The next problem to conquer was
cranberries for the sauce: this turned out to be the biggest hurdle. I hadn't realized it before but
cranberries are a new world,
North America item and was introduced to and only found in northern
Europe and northern
Asia. I had to learn
the Spanish name for them and will never forget it as I had to ask about a thousand times for them; they are
impossible to find in Barcelona and I have no idea how many specialty
stores, shops and mercados I asked for "
arándanos agrios" or "arándanos rojos".
I finally found four cans in a boutique import (
from the US)
shop; I bought them all
which totally amused the sales girls in the store as no one in Barcelona
EVER eats them. But the good thing was that they were not the canned
solid jelly usually found
here; they were whole berries!
An amazing part of
the cranberry story is that on the way to the store where I found them I
got lost and went up the wrong street. As I was crossing a street I
heard my name called out and after looking around I discovered it was
one of the guests for the dinner, Marta . . .
.
. . She had gotten off the bus where she NEVER does and bingo, we were
face to face. She said she wasn't paying attention and got off the bus by accident. Now,
how's that for
cosmic destiny?
The rest of the meal was not a problem;
La Boqueria
was directly behind the studio (
el piso in Catalan) we lived in on
Carrer Carme. Every kind of
food was available there, well, except for
arándanos and un gran gall dindi (a big turkey in Catalan)!
I
picked up the turkey a couple of days before Thanksgiving and with great pride, Pedro turned it over to me. A week or so later, I had a large print made of him with it and gave it to him. When I went in shopping later, I saw it was prominently displayed on the wall.
It was a beauty weighing in at over 10
kilos. I had to bring it back to the studio through the Raval so I used one of our suitcases that had wheels to transport it the four and a half manzanas (in Barcelona a city block is a "manzana" which means apple; never did figure that one out).
We invited about 40 people and I didn't want to serve the dinner on paper
plates so I went out into the Raval where there are dozens of bazaars, stores
that sell every kind of item imaginable. I found some really cool plastic plates with a "cow"
pattern and napkins to match and some delightfully gaudy plastic "silver wear".
We
had rented the studio on Carrer Carme in the Raval from Xavi and his
wife, Kali, who were the best landlords ever! They had two really sweet kids, Tomás and Rita who is adorable.
We only had a microwave
and a hot plate on which to cook so Kali let us cook the
turkey as well as the whole meal in their kitchen. Kali ended up helping Tom with
the dinner.
Janine (one of the participants in the 2006 event) made a green bean dish and baked an apple pie . . .
. . . she had never baked a pie before, so, this was her maiden voyage. It was super!
I
made the mashed potatoes and I was adamant that there should be enough to go around so, of course, I
ended up with a couple of gallons of it after the dinner. There was no
room in the fridge so we put them out on the balcony overlooking Carme (
the weather was colder than a witch's tit).
Tom made an
haricot dish with shaved almonds. Isabel said they were the best green beans she'd ever eaten!
Miren helped
Tom make an incredible gravy with about 20 lbs. of butter. While Tom was
busy with other things, Miren kept stirring it for a bazillion hours
and couldn't understand why it wouldn't turn brown until Tom noticed and
poured the drippings from the turkey into it. Kali added her touch, a
sherry or
cognac. Voila! Exquisite gravey!
The
studio was VERY tiny so we had to set up the buffet in the laundry room
between Xavi and Kali's quarters and our studio . . .
. . . with a board covered by
an orange cloth on the utility sink as a serving table; we made do as best we could.
The time came to bring in the Bird . . .
. . . and the feast began!
Our
friends had no experience about how to eat a Thanksgiving dinner so
they avoided the beautiful cranberry sauce and gravy Tom had made. All
they took was the turkey, the vegetables, potatoes and salad, so, I
walked around with the huge bowl of gravy, Janine followed me with the
bowl of cranberries and we plopped both down on each plate. When they
took a taste, they went ecstatic!
I'd
had a great time the previous couple of weeks putting together a
humongous 8 hour compilation of American, Catalan and Spanish music
especially for the evening.
I
had NEVER seen a
Catalan overeat before but that night, when the feast was
finished, everyone was laying around, stuffed and wiped out; there were many groans and a lot of belts loosened (
sound familiar?).
