My Thanksgiving Weekend Part II

So Friday, I went to school in a semi food coma having eaten so much the night before. And Fridays tend to be a long day for me: 6 classes plus a separate session with an incredible student (Nick Mitiș) who is going to attend university in the U.S. and who is going to be a great writer (but I digress). In the meantime, Victor Croitor (see my previous post) called me and said, "My mother says you are coming over today to cook the turkey."

Uh... I was at a loss. "We need to cook it," he continued. "I hate to put you to work..., but..."
I explained that I had other plans, but he was insistent that his family could wait until later.

After all my lessons I headed home. I was so tired, I could barely keep my eyelids open, but I knew I was heading over to the Spataru family for a discussion about a large ecological project that Domnul Spataru is working on. What I didn't know is that they were going to prepare a large meal for us to enjoy while we were discussing said project.

Moldovan cooking is really tasty, and each house puts a little different spin on the various dishes. Doamna Spataru who works as the administrative secretary at our school rushed home and prepared some incredible chicken and rice pilaf, fresh marinated cabbage and other delights. It was impossible to say no, and this is a wonderful family with whom I like to spend time. Their son Lucian was a student in the 12th grade last year and is a gifted photographer. Their daughter Doina plays the sax and sings up a storm -- so I've written a couple of songs for her. And their son Mircea is a fascinating philosopher with the soul of a poet. Both Doamna and Domnul Spataru attend my evening classes for adults. Great conversations and wonderful foods were to be had.

As if I was Cinderella at the ball, however, at 7:30 Victor called me and I had to rush out because he was outside the Spataru gate to escort me to his house.

So, with a rucksack full of spices, brown sugar, freshly bought carrots and a chocolate bar for Doamna Croitor, I was off to cook a second Thanksgiving meal. Doamna Croitor had made potato placinte and a potato and mushroom soup. I contributed some incredible (if I do say so myself) turkey, gravy and sweet carrots (a modified recipe from my friend Sharon). The whole time I was cooking, Doamna Croitor was very skeptical. "This will have too much cholesterol," she said. "You put sugar in your carrots," she asked. "That's how you cook turkey," she wanted to know.

As we sat down to a very laden table and an incredible Croitor house wine, Doamna Croitor watched as her sons (Victor's younger brother Vlad is also a student) dove into the food with abandon. So she decided to try a little of everything and then began to dive into the food herself. For dessert there was cherry placinte.
All in all, except for the stretch marks on my stomach and the extreme pinching of my belt, I felt pretty satisfied with the work I had done. Not to mention that I had the opportunity to really enjoy being with two great families in Ialoveni and share the meaning of Thanksgiving.

So for those of you counting the tally is 4 huge meals for the weekend, and I'm only up to Friday.

More to come.

My Thanksgiving Weekend Part I

As I wrote in my last post, I thought Thanksgiving would be very quiet for me. It was anything but --

1. For some reason, I thought Thanksgiving fell on the 21st this year, and I was having a beer with my buddy Nick and he asked me what I was going to do, and I told him that I would probably be alone like last year, but that I was more ready for it this year. 

2. Then I found out that it was on the 28th and Cristi and Victor (my favorite students) asked me if they could help me celebrate. I said sure, but that it needed to be at Victor's house. He asked his mother and all was set up.

3. The search was on for turkey. I went to every butcher shop in Ialoveni and there was no turkey. They have a turkey factory in Moldova, but it seems that unless they raise their own turkeys, most people don't eat turkey meat. I have no idea why.

There are turkeys in Moldova!

4. My next door neighbor has a small neighborhood store across the street from us, and Valodya (my host father) suggested I ask him. Gheorghe was wonderful and said he would be happy to look for turkey for me in Chisinau as I was way too busy to stop and head into the city. He called a store and found the meat. Then, thinking I'd try my luck, I asked him about sweet potatoes. He was dumbfounded saying he'd never heard of such a thing. But, being a great guy he called his daughter in Romania who speaks English and let me chat with her. She said it would be impossible to find them in Moldova. This was confirmed.

5. The next day the turkey arrived. I paid for it and Gheorghe surprised me by saying that his daughter was sending via bus sweet potatoes from Romania for my Thanksgiving dinner! Woohoo!

6. The next morning, as I was getting dressed for school, Gheorghe called, and the potatoes had arrived. They were so beautiful, and no one had ever seen anything like them around here.

7. That was Wednesday the 27th, and after my lessons, Victor called me and said that his mother was upset and that she had canceled the party at her house. 

8. I told Doamna Ecaterina about the situation, and she told me to stop talking because she was happy to have it here, but she would not help me cook because the ingredients were too different. I assured her that was fine. I called Victor and Cristi and got everything set up again, and then called Dumitru and invited him. Phew!

