German Thanksgiving

So the Thanksgiving dinner my teacher certainly lived up to the expectations of such a day: great food, and way too much of it. There was more variety of food than I've ever had before too, because she incorporated almost all of the holiday's traditional American foods and then made some traditional German foods to go with it. I will now list and describe said foods, partly to impress upon you the scope and partly to try to recapture some of the deliciousness of Thanksgiving dinner, since I don't have leftovers to enjoy for weeks the way you do. The list, which hopefully isn't missing anything:

turkey - extremely uncommon in Germany, but she found a whole one and roasted it;
gravy - absolutely necessary to unite all the different foods on the plate, and it performed this duty admirably;

cranberry sauce - this berry used to be impossible to find in Germany, and it's still very rare, but she found them and made her own sauce, which was much better than the stuff that slides out of the can and plops onto the plate, still impossibly can-shaped;

sweet potatoes - also rare in Germany -- they're not my favorite, but mixed with other stuff they add an interesting flavor, plus you can't beat that nuclear-waste-orange color;

stuffing (American style) - just like the real thing -- I used to hate stuffing, but I've grown to enjoy it as long as it's mixed in with the rest;

stuffing (German style) - chestnuts and raisins -- not sure exactly how it's prepared but then again I guess I could say that about most foods on the list, and all that matters is that the end product was tasty;

brussel sprouts - somehow I had never, ever tried these before, since neither of my parents likes them -- all I'll say about this vegetable is that I want to thank my parents now for excluding it from my childhood diet;

red cabbage - a German staple of which I've grown extremely fond, and it went exceedingly well with the rest of the meal -- it helps that it's a moist food, which things like turkey and dumplings need to complement not only their tastes but also their textures;

potato dumplings - these are another German staple that are very good when combined with the right foods and sauces, such as the red cabbage I mentioned;

pumpkin soup - this seems like it would be an American thing since pumpkins are still somewhat rare in Germany, but the only two times I've had pumpkin soup have both been at American Thanksgiving dinners made in Germany -- this was a great batch of an unusual soup;

salad - this was actually less a salad and more a portion of strawberry/raspberry Jello (yes, the American kind) with small pieces of apple covering a few leaves of lettuce -- the only part I finished was the apple, but even though I don't usually like Jello, I found this stuff pretty good;

ice cream - this was the dessert that we mostly struggled in vain to eat, since we were so stuffed -- it was some kind of lemonade Italian ice I think, and surrounded by the cranberry sauce, which was a good combo that just wouldn't fit in my stomach.

So that was the meal, or at least all of what I can remember through a fog of gravy and red wine. There must be some downside to it all (oh yeah, the potential for massive weight gain and soaring cholesterol!). There was no football on TV, no parades, but since I never watch that crap on Thanksgiving anyway, this was an extremely satisfying substitute for being at home for the normal dinner with my family (don't worry, Mom, not even German bread can beat your fresh baked rolls). I hope all of your Thanksgivings were as nice, and think of me when you're running out of turkey sandwiches. I'll still be spooning pumpkin pie mix out of a can.