A Little Piece of Turkey

Yesterday was my third Thanksgiving to spend out of the country. The first was in 2001 during my semester abroad in London. My parents and brother came out for the week, and we spent Thanksgiving Day enjoying the sites while the rest of the group ate a turkey dinner at a hotel restaurant. The second was a few years later when my brother was studying abroad. My parents and I flew over to Hungary during the break. We grabbed a rotisserie chicken from a stand down the road and celebrated Thanksgiving in my brother's apartment.

It's always a little weird being out of the country for major American holidays. (We also missed the 4th of July this year while we were on our honeymoon.) Thanksgiving away really makes me appreciate what I have back home: my amazing family, including my new inlaws; my close friends that have become part of my family over the years; my puppy dogs; and the little things like my mom's pumpkin pie. I'm so thankful also the opportunity to travel and to experience a different culture.


This year, my husband and I didn't make any big plans for Thanksgiving. He had to work, so I looked online to see if any restaurants in the area were offering an American Thanksgiving feast. The closest was the Hard Rock Cafe in Amsterdam, which seemed like a bit of a trip for an evening meal. Next, I scoured the internet for places that sell cooked turkeys in Utrecht. A couple options popped up, but most of them only cook turkeys for Christmas day or with a larger notice than I'd allotted. Most of the turkeys are also meant to feed a large gathering of people, which didn't seem like such a good idea for the two of us.

Finally, I decided I would make do with a rotisserie chicken and prepare some pseudo-traditional Thanksgiving sides. I looked up recipes for homemade stuffing and pecan pie. On my grocery list, I also wrote down ingredients for green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. At the store, I was surprised to see cranberry sauce, so I added that to the menu. I had gone to the larger grocery store, which is a couple blocks down from the one nearest to our place. The store also had turkey breasts!

Thanksgiving Feast

I was pretty excited about my finds at the store, and went back to prepare the meal. Since we only have one dish that can go in the oven, I started with the pecan pie. Our kitchen has textured metal counter tops, so rolling out the dough was a bit of a problem. I ended up mashing it into the edges of the dish. That combined with me forgetting that we only had self rising flour and having to substitute butter for shortening, resulted in a pie that was a little more like cobbler. I also couldn't find corn syrup at the grocery store (I think I just didn't know where to look), so I substituted honey. Regardless of the texture, it turned out tasting pretty good.

Once the pie was in the oven, I made the mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and stuffing on the stove top. All went in the fridge to be microwaved when it was time to eat.

About 30 minutes before my husband got home, I covered the turkey breasts with butter, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme. I wrapped them in foil and cooked them in the oven. I think it was probably the least dry turkey I've ever had.

The Turkey

When my husband got home, he was definitely surprised that we were having a real Thanksgiving meal. It was nice to have something to remind us of home and make us feel less separated from those celebrating back in the states.

Our Thanksgiving Decoration (Yes, I Traced It)

I hope you all had a very happy Thanksgiving!