plates and silver and glasses, which made the logistics a little complicated. (But was totally worth it, I might add.) Luckily, we had enough tables, but we came up about 7 chairs short. So I poached some folding chairs from work that were being thrown out (not quite dumpster diving, but close...) and brought them home, and Paul and Jess agreed to bring over their plastic patio chairs.
Check: tables and chairs.
To make sure that we had enough plates, silverware and glasses, I made at least two trips to IKEA (and the bargain section at IKEA) to add to our supplies. Thank goodness for IKEA! I got some plates, silverware, water glasses and wine glasses, but still didn't have enough dinner plates. Since I didn't want to buy any more (who needs 25 dinner plates on a regular basis?), Paul and Jess agreed to bring over almost a whole set of plates, and our friend Rachel contributed a few dinner plates.
Check: plates and silverware.
With the general logistics out of the way, we began plotting the cooking logistics. As I have noted before, cooking here in Switzerland is just different from the US. I can't find things that I normally use and pans are different sizes than the US, so recipes have to be adjusted. Some of us have been practicing for Thanksgiving, making trial runs of the dishes that we were planning to bring to ensure that they turned out with all of the alterations that had to be made.
Take pecan pie, for example. For starters, I have no 9" pie plate, only a 13" tart pan, which means baking times are different. Also, corn syrup doesn't exist here, so I had to find a non-corn-syrup-containing recipe. I found a recipe that called for maple syrup instead, which I can find here. Third, there is no brown sugar here. So I had to have my flatmates Georgie import some brown sugar from England on one of here trips home. And, the funny thing is that pecans don't really grow here; they are all imported from the US (and really expensive!). Anyways, I baked a maple pecan pie in a tart pan, and discovered that pre-baking the crust may not be necessary in a deep-dish pie pan, but it is definitely necessary in a shallow tart pan. Somehow the crust migrated to a position between the filling and the pecans, which made for a interesting serving conundrum. I guess it was a good thing that I practiced, though, because I knew what to do when Thanksgiving actually came, after some frantic Google-ing of "how to blind bake a pie crust".
The turkey was another logistic problem, but practicing was definitely not an option. It might be possible to find whole turkeys in the normal supermarkets, but they are not always available. Even when you can find one in the supermarket, it is probably 4 or 5 kg maximum, which is not quite enough for 25 people. So, Paul made a special trip two weeks before Thanksgiving to the Coop with a fresh meat counter to reserve two of the largest turkeys possible. Turns out that the largest turkeys come is 6 kg (13.2 lbs), so we reserved two 6 kg turkeys and decided that Jess and I would each cook one. (Although, the ovens and pans are quite small here, so it's probably a good thing that they turkeys weren't much bigger.) Paul arranged to pick up the turkeys on Thanksgiving morning. We had no idea what exactly to expect as far as price, though, as the Coop didn't tell us the price until we picked them up. We just knew it would be expensive, as everything is here...
Besides a pecan pie and the turkey, my flatmates and I signed up to bring French silk pie (which required no practice or substitutions, thank goodness), as well as the green bean hotdish and stuffing, which both did required some strategerie to accomplish. When we make stuffing at home, my mom and I always use ready-made croutons for the stuffing, so I had to plan ahead to make sure that I had time to dry my own bread for the croutons. Thankfully that was pretty easy.
The green bean hotdish was slightly more complicated. Cream of mushroom soup in a can doesn't exist here, so I hunted down a recipe for homemade cream of mushroom soup. The onion topping is also not available here, so we searched for substitutes. Paul and Jess had found something similar at IKEA in the past, but IKEA has stopped carrying it. Luckily, my flatmate Stefanie was visiting her sister (who is currently studying in the US) just last week, so I ordered a bag of French's Fried Onions from amazon.com and had them shipped to Stef's sister, and Stef brought them back to Switzerland just in time for Thanksgiving!
Check: pecan pie, French silk pie, turkey, stuffing and green bean hotdish.
We had almost enough baking and cooking dishes to make everything, but we were one pie dish (or tart pan) short. So early this week I asked my Swiss colleague Rebekka if I could borrow a tart pan from her. I thought we had communicated quite well, so imagine my surprise when she shows up with a huge lidded pot in which you might cook pasta! I had been trying to ask for a round Kuchen (cake) pan, but she thought I wanted a Küche (kitchen) pan. Stupid umlauts! The funny thing is that my other Swiss colleague Michi had overheard the conversation in which I asked Rebekka to borrow the pan, and he said that he would've brought a big frying pan or wok! Heh. Thankfully, Paul and Jess also had an extra pie pan that I could borrow.
Check: baking dishes.
With that, everything was set for my first Swiss Thanksgiving!
