Thanksgiving in China

I have had a lot of emails asking what I did for Thanksgiving, so here is my answer to everyone interested. Yes, we had a meal that we CALLED Thanksgiving. I joined the 4 foreign teachers from ChuanMei (another college down the road). There were Sharon and David Mills, my age, and two younger teachers in their 20’s Heidi and Ashley.

Since we didn’t have an oven or smoker or deep fryer we substituted the normal Thanksgiving food items for what could locate. Here is our list.
Turkey - We couldn’t find any poultry that day so we substituted fried pork chops.
Stuffing & Gravy – we didn’t even attempt to imitate….
Green Bean casserole – just green beans
Real mashed potatoes – substituted instant mashed potatoes that Martha Allen sent me, which were surprisingly good. I hadn’t used instant potatoes in about 10 years and boy have they improved!
Rolls – substituted chewy not crusty Italian Bread from WuMei (remember no oven to make the bread crusty)
Pumpkin Pie – substituted Sweet potato pie
Extras – Sharon’s fabulous microwave chocolate cake (with no eggs) & frying pan cookies. Also my fantastic, generous and wonderful sister, Barb, sent me some York Peppermint patties which we shared. Don't worry she never reads my blogs so I don't have to worry about her getting a big head.

I have come to the conclusion that people that have ever lived on a farm would thrive here. This is because they are the best at figuring out how to cook fresh food, which is all they have here. Farm people are also the best at improvising how to do something when you don’t have the right equipment or ingredients. To support my hypothesis, Sharon, our farm girl, came up with the way to make the pseudo pumpkin pie and crust in a microwave, but her microwave masterpiece is the deliciously moist chocolate cake.

Yes, I really missed Larry’s fried turkey and smoked ham and Rosie’s oatmeal rolls, but most of all I missed the Zac and Nicole and my friends. Another disappointment was missing the after dinner bonfire in the Wilson’s backyard with Josie and Lee going thru their comedy routine. Now don’t assume I regret coming to China for this year. It has been a great experience and I am definitely thankful for all I have learned and seen. It has changed how I perceive the world and my life. I had stepped out of my comfort zone and learned I can adjust and be happy. So even though I was a little homesick, I really was thankful on Thanksgiving.