Cyprus style Thanksgiving

After I had written yesterday's post about Thanksgiving preparation, I baked the bread rolls - which turned out fine, if a little small - and made something approximating to a Greek salad:

Chopped lettuce and cabbage at the bottom, chopped cucumber and feta in the middle, a sliced tomato around the edge. It could hardly be simpler. 

Then I prepared the french beans, brussels sprouts and cauliflower to cook in my electric steamer:

Unfortunately, although I remembered to plug it in and switch on at the wall at about ten to six, it took another ten minutes before I realised that I hadn't also switched on the appliance itself. And it should really have been earlier still. I use it so rarely at this capacity that I forget just how long it takes to steam three tiers of veggies. I moved the cauliflower to a pan on the stove when I realised it was not going to get cooked in time, and that was fine. The beans were okay, if a little crunchy, and the brussels sprouts were far too hard. Oh well. 

I also cut up mushrooms and tomatoes, sprinkling the latter with garlic and basil, to put in the oven to bake:

Also in the oven went the previously prepared stuffing, mashed potato and some stuffed peppers I'd made and frozen some time beforehand. Carrots went on the stove in a little margarine and brown sugar to steam, sweetcorn with a bit of red pepper in the microwave. 

By 6.30 our guests had arrived and everything was ready (well, other than the brussels sprouts). I'd found a tablecloth that had the right kind of colours on it, and we used our brown Autumnal crockery.  Joan counted sixteen kinds of food in all, including the meat and devilled eggs she had brought:  

When we had all eaten our fill - and there was quite a bit left over - we brought out desserts. Very simple by US standards: just one pie, which Joan had made, using a delicious Dutch apple pie recipe. I had thawed some stewed plums and made some more yogurt, and had also put out a platter of dehydrated fruit - and some Fair Trade 'chocos':

It was, of course, quite a mixture of cultures. The turkey, stuffing, mashed potato and apple pie were certainly typical US fare for Thanksgiving, as was the variety of vegetables, although not necessarily the ones I had chosen; I opted for ones that looked good quality and which were in season. The halloumi and Greek salad were typically Cypriot and I suppose the Cadbury 'chocos' and the stewed plums were typically British (although I didn't add any sugar).  

Mark and Joan were the only Americans present - the only ones for whom Thanksgiving is a deeply ingrained custom. Still, Richard and I did live in the US for a couple of years, back in the early 1990s, and have celebrated this feast several times over the years; we grew up with the slightly outdated concept of harvest festival - a little out of place in cities where nothing much is harvested.  

Thanksgiving pulls together the thankfulness part of harvest festival, and demonstrates the immense bounty of local produce.  The one thing it lacks is giving part of what we have to those in need. I did feel a momentary guilt at having such a loaded table.. we have so much already. But nothing is wasted: we ate leftovers today, and will continue to do so until they're all gone. 

Sunrise on Thanksgiving... and bountiful vegetables

It was almost exactly at 7.00am this morning, on my regular walk with my friend Sheila, that I caught this sunrise: 

7.00am Cyprus time is, as far as we could tell, midnight in the furthest ahead (time-wise) States of the US. So, Thanksgiving was, technically, just starting at that moment. 

After the walk, I went to the fruitaria to pick up a few more fruits and veggies.  We celebrated Thanksgiving for the past two years with our American friends Mark and Joan, but suggested they come to us this year. Along with some other mutual (British) friends.  Joan told me that one of the highlights of Thanksgiving for her was doing at least some cooking, and she's certainly produced a feast in the past... so she asked me if I would please allow her to buy and cook at least one or two items. She then told me she was bringing meat, devilled eggs, and a pie. 

So... all that leaves is, basically, some veggies for me to cook.. right? 

I took a look at the previous years' photos, and saw that there were quite a few veggies. I queried butternut squash, not something I have ever cooked. I might have bought one to experiment, but there were only two pieces at the fruitaria, and they looked very tired and manky... so I didn't. I had bought a few things earlier in the week, but when I piled all the veggies for tonight on the counter, it seemed like a little too much for just six people:

Still, some of the salad veg will be for a salad for tomorrow night's cell group, so I won't use ALL those  items.  

