#13–have a big thanksgiving dinner on our new table

When we first moved back east, holidays were me and Johnny staring across the table at each other over the feast he prepared even though it was only he, me, and the boys. I felt thankful for my nuclear family, of course, but sad and alone. We didn’t have many friends and it hurt. It’s important to me, now, to celebrate with people. This year we had 20 people representing 5 continents, some of whom we had never met before. Some of whom had never had thanksgiving. Some who we’ve known since we moved to Brooklyn and have become our family. All are welcome again.

Africa: Rujeko Dumbenthshena came to Brooklyn from Zimbabwe via Santa Fe. Rujeko and Her sister-in-law, Shea AKA Billy Shakes, were among the first people we knew in Brooklyn because they moved into the same building we moved into at the same time with the same age children. They’ve grown into aunts for my boys. I’m an aunt for their girls.

Asia: we had 4 guests from Asia. Shirley (representing China) is my Aunt Lori’s friend and traveling partner. Shirley has watched my aunt go throw and graduate from medical school. They’ve traveled to I don’t know how many countries together. Shirley taught me how to make congee.

Shirley found Joyce Wang (born in Korea). Well, “found” might be the wrong word. But Shirley heard Joyce play piano and then decided to become Joyce’s biggest fan an supporter. Joyce came with her parents who are funny and wonderful. This was their first thanksgiving together in many years and their first American thanksgiving. It was easy to see how much their family meant to each other.

Europe: Joyce also came with her boyfriend, Marcus who she said is the “best timpanist in the world”. Marcus is originally from Germany but, like a true New Yorker, bragged about his ideal commute from his Upper West Side apartment to Lincoln Center. I don’t hold it against him. He and Aunt Lori washed *all* he dishes. There is no better guest.

South America: my friend Chris, who my friend Candace introduced me to, is required by me to come to holidays at our house. This time he brought Andrea from Brazil. This was Andrea’s first thanksgiving too. She said, “this is just like the movies!” I *heart* her. We didn’t have enough plates. Borrowed folding chairs from Erin, and didn’t even properly set the table. Shirley and Shea set the table, for crying out loud. That chaos is better than the movies? I’ll take it.

North America: the remainder of us hail from North America. That doesn’t make is in-interesting, though. Take Shane, for example. He knew Erin in anchorage and asked her if he could use her couch while he volunteered non stop for Occupy Sandy. He almost didn’t make it to dinner but Occupy Sandy insisted Shane take the day off.

We were close to having the other two continents represented as well. Well, kinda. Rujeko’s oldest daughter was born in Australia. Technically, that doesn’t make her from Australia but if she were able to make it, I would have counted it. It’s an interesting story. I also have a friends who has done a lot is scientific research in Antarctica. So she wasn’t even close to making dinner… I know it’s possible now to have all continents represented.

This Thanksgiving was better than the movies because everyone ate, drank, laughed, and met new friends. I am so lucky. I somehow didn’t get any pictures of everyone together, but I have a picture of thank you flowers from Aunt Lori!

Happy thanksgiving!!!

#12–buy a table

Once the hurricane after effects normalized, if you can call it that, we started shopping for a dining room table. We’ve been saving for one for a long time and were hoping to get one in time for Thanksgiving. I tried finding some cute local shops. One in Red Hook closed because “people would rather spend $2000 on a table from Restoration Hardware than $5000 on a table made locally from reclaimed wood.”

Per his unintentional recommendation, that is what I did. I found the perfect table with fabulous reviews at Crate and Barrel coming in well under budget. I forwarded it to Johnny who then started searching higher end places for a similar product. He suggested I actually go to the stores. I has no idea customer service could change how I view a table.

Restoration Hardware had Alfie, a designer still cutting his teeth on the sales floor. He showed me the tables they had available and I settled on the Salvaged Wood Farm Table because it was large, sturdy, had leaves, and a bar connecting the four legs to add additional support. He offers me a 20% discount to boot.

