Thanksgiving!

Well, we had an exhausting and wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! We started making preparations the week or so in advance. We organized a gathering for Saturday, since no one has Thursday and Friday off in Zambia. On Thursday, Thanksgiving day, we faithfully went in to work, and stayed late that evening to video chat online with our families (we did this on Saturday as well). We ate peanut butter sandwiches and apples in the heat and rain while we talked to our relatives who were wearing sweaters and full of turkey!

Meanwhile, the search was on to find a turkey of our own. Our friend Cheryl had purchased a live turkey at the market a few years back, with the first GMF, Carmen. The stories she told about the experience were a little discouraging—she said it had cost a LOT (over $60!), had been very difficult to kill, and ended up tasting tough and stringy. We checked the supermarkets, but they all said they wouldn’t have frozen turkey till around Christmas time. We put out feelers with some of our Zambian friends if they knew anyone who raised turkeys, but again came up empty.

After all of this, we resigned ourselves to have a nice chicken instead. But then our friend Jenny heard a familiar “gobble gobble” sound on her way to work. She works at the UCZ Theological College, which is next to our office, and on whose small campus we also live. When she looked across the street, there were several turkeys just hanging out! We investigated and found out that the family raising the turkeys would sell us a large male bird, just over a year old, who had started getting aggressive—chasing and attacking people, mostly women—literally biting the hand that feeds it! So they were willing to sell him, and I was able to negotiate with the wife for a very fair price.

Here is our turkey.

On Friday after work, we brought the bird home. Charity, our housekeeper, was there to help us kill and “dress” the bird. We also had considerable help from Evans, Michael & Kaluba—men who work for the UCZ Theological College doing maintenance and grounds-keeping. Apparently Michael is very skilled at killing animals—in his compound, whenever someone has to kill a chicken or goat or something, they ask him over to help. So we were very grateful to have his help. They tied the turkey’s legs together and tied it to the trunk of a bush, then Evans held it down while Michael swiftly cut its neck. Since it was held down, it didn’t run around “like a chicken with its head cut off” but just twitched some. It was hard for Ryan and I to watch, but we were determined to do, help with, or at least witness the whole process.

Next we “dressed” the turkey—though we agree a better term is to “undress” the turkey, since once you’re done you have a naked bird! We poured boiling water over the turkey and proceeded to pluck out all the feathers. Charity and Kaluba were so fast and skilled I think I only pulled out less than a quarter of the feathers. Then Charity performed “surgery” as she called it, removing the guts, and separating out the heart, gizzard and liver (the good stuff to keep and eat) from the intestines and other innards—some of which were still filled with warm grass from the turkey’s lunch! Charity is very skilled at this, as she has her own chicken business for which she raises and sells chickens—for an extra fee, she will kill and dress your bird.

(Dad, I am including one picture below of the “blood and guts” for you.) We decided not to take any photos or video of the actual death because it seemed somehow a violation. Oh—one crazy thing—the turkey’s head was very brightly colored, blue and red, but once it was cut off, all the color left it and it was just white! (That photo will be available to interested parties by request only).

Removing the guts from the featherless bird.

Charity with the "dressed" turkey.

Then we took our undressed bird to the Smith’s house to brine* overnight in their fridge. We submersed it in a large bucket with water, salt, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaves and lemons (well, limes). This was one heavy bucket—the bird itself was probably about 10kg (~22 lbs) plus about 3 gallons of water plus the brick we used to keep the bird underwater—let’s just say you shouldn’t put something this heavy on a poorly supported glass shelf in your fridge. The shelf broke the moment the bucket barely touched it. So we removed the shelf and set the bucket on the bottom of the fridge. (Fortunately, Peter fixed the shelf with some duct tape and a couple wooden boards.)

*FYI—brining is an important step with a fresh turkey, because usually the ones that you buy frozen in the supermarket have already been “processed” with all sorts of things to make them moist and buttery. The brine helps keep the turkey moist while roasting and brings out the flavor. Ingredients for the brine.

Saturday morning, we went back bright and early to the Smiths, rubbed the bird down with herb butter, and stuck it in the oven. Not only were the Smith’s hosting the gathering, they also had a fridge and an oven large enough for the tasks! About 5 hours later, we had a delicious, golden brown roasted turkey. Grandpa Ed was wondering how it tasted—well, we are pleased to say it tasted very good. Moist and flavorful and buttery. We weren’t able to eat the skin though—it was tough and rubbery, not thin and crispy. We don’t know if that was because it was a fresh “cage-free” bird, or because of how we cooked it.

Molly rubbing the turkey with herb butter.

Ta-da! Our beautiful and delicious turkey.

We also had several favorite traditional side dishes. Our friend Ann (from New Mexico) brought corn custard, twice-baked potatoes, and apple pie. We were still dreaming of that pie the next day! Ryan and I made green bean casserole, Swiss vegetable medley, and Grandma Betty’s refrigerator rolls. Our prep for these dishes began earlier in the week with a trip to the market. The ingredients were all fresh, since there are no canned french fried onions to be found here, and we didn’t discover until later that one could buy canned cream of mushroom soup! So we made both of these from scratch—we spent about 4 hours cooking. We had the most gourmet casseroles ever! And they tasted perhaps even better than the “original” recipes.

Chisikone market

Huge mushrooms at the market.

Making french fried onions.

Ryan punching down the dough for rolls.

Molly kneading the dough.

Making rolls.

After all that hard work, we had a delightful meal—though as usual, it seemed short in comparison to how long we spent preparing for it. In attendance on Saturday were the Smiths, Ann, Adrian (from the UK), Violet (from Zambia) and us. Unfortunately, we forgot to take a photo of all of us at the table! (As it is, everyone except Ann and Cheryl appears somewhere in the posted photos). We went around the table and everyone shared something they were thankful for, and afterward, we even watched some football! Soccer, that is—we watched as Manchester United beat Blackburn in what was almost a shut-out. In the end, they won 7-1, and one of the players almost beat the record for most goals (5) in one game—which would have been a “double hat-trick”, 6 goals.

On Monday, we had another meal, with everyone who helped with the turkey. We prepared the remaining turkey and made some more mashed potatoes, gravy and stuffing, and enjoyed sharing our traditional food with more Zambian friends. After such a lunch we were all stuffed and barely able to return to work very productively! I almost forgot to take a photo of this gathering too, but got one of Ryan with the guys afterward.

All in all it was quite a lovely Thanksgiving. We are especially thankful for the opportunity to be here in Zambia: for the joys and the challenges around every corner; for the new friends, community and gracious hospitality we've found after being here only a few months; for the chance to share stories and life and faith with our brothers and sisters in Christ.

Peter Smith carves the turkey.

The Smith boys, Jason (in yellow) & Brendan (in red), in line to get some food.
Adrian and Violet are in the background.

Ryan with Kaluba and Evans, who helped with the turkey prep.
Michael was not feeling well that day, so we packed him a box to go.

Thanksgiving dinner plate. Turkey with stuffing and gravy, roll, green bean casserole, Swiss vegetable medley, corn custard and twice-baked potatoes. Yum!