El Dia de Gracias

Oh my, I have so much to say and so little time. Until we get into our apartment it´s really difficult to get onto the internet. Hopefully it will be easier soon and I can blog about all of the adventures we are having on a more regular basis. Right now I am in an internet cafe in the small mountain town where Eric´s grandparents live. We are headed to the river where we all gather at the small ¨casita¨ they have there for parties and family get togethers. We are having Sancocho for the midday meal, which is a stew with 7 kinds of meats and every local vegetable they grow here. It is so good and I am looking forward to the whole day...time with family, as we have all gathered here for the weekend, the meal, the river.

BUT, the reason I got on is to tell you about our Thanksgiving. I will post pictures at a later time when I can download them to the blog.

Many of you know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Everything about it makes me happy. It´s the only holiday I know that has the sole purpose of gathering family and friends together to eat, enjoy each other and be thankful for all the blessings of the year. I was hoping to share a little of my American culture with my Dominican family, so I set out to make the most authentic meal I could with the ingredients I could find here. I had to go to the two different store a total of four times to find what I needed, and even then I did a LOT of improvisation. At the first store my mother in law had three people looking for ¨calabasa¨or pumpkin in a can to no avail. The next day I was at the other store, El Bravo (which I am sure I will be shopping at regularly, but that is a different post) and there before my eyes I found not only canned pumpkin, but my friend, Libby´s. The whole turkeys were double the price as in the states, but I found that I could buy legs, thighs and breasts at the butcher and they were about half the price, but at least I didn´t have to have it killed live in front of me as some other friends have had to do in another country across the world. After much deliberation I had to settle for boxed stuffing that I doctored up with sauteed celery and onions and a LOT of butter...yum. Also, I had trouble locating sweet potatoes, which was a surprise to me because Dominicans eat a lot of root vegetables, in fact they eat several root vegetables I have never heard of. I was so proud of my communication abilities as I asked a woman in the root vegetable aisle which was the sweetest. She directed me to ¨batatas¨, which translates to sweet potato, but doesn´t look anything like it. It looks like a very large ruttabaga and is white on the inside instead of orange.

So, with my ingredients in hand I set out to make the meal in my mother in law´s kitchen. Now, there were a few things about her kitchen that I had to work around. First, it´s small, but that´s really not to much trouble. Second, she doesn´t cook very much AND it´s a Domincan kitchen, so that means no measuring cups or spoons and few cooking pans, as most Domincan food is cooked in pots on the stove. And, her oven dial doesn´t have any numbers for the temperature. Well, thanks to all the hours I have logged in watching the Food Network (especially the Next Food Network Star, which you know is my favorite reality series) I was able to make it work and it actually all tasted very authentic, like my usual fare made in my kitchen with all of the tools and machines I have collected from my years of working at Crate and Barrel, and the ingredients I can easily find at Stop and Shop. We had turkey, dressing, (white) sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green bean casserole (without the french fried onions), waldorf salad, and a homemade pumpkin pie!

Some of Eric´s family came over for the meal, which we ate around eight thirty. His sister, an uncle, aunt and two of their kids joined me, Eric, Eric Jr. and Edi. Before the prayer for the meal they asked me about the history of Thanksgiving, which was a special thing to share, as I knew they were really interested. I explained all of the foods and the ingredients I used and they were all so enthusiastic about sharing an authentic American Thanksgiving meal, especially Eric´s uncle who asked me a lot of questions about the meaning behind why we celebrate the holiday. I realized that the way we celebrate Thanksgiving with family, friends, good food and a thankful heart is much like the Latin meaning behind celebrating the ¨Ano Nuevo¨or New Year´s eve. At the end of our night I told them all that I was so happy to share a little bit of my culture and I was looking forward to a true Dominican Navidad and Ano Nuevo.

I have so many other thoughts to share, but I need to keep it short because I am paying for my internet time today. I am getting along pretty well with my Spanish and everyone is really gracious at helping me and trying to understand what I am trying to say. I think they are so happy to see me really trying. Also, Little Eric has been saying a lot of new words. He said, ¨Hola¨the other day to Lydia who works in our apartment two days a week. And, the day before he said, ¨Elmo¨which my mother in law swears he is saying ¨Amo¨for ¨Te Amo¨or I love you. I knew he was really saying Elmo when I showed him a picture of Elmo on his diaper and he immediately said Elmo. Oh well, she loves it, so I am letting that one go. He is also making the hand sign for ¨more¨ALL of the time. Also, he is loving all of the attention from his cousins! It´s so great to see him interact so well with so many new family members.

Both he and I are getting our fair share of mosquito bites and I bought a mosquito net for his crib. He doesn´t like it a bit, especially when he wants to stand up and he gets caught up in it. It´s kind of funny to see him pop up and get caught, but he hates it so much.

Well, I promise more later and pictures, too.