This week, a big thank you goes out to several people and they are, Uncle Jesse, Uncle Joey, Michelle Tanner, Stephanie Tanner, D.J Tanner, Kimmy Gibler, Rebecca and Danny Tanner. No, these are not members of my immediate family but rather members of my childhood, your childhood or your children’s childhood. Whatever age you are, I would practically bet my life on the fact that you’ve watched at least one episode from the television program, Full House (Padres Forzosos or compulsory parents in Spanish). Now, what in the world does this American television show have to do with Spain? Well, I’ll tell you.
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| Full House! |
FAs all of you know, last Thursday was Thanksgiving. Just over one month ago was Canada’s Thanksgiving and Sarah had invited the team over for dinner and the girls had the pleasure of trying the dessert, apple-crisp, for the first time in their lives. As the United States Thanksgiving approached I started thinking that it would be nice to cook for the team as well and that it would be fun to introduce them to a few more of our North American traditions. So, by some crazy coincidence, Charly randomly decided to cancel practice last Thursday, which then gave me an ample amount of time to prepare the feast. The menu of the evening was as follows: Empanadas, croquettes, gnocchi, a green bean dish, stuffing, baked chicken and homemade pumpkin pie. I have never, in my life, cooked so much food. Thank you mom for taking on this huge task every year.
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| Thanksgiving dinner is served! |
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| Sara, Sheila, Ana, Cobi, Crooks and I;) |
The night unfolded quite smoothly and I was so thankful to have had the help of my Canadian roommate. Now, how does all of this food tie in with the above theme of Full House? Well, as we were eating the stuffing, Sara Castrillo pointed to a piece of celery and asked me what it was. I had absolutely no idea what the word for celery was in Spanish so I started describing the scrumptious little snack of “ants on a log.” Ana Aritz-mendez was sitting to my right and as she heard my description she chirped in and explained how she had seen “ants on a log” in an American television show, Padres Forzosos. She then went on to say that through watching this show she knew all about Thanksgiving and that on this particular day Americans always eat turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. Following her comments, several other teammates started singing the tune of the Full House theme song. Ha, I was flabbergasted. When I was 10 years old and sitting at home after school watching Full House, my current spanish teammates were doing the same thing, but perhaps 7 hours earlier. We then went on to have a quite hilarious conversation about both uncles and of course the wonderful and ever so annoying, Kimmy Gibler. So, thank you Warner Bros, your family t.v show made my Spanish thanksgiving ever so enjoyable.
On a side note, everybody loved the pumpkin pie. We served it fresh out of the oven with a slice of vanilla ice cream. I now have several recipe requests. If you have never used a real pumpkin to make pumpkin pie, I highly recommend that you give it a try. 2nd, we weren’t able to cook a turkey because I wasn’t able to find one, but our 2.7kg chicken did just fine. 3rd, for those of you who have seen the movie “Julie and Julia” do you remember the Valentines dinner where everybody had a big red or pink paper heart pinned to their shirt? Well, I really liked that idea so I traced my hand 12 times on brown construction paper and decorated Turkey name tags for everyone. Ha, it was fun;)
Ok, moving on... We had a game on Saturday and I really wish I had some better news to share with you, but we lost. We played a team from the Basque Country called Universidad del Pais Vasco. The bus ride north was about 5 hours. The mountains and rocky cliffs were intriguing, but not nearly as breathtaking as the views from last year’s bus rides of the Swiss Alps. I am told, however, that San Sebastian is in-fact a lovely city filled with charmingly narrow streets and prized countryside views of the Bay of Biscay. Anyway, we started out the game like 9 women on a mission and there was absolutely nothing that could stop us, except a zone defense. We were a driving force during the 1st quarter and well into the 2nd, but then they fell into a zone and we started to crumble while they gained momentum. We ended up losing the game by 10pts. Once again I found myself on the bench after being called for 2, first half fouls. Sometimes I honestly think that the referees take one glance at me and automatically start thinking to themselves “she looks rather strong, better keep her under control.” Ugh, these small spanish referees are really starting to get under my skin with their trigger happy whistles.
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| Crooks and I after a home game, yes our court is yellow and blue! |
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| Rocky cliffs on the way to the Pais Vasco. |
On a more pleasant note, let’s see what Julie and Julia were up to this weekend. On Sunday, Sarah and I decided to make Flan, a creