Thanksgiving in a land without ovens.

Taiwan doesn't believe in ovens.  Taiwan doesn't believe in turkey.  Taiwan doesn't believe in pilgrims. Riddle me this.

Question:  How does one celebrate Thanksgiving in Taiwan?

Answer:  Find the only store in town with cranberries, tweak your apple pie recipe to not include crust and improvise.

Today was the magical day.  My favorite holiday.  Thanksgiving.  We taught the kindergarten kids that in order to honor the day when the Indians shared their favorite recipes with us we eat a lot--we also mentioned gratitude, but that didn't get the same reaction as the food (the watered down version is the best version for the small bilingual children).  To show them the steps for cooking a Thanksgiving meal one has to start at the beginning--the catching of the turkey.  In order to accurately portray this catching my fellow teachers felt that the most beneficial storytelling activity would involve them running around dressed as turkeys, while small children "hunted" them by pelting them with soft balls.  As I had training the last few mornings they didn't realize that I would be there today and thus there weren't enough "costumes" for me to be a turkey (insert sarcastic exclamation here)...I decided I would devote my attention to making sure the children aimed well.

The turkeys have a strategical meeting prior to battle.

A blurry shot of the tail feathers while the turkey runs for cover.

I was finished with work after one class today, thus being able to devote my attentions to the problematic issue of cooking.  Having decided last week that Thanksgiving dinner would be attempted to the best of our abilities we hit the store that has everything--Carrefour; an hour and a really, really heavy bag later we had (almost) all the fixin's.  Back to the kitchen to give Thanksgiving on our own a go.

Note to reader: the most important thing to keep in mind while scrolling through these (delicious) photos is that previously I had never had a more important job than peeling the potatoes for past Thanksgiving dinners.  Not only was today's feast taking place in Taiwan and with minimal resources, but I was one part of a two person team to create said feast.  I think we did damn well.  Enjoy, as we already did.

Our full spread (please notice the extra large bottles of milk tea to complete the meal).

Makeshift stuffing, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.

Sweet potatoes, cooked carrots and asparagus.

Miniature croissants and squash (filled with butter and brown sugar).

Much as cinnamon was to me in Prague, so squash turned out to be in Taipei...something I never liked until I went abroad.  I wonder if I'll still enjoy squash when I return to the States, or if it's exclusively a Taipei miracle of food.

Cranberry sauce glamor shot (the stuffing snuck into the background).

As you can see we had to make due without some essential Thanksgiving staples; gravy and, oh yeah, the turkey.  But other than that I think we did pretty well for our first Thanksgiving in charge!

Dessert was a bit more tricky; after the hunt for some sort of pie crust (or pie crust substitute) came up short it was decided that the apples would be treated as if they were intended for a pie, and then placed on top of a scoop of ice cream instead.

It turned out to be delectable.

The key for this year's Thanksgiving dinner was the same key to my past few months: embrace the different and taste the new.  Before dinner there was a really quiet moment while the three of us stared at our plates...so aware of how different this holiday meal was.  We decided to go around the table and say what we are grateful for this year:

• Divine safety, comfort and protection wherever I may be
• the ultimate love and support of my family
• the joy I feel when in front of a class...and the amount of fun I have with the kids
• all of the amazing people that I have met since my adventures began in August (in both Taipei and Prague)
• the beautiful addition to my family (whom I can't wait to meet!)
• the friends that I have moved to Taiwan with, and the adventures that we have encountered along the way

Happy Thanksgiving, everybody!!

(may yours be as delicious and joyous as mine)