All Thanksgivinged out

After two lovely Thanksgiving celebrations with friends (one on Thursday and one on Saturday) I am now done celebrating Thanksgiving here in Germany. The last pie tin has been washed and the extra brussels sprouts that I didn't need for the festivities have been cooked and will be lunch at work this week.

The celebration on Saturday was with a different group of friends, this time in town with an easy walk to get there. Ten people crammed around my friend's newly bought IKEA table. This time it was mostly Germans but there were also people from India, France, Israel and Indonesia. That's what I really enjoy about group; everyone is so diverse, with a different story to tell. I grew up in a very homogenous area with little diversity so it's nice to spend time with people from all over the world.

I brought some Stovetop stuffing as well as some leftover pumpkin pie from the other dinner. My fellow diners were completely sad that there was no apple pie left. I guess I'll have to make it again so I can get more practice.

After dinner, we played Apples to Apples, which is essentially a word game. Having been given my game in the US, it is the American edition.  Ha ha. Apparently not all things are universal, it seems. Some bits of hilarity ensued. Some things even I, as a native American (but not a Native one!), can't even explain. Some cards that I played and were hilarious to me got turned down. That's one of the very small drawbacks of not sharing a cultural heritage, I suppose.

That's it! I'm done

I decided to do NaBloPoMo, or National Blog Posting Month, for November. It's a month of writing something every day. I completed the challenge and here it's December 1 so I can stop. I was so awesome that I actually wrote seven extra entries (sorry, for anyone who actually tries to read everything I write here, if such a person exists).

Anyway, that was fun enough. I'll admit that I'm a bit disappointed that apparently such events happen every month so it's not like November is particularly special for blog posting, but I wanted to support my friends who do NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month. Anyway, that was fun stuff. Now back to planning some upcoming trips in December with friends and family!

Uncle Paul's Delicious Pie Crust Recipe

As I was growing up, I watched my Mom do all kinds of domestic things, like cleaning, cooking, and sewing. From her, I learned the cleaning part, mostly because I was forced to take part in it (oh, the humanity! ;)  I'm thankful, though, because I know how to clean things really well and how to be picky about cleaning. Such knowledge does not mean that my apartment is spotless; it just means that I know how to make it spotless.

Unfortunately, the cleaning part is the only thing I learned super well from her. I did a little with baking and can sometimes make passable baked goods but I pretty much missed out on the sewing bit. As strong, educated, professional woman, I originally thought I didn't need domestic skills. After all, I'm too busy with my career!

However, now I wish I had paid more attention. I think that there is much to be said for someone who is like a Renaissance (wo)man: to be educated but also to have a wide range of other skills, too. I'd love to be able to sew totally awesome clothes for myself (mostly because clothes to wear when going out dancing or something never have pockets and I'd like to make something that does!). I'd also like to make awesome gourmet dishes to impress friends. I wish I knew how to make great cocktails and how to serve tea properly. Oh yeah, I wish I were also better at accounting, computer programming, and foreign languages.

Anyway, I promised my friend that I would make a pumpkin and apple pie for our expat Thanksgiving dinner. These would only be the second and third pies I've ever made so I was a bit nervous. However, I knew that at least the crust would be delicious because I was using my Uncle Paul's recipe. He makes his family's pies every year with this light and flaky crust. When my Mom doesn't use this recipe and instead makes a Dutch crumble top for her pies, I always get a serious case of the pouty face because Uncle Paul's pie crust is just that good (and I also dislike the crumble topping).

Anyway, here is the recipe that is helping to propel me toward being more domestic and can help you too:

Uncle Paul's Pie Crust

1 and 1/2  cup flour

2 - 3 Tbs. sugar

1/2 tsp. salt

-Mix, then add:

1/2 cup canola oil

3 - 4 Tbs. milk

Mix and roll out very thinly between two sheets of either wax paper or Saran Wrap. Don't handle it too much - the cooler it stays, the better. Press into pie pan.

Make your pie the usual way. Cover the edges of the pie with tinfoil to prevent them from getting burned.

An expat Thanksgiving...times two

For Americans, Thanksgiving is a time to spend with those who are special and to be thankful, of course. Thanksgiving is a truly American holiday and besides Christmas, it's when most* US stores and businesses are closed so people can spend time with family and friends.

