Spanglish Accent: An American Thanksgiving in Chile

Celebrating Thanksgiving in a country far from home is difficult. Mostly for the obvious fact that you have no family around to celebrate one of the most familial of holidays with. Depending on where you live you may not even be able to scrounge up any Americans. In our case, we live in a place where 2/3 of the population doesn't even know what Thanksgiving is or why we would be sad to be missing a family dinner (in their minds that is what it is and they do that every Sunday) and it is a tough holiday to be away from home.

But missing family and friends isn't even the biggest problem we American Expats encounter. Because no matter where in the world I am on the third Thursday of November, I always have B and the girls with me and that is enough for me. Throw in a turkey, some stuffing, cranberry out of a can and some green bean casserole and I might just forget that I am not in Kansas anymore Toto. But therein lies the biggest problem - the turkey, stuffing and cranberry. You can't find the half of the ingredients you need to make a traditional feast. In the past 2 years it has gotten steadily better but it is still just one more reminder of how far away from your country you are at this time of year.

The first year we were here we couldn't find a turkey and had to make do with a very, very expensive ham. Add to that the fact that making a green bean casserole involved cutting frozen green beans to become french style and baking frozen onion rings within an inch of burnt so that they could be cut down to become French's fried onions and you start to get an inkling of what we were dealing with. Then throw in the fact that you cannot get pumpkin or pumpkin spice to make a pie and you might understand a bit better where we were coming from. But we had new found friends and that was what mattered!

Last year was a bit better. Our grocery store had been bought out by Wal-Mart the year before and they were now importing a lot of Gringo items (translation - American). So last year the grocery store was running a gringo special. You ordered the turkey and they would cook it for you. And they promised it would be just like an American turkey. So my friend A, who was hosting the shindig at her house, ordered two. Just to make sure we had enough. She went to pick them up and found that they had indeed cooked them. And then cooled them. And put pineapple rings and glaze on them as if they were hams. She declined the second turkey, took the one home, removed all traces of pineapple and glaze and warmed up the oven. So much for providing the gringo Thanksgiving. But at least they tried. And once again we had a pot luck Thanksgiving with our friends.

This year we decided to not do a pot luck. We decided that we would spend the weekend with one other family. And we would do it at the beach. (Nothing says Thanksgiving like celebrating at the end of Spring at the beach, right?) And we decided to do it traditionally and from scratch. No outsourcing anything this year. This decision was aided by the fact that our store now carried some of the essential ingredients we needed this time of year (though grab them quickly because once the gringos are done buying them for their holiday's, they will be gone). But while they are now importing cans of cranberry sauce, stocking their freezers with turkeys, and making sure that there are crunchy onion toppings (though a German brand, funny enough) starting mid-November there are still some very important basics missing. There is no pumpkin pie spice, there is no canned pumpkin. I have yet to find the pork sausage for my stuffing. Sweet potatoes are hit and miss....

You get the drift.

We did what we could. I still had one can of pumpkin puree hidden in my pantry that my mom had brought a with her a year ago, along with the spices I needed so I could a traditional pie. I purchased the green beans (frozen but no cutting needed), the mushroom soup and the onion topping. I bought a 6 kg. turkey (about 13 lbs). My friend A was making the sweet potato casserole, the potatoes, she had some cranberry dressing and we both brought a supply of munchies that we would need through out the day.

We were definitely on track for an awesome Thanksgiving.

And then we realized we had forgotten something. We had forgotten the fact that we were in a rental house and not in our own, well stocked, kitchens. We started cooking and fount that we had no measuring utensils, no rolling pin, no American sized oven.

This was going to get interesting, fast. We were just going to have to wing it and wing it we did.

I cranked out a pumpkin pie by using what I figured was an 8 oz glass as a measuring cup. I also rolled the crust by sandwiching it between two pieces of plastic wrap and rolling it with a wine bottle holder (we had no flour or rolling pin).

I marinated a turkey with whatever spices were in the house and a little bit of butter and salt. We then squished him into a too small oven and covered, uncovered, and covered him again a few times to make sure he wasn't burning by touching the top of the oven. (Yep, that small)

I made stuffing based on my mom's recipe but I had to guess at amounts and had to hope that the sausage we used wouldn't overpower the other ingredients (there is no such thing as pork sausage, without added flavoring, here in Chile). I mixed it all up in a huge bowl, threw it in the oven and hoped for the best.

One thing we did have was all of the ingredients for green bean casserole. Except for the green beans that were still in my freezer in Santiago. Scratch that one off of the list.

We did have a 2 perfect cans of cranberry dressing though. Nothing says Thanksgiving like cranberry dressing that still looks like the can.

And we had A's sweet potatoes casserole and her mashed potatoes which were made ahead of time so no fear we could always carb ourselves into a coma if the rest of it didn't pan out.

And we had wine, champagne and Champin (no alcoholic champagne for the girls).

And, finally, after a day of snacking, beach walking, football watching and champagne toasting we were ready to sit down and enjoy.

And guess what...

We nailed it.

The turkey was juicy, the stuffing was flavorful, the cranberry came out of the can without a scratch. But that isn't even what I am referring to. We nailed the feeling and emotions of a real Thanksgiving. Because everyone worries if their turkey will be juicy. Everyone worries if their mashed potatoes will be too lumpy or that the pie is going to have just a bit too much spice. That made it feel all the more real. But also being just the 8 of us and being able to sit around one table like one big family - that made it feel real. We sat around the table and said what we were thankful for (butterflies in some instances), and all of a sudden I felt like I was 6000 miles away. Back in the U.S. Back with my family. And there is no better feeling than that.

Thank you A and G (and the little's) for sharing the day with us. Thanks for being friends that are more like family. Thanks for keeping us grounded in a place that can make you feel lost sometimes. And thanks to my family back home, who I am sure missed us as we missed them, but that also understand the need to live this crazy life we live. And to all of our friends, thanks for being there for us. Always.

This last Thanksgiving in Chile was definitely one to remember.