Joan had mentioned that they sometimes have dinner rolls. I'm not entirely sure what those are, but it was easy enough to throw some ingredients into the breadmaker after lunch, and put it on dough setting. I then divided the dough into 24, put it on little muffin pans to shape and rise... and they should be ready to cook around the time I finish this post. 

I saw that Joan made stuffing one year. We usually put stuffing inside a roast bird, but with just six of us, it's turkey breast, and not being cooked here anyway. But I do like our son's mushroom-and-lemon stuffing, so I made a batch and will bake it in the oven later on: 

I couldn't find any fresh cranberries - I suppose they won't appear until about mid-December, but we did have some dried ones. So I found a recipe to make cranberry sauce from those. It won't be quite the same, but I hope it tastes reasonably good: 

In recognition of it being Cyprus,  also bought some halloumi to fry, and some feta to put on the salad: 

I've thawed some frozen stewed plums, and made some fresh yogurt, and put some dried fruit on a platter. 

So, as far as it goes, I'm well prepared. I've made a list, and figured out where everything will go while cooking, but it seems to me that everything's going to happen pretty much in the last hour before our guests arrive.  I did very little this morning, and only about half an hour of preparation in total after lunch. 

I suppose I should go and make the salad, and cut up at least some of the vegetables... 

Thanksgiving in Cyprus with friends

Last year I wrote about our good friends Mark and Joan, who provided a wonderful feast for Thanksgiving - an American feast which we have enjoyed ever since we lived in the USA for a couple of years, back in the early 1990s.

This year, we were invited again. Joan said she was not going to cook quite such a feast as she did last year, but when we arrived on Thursday evening, it looked, once again, like a sumptuous spread. All the more amazing because her hob/oven had broken, and had not yet been replaced, so most of it was made using a single burner!

There were: stuffed eggs with carrot sticks - standard Thanksgiving fare where Joan comes from:


Greek salad - since we were in Cyprus:


And a spread of other dishes - turkey breast, corn on the cob, butternut squash, brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes, green beans.. and some Cyprus halloumi:


So we filled our plates, and then realised there was also a ham and potato casserole which had been simmering in the crockpot:


I had offered to bake a pie, but Mark and Joan prefer a lighter dessert, so she made a jelly mould with lots of fruit in and around it:


We ate it with yogurt.

All the food was all delicious, and the company was very enjoyable. After eating we played a game of Ticket to Ride, although I forgot to take a picture. Then we decided to pose for the occasion, using the delayed button on the camera. For some reason the lighting looks rather strange and dark, but I like the expressions of all four of us:

A Thanksgiving feast in Cyprus

Of all the 'holidays' celebrated when we lived in American for a couple of years (1992-1994) the one we enjoyed the most was Thanksgiving. About a month before Christmas, it's a time when families get together for large quantities of food, and time to relax and think about what they are thankful for. It's traditionally related to harvest, and eating the foods that have come into season during the autumn and winter.

So we were delighted when our American friends Mark and Joan asked us to a meal yesterday evening, which was the date of American Thanksgiving this year. It would be just the four of us, they said, and they were not going to cook a feast as they would have done back in the USA... but since they couldn't be with their family, they wanted to be with friends.

When we arrived, the table was attractively laid:


The side table had banana bread, apple sauce, devilled eggs, and (since it's Cyprus) fried halloumi:


Next to the stove there was chicken, ham and cranberry stuffing:


Next to that, were dishes of butternut squash, green beans and carrots, and sweet potatoes:


And although I didn't take a photo, there was a corn bake dish too, and mashed potatoes, and a special chicken gravy which looked more like soup to me.

If this wasn't a feast, I couldn't imagine what they might have cooked at home... but Joan said she decided that she would, after all, cook all the dishes she would have made if she had been at home. Just in smaller quantities. She spent all day in the kitchen...

I took a little of almost everything:


Here are our hosts, when we had all piled our plates:


It was all extremely good. None of us could manage much more... so they will be eating leftovers for the next week.

Afterwards we played a game of Rummikub:


Richard won, although none of us had a huge number of points against us.

All in all, a very enjoyable evening.