This is the second time in my life when I've been thousands of miles away from my family for Thanksgiving. The first time, I was a student in a suburb of London (England). I spent the evening with two of my friends, who also happened to be American. We took the train to London and ate dinner at Cheers (yes, it's based on the show!). As we walked through the park and to Buckingham Palace after dinner, I called my family to wish them a happy holiday. It was a neat experience.

That was thirteen years ago. I now live in Germany and faced another Thanksgiving far from my hometown. It was not a lonely Thanksgiving, though; thanks to the connection that expats feel and to my friend's kindness, a bunch of us gathered at her place for a lovely meal on Thursday evening. We had a late dinner since only the two Americans had the day off. It was to be quite an international event, with Americans (just two of us), friends originally from the UK (the largest group there, strangely enough, and I teased them that we had this holiday because the Pilgrims had been trying to get away from their forefathers), a Romanian, and some Germans. It was really fun to share our holiday with them.

In the wonderful way that merging social circles goes, my friends from town were also invited along. My two groups of friends met through a party at my place and then at subsequent events.  We left for Heidelberg a bit early and dropped off the pies that I made (more to follow about them in a future entry!) and some of ingredients for the other dishes I was going to prepare. Then, we headed to downtown Heidelberg to take a peek at the Christmas market. It hadn't officially opened yet but the booths were open, regardless. It was very pleasant to wander through them and not have to fight crowds.

Since it was going to be a few hours yet before dinner and I hadn't eaten much all day, I grabbed an ice cream cone from Gelato Go. It was quite cold out so it makes total sense to eat something even colder, huh? I don't always make the wisest choices in this regard but I didn't care because the ice cream was delicious! I ordered a scoop of marizpan (I think) and a scoop of Spekulatius, which had bits of chopped cookie of the same name. I forgot how huge the scoops of ice cream are there so I had quite a bit to eat! Some people complain about the price for the ice cream (mine was 2,20 euro for the two scoops) but I don't think that the prices are bad considering how much they give per scoop and that their offerings are organic. There are even vegan offerings!

We walked around a bit more and I did some scouting for the upcoming trip that I'll be taking there with my cousins, who will be visiting from the US in December. It was then time to head back for the dinner.

In addition to the pies I made, I prepared green bean casserole (which I personally detest, but it's such a typical dish that I felt that I needed to make it or else I'd be denying my Midwestern roots). I also made a dish of seared brussels sprouts with gorgonzola, pecans, and cranberries from this recipe. If I were to do it over, I'd probably bake or steam the sprouts first, then sear them in a pan, adding the cranberries almost at the end. I felt that they were slightly bitter since they didn't cook as much. The cranberries split open so that's why I'd add them later. It was a tasty dish, nonetheless, and I wouldn't mind adding it to my painfully slowly expanding repertoire of things I cook for events.

This was our hostess's first time cooking a turkey. She made a gourmet turkey, taking the time to prepare it in a brine. I don't usually eat meat, myself, but I took a small bite and it was quite nice, flavorful and moist. The meat eaters raved about it.

As we sat down to eat, I told the guests that we had to do our very special and typical American Thanksgiving ritual: a special prayer, okay even for the nonbelievers. We even taught the guests the super important hand gestures too. It went as follows: rub a dub dub (rubbing one's belly); thanks for the grub (holding hand out); yea god (doing jazz hands). I wish I could have had a video of this.

We then commenced to eat way too much and it was entirely delicious! Our hostess made a wonderful meal, pulling out all the stops with homemade cranberry relish, cornmeal stuffing, mashed potatoes with bacon (for which I will always make an amendment to my usual disinterest in eating meat), homemade cornbread muffins with bacon and sundried tomatoes, a lovely salad, my side dishes, and for dessert, a cheesecake she made and my pies (pumpkin and apple).

The company was lovely and the food delicious. My friends commented that they didn't that they have ever been so full before! Just before midnight, the three of us who live in Kaiserslautern waddled back to the train station to go home. I was in bed by 2 a.m. It's funny because the last time I celebrated Thanksgiving abroad, I was out really late too. In the US, I'm usually in bed by 10 p.m. after Thanksgiving festivities, probably because of the food coma.