I took the subway down to Crate and Barrel to see my original, cheap table. It was beautiful. I would be satisfied with the table and the reviews all said something like “this table withstands the rigor of my 9 kids.” I figured it could hold up to Paul. I tried to ask the salesman for help and was basically blown off. He did say it could be delivered before Thanksgiving and then just said, “want it?” Well, if I’m going to spend $1000+ I want a little more service.

Next up, Pottery Barn. Johnny spotted a beautiful table that matched all our needs plus had lovely legs. (Who knew that was important to me?). I went to Pottery Barn expecting to lay down money right then. I asked the sales lady for help. Asked her for info on the table. Tried to start a conversation in another way. Finally I said, “look, I’m trying to buy a table and I’d like to buy yours. Sell it to me.” She tried to give me more attention but she didn’t know the product so had to look it up online. (I had already done that. Don’t read me what it says on the website!). I went back to the table and sat down. That is when I noticed the table was out together wrong. In the store!

I hightailed it back over to Alfie and laid down my visa for his table. Perfect!!

We now need chairs.

#11-pie A and pie B

This is our third year running of making two pies and polling which is most preferred. Year 1 it was real pumpkin vs canned pumpkin. Real pumpkin won by one vote and everyone was shocked. They’d heard stories that real pumpkin makes for a stringy pie. Our trick was to purée it twice as long as you think it needed.

Year two was sweet apples in pie vs tart apples in pie. It was essentially a tie.

Year three we were back to pumpkin pie. Pie A was a simple recipe I pulled from The Food Network versus a complicated recipe I found dreaming if being invited to The Smitten Kitchen.

Paul created a complicated scoring system which no one understood and took forever to add up. But one guest pointed out that figuring out how to score a simple task like this illustrates how difficult scoring votes for, say, president is.

In the end Pie A won by a larger pout margins then we’ve had in the past. But by show of hands, the pies were favored evenly. Supporters of Pie A And Pie B were much more vocal than in past years. Pie B supporters claimed Pie A lovers didn’t have a sophisticated enough palette to appreciate the depth of Pie B. (pie B had a richer orange color and a custard-y texture. I didn’t push Pie B through a fine sieve as The Smitten Kitchen instructed so it wasn’t silky smooth.)

Pie A backers admitted their pie reminded them of childhood thanksgiving and what is wrong with that? What is wrong with that? Nothing, really.

I actually preferred Pie A so guess I am admitting I have an unsophisticated palette. My opinion may be influenced with the difficulty of Pie B and therefore my resentment of it. (It had a better color for sure.). If I would have taken the time to make Pie B silky smooth, maybe I would have appreciated the end result more. Until I can work up that level of patience, simple pies it is!

#10–make sauerkraut

Back to the land is how we roll. I made sauerkraut before the hurricane but today I actually ate it. Now I want to continue experimenting with preserving.

My sauerkraut adventure went like this:

I brought home a cabbage from my CSA.

According to a number of sources including a cartoon in “Edible Brooklyn” the simplest way to make kraut is salt and squeeze. I salted liberally.

I packed the salted cabbage into mason jars and let them ferment in their own juice for about 4 weeks.

My mom said they still need to be canned. Pack the sauerkraut into mason jars and boils for 10 minutes.

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Ta da!!! Homemade sauerkraut!! I recently ate some and lived to tell about it. I’m declaring the task a success.

I’m now making sauerkraut again. My first observation is that fresh cabbage has a lot more liquid unit than cabbage that has sat around for 2 weeks waiting for me to get brave enough to make sauerkraut.

#9–survive a hurricane

I live an enchanted life. I really do. Our house protected us from the hurricane activities outside. No trees fell on our house. And we weren’t flooded.

We were the annoying people wandering around the neighborhood once the wind died down to record on our iPhone the destruction.

Nature is not to be disrespected. She will pick you apart in a blink of an eye. I’m in awe with what happened. I’m in awe how it happened. And I rejoice as my fellow New Yorkers are healing and helping each other.

#8–Change blogging platform

Data mine this, Google: I switched blogging platforms because your blogging apps are lousy.

With that, thank you for following me to WordPress.  30 more activities and only 7 months to do them.  Don’t worry, I have a few I haven’t blogged about yet.