9. Wednesday evening I prepared the turkey (which was in small pieces), made Waldorf salad, a modified stuffing, a big bowl of sweet potatoes (!) and mashed potatoes. Doamna watched the whole process and told me that her role was of mother-in-law to disparage how I cooked and to ask questions. Despite her skepticism, I made her try everything, and she was glowing with compliments. She said, A) she was going to make turkey for Christmas -- it was too good and too easy to prepare; B) She was really pleased to find out that Americans eat a variety of foods; C) She said I will make some woman a quite a catch some day. :) This made my heart feel good.

10. I had a long day teaching on Thursday. At about 3pm Victor called and said, "My mother wants to talk to you," and handed her the phone. She said, "We're waiting for you tonight, when will you be over?" I was blown away and explained that Victor was very clear that she had canceled. I also told her that I was concerned that somehow I had done something to upset her. She assured me that was not the case, but rather she was upset with Victor because he had been skipping classes and she felt he shouldn't be rewarded with a party. "So," she continued, "I bought turkey and you need to come over and cook it. When will you be here?" I was at a loss, apologized and said, "I am having the meal at my house because I have now prepared too much to carry clear across town." She apologized again and hung up.

11. At 5pm I finished with my last class and was walking to the hospital to pick up pumpkin placinte (kind of like hand made tarts with pumpkin stuffing) that one of my adult students very kindly made for me. That is when my buddy Nick called and asked me casually what I was doing. (Keep in mind that I hadn't seen him since we had the beer about two weeks before.) I told him I was heading home to finish up dinner for a couple of students. And he got really mad suddenly and told me that I ruined his plans. I was at a complete loss. He said he planned a surprise for me, but that it was completely ruined now and hung up.

12. I picked up the placinte feeling like "what the hell am I doing wrong?" Marina was very gracious and her son was as well. They made a lot of placinte!

13. Nick called me back with a kinder voice re-explained that he had gone to lengths to plan a special dinner for me, and I had ruined his plans. I apologized, but said that I had no idea. He said, "But you said you would be alone." I replied that that was about the week before, and that things had changed. So, he asked me to please have my guests leave by 9pm and call him to have him pick me up and come to his house.

14. I got home and finished cooking sweet corn, gravy, made a fresh salad, and set the table and heated up everything. The house smelled fantastic. Doamna reported that she was heading to the sauna for the evening with her friends, and Domnul looked a little lost, so I insisted he join us.

15. The boys showed up and Cristi brought a tort that his mother had baked for the occasion and Dumitru brought juice for Victor and Cristi and beer for us. Domnul replenished my wine, and all was right with the world. The boys said the nicest things about why they were grateful (most of them about me) and I had to try very hard not to get emotional. We translated everything for Domnul so he wouldn't feel out of place in his own house. In short, it was a wonderful meal with students I care deeply for, and Domnul Valodya.

A thankful Tim

Victor, Cristi, Dumitru - All great guys and terrific students.

16. Oddly, only Dumitru really liked the sweet potatoes; everyone else thought they were too sweet. But the turkey... they all said was amazing, and the stuffing and the corn and the gravy, and the salad, and the Waldorf salad... all of this was new to them, and they loved it. Victor and Cristi both said they could not remember ever eating turkey in their lives. They ate a lot, but there was a lot on the table. I also bought a cake for dessert. Domnul, Cristi and Victor all complained how full they were afterward. I was happy.

17. Then Nick called again, hurrying me along. I explained I was just making tea for my guests. 

18. More dessert and tea and it was 9:30. I sent the boys home by taxi and invited Dumitru to join me at Nick's. He brought his guitar and several songs I wrote that he put music to.

19. We arrived at Nick's to find that his wife Cristina (also one of my students) had cooked a 12lb turkey and made a full table of Moldovan food. My good friends Andrei,Sergiu, Olea and Diana were there, and they all yelled surprise when we walked in. It was really beautiful, and thankfully they didn't wait dinner. But, they did force me to eat more! We had some of Nick's wonderful house wine (that I helped him process in early October) and sat and joked and talked. It was lovely! Dumitru played the guitar and we both sang my songs and our audience seemed to really appreciate it, although Andrei suggested that I write about more meaty subjects than birds and butterflies. One of my songs mentioned a swallow fluttering. :)

Cristina, Olea and Diana around the remains of the second meal of the evening!

All is well that ends well, and I had two lovely Thanksgiving dinners with some of the finest people on the planet. How could I not be grateful?

Here ends only part A of my Thanksgiving weekend!