The fun doesn't stop here, though. Another friend invited me to his Thanksgiving celebration, which will be today. Most of the other guests are Germans so it made sense to have it on a day that they wouldn't be working or in school. I purposefully didn't eat much on Friday because I needed a break in between two days of feasts. I must say, though, that I feel lucky to have such great company :)


*too bad it's not all of them! This is an example of where the US can really take an example from the Germans and allow everyone to celebrate holidays with their families instead serving corporate greed.

Getting it WRONG: street buskers and regalia

Germany has had a fascination with American Indians for quite some time, especially after German author Karl May wrote stories at the turn of the 19th century about Winnetou (a fictional character) and the American West.

It's not surprising, then, to see some street buskers dressed in what is supposed to be American Indian clothing. However, it is a strange juxtaposition as the performers, who are not American Indian, wear cheap knock-off costumes meant to look like ceremonial regalia. This is rather disrespectful to the American Indian culture, to create a cheap knock-off of special dress that has spiritual importance. The music is not accurate, either.

We saw a group in Heidelberg doing this. It especially bothers my friend. I hadn't really thought about it much before; I tend to ignore buskers. However, I see her point.

Three things that no man needs

The sign below was hanging in a store. I understood most of it, except for the last word, when I first read it (and was quite pleased with myself). The last word is idiomatic so I don't feel so bad about that.

Three things that no man needs: dish brush, toilet brush, and a prickly character [the word also means a wire brush].

Some More Art Learnin': Symbolism

Symbolism began as a literature movement in France in the 1880s and the art movement soon followed.  Jean Moréas’s manifesto, published in the Le Figaro art supplement in 1886, helped to inaugurate the name “Symbolism” for the movement (Myers). It was a reaction against Realism’s triviality, the crudeness of materialism and “the conventional mores of industrial and middle class society” (Kleiner 819). 

Symbolist artists sought to move beyond the superficial surface of things and find a deeper reality. They painted a fantastical and imaginative world where the artist’s subjective experience, including emotions and ideas, was paramount. Artists incorporated “…exotic, mysterious, visionary, dreamlike, and fantastic” elements into their paintings (Kleiner 819). 

Even before the term “Symbolism” was used, artists such as Pierre Puvis de Chavennes, Gustave Moreau, and Odilon Redon initiated works with elements in the style. Pierre Puvis de Chavannes did not call himself a Symbolist, but Symbolists considered this French artist the “prophet” for the movement (Kleiner 819). In his painting, Sacred Grove, Puvis painted “statuesque figures in timeless poses” in a “tranquil landscape with a classical shrine” (Kleiner 829). With the unnatural stillness in the scene and shallow modeling of the figures, this painting is the antithesis of Realism. Puvis appealed both to the French Academy and the government with his classicism, as well to the Symbolists because he moved beyond the current, material world and looked into an imaginary world (Kleiner 820). 

Gustave Moreau was another contributor to the Symbolist movement. His 1874 painting, The Apparition, shows the Biblical character and femme fatale Salome dancing before her stepfather Herod. She desires the head of St. John the Baptist. To drive home this point, the head, in a hallucinatory manner, floats above her, staring. Moreau’s style is very original, with a “combination of hallucinatory imagery, eroticism, precise drawing, rich color, and opulent setting” (Kleiner 820).  His works are a precursor to the paintings of the Surrealists in the 20^th century.

A third Symbolist was Odilon Redon. His painting, The Cyclops, shows Polyphemus rising from the sleeping Galatea. With Impressionist techniques, such as the same color palette and stippling brushstrokes, Redon painted a fantastical image about a dream that could have come from a dream itself (Kleiner 820). Redon rendered imagination as an image, which was very groundbreaking at the time.

Works Cited

Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art through the Ages: a Global History. Vol. 2. 14^th ed. [Australia]: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. 

Myers, Nicole. "Symbolism". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/symb/hd_symb.htm (August 2007)

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Also, here is my disclaimer: the following is copyright 2013 by Around the Wherever. Do not reproduce in any way (especially if you're writing a paper for a class; don't be academically dishonest and copy this in any form).