Cultural Encounters:
From the Sand to the Snow

November 28, 2006

Thanksgiving Day

It was nice to have extra days without worrying about classes and homework. Thanksgiving, this year for me, was unique. I was going to spend it with my host family buy my host father’s father was very sick and had to be taken to the hospital. After all this it was not a proper environment for have Thanksgiving while he was still at the hospital. Since some of my international friends did not have host families to spend the day with, we decided to spend it together. Everybody was in charge of bringing something and I ended up bringing the turkey. I have never cooked a turkey in my life before. It was a very interesting experience.
I did some research on how to cook a turkey and Linda gave me some tips. She said to leave the turkey in salt water overnight, then season and cook in a bag. I have a grill with a rotisserie so it would be a perfect opportunity to use it. I ended up doing a barbecue turkey because I did not know what else to do. It seemed to be something everybody would like. The thermometer got stuck when the barbecue sauce glazed on the top and I waited, waited…. I got tired of waiting and the turkey was getting crunchy and dark, so I decided to take it out. Nikolas was helping me cut the turkey, but it did not work very well since he was eating more than helping. I ended buying the gravy from Hy-Vee because I did not feel like getting the juices out of the turkey and making one. (it is kind of gross, but I know it taste good). Carlos wanted to have the dinner at his house, so everybody met there. There were 10 people and we had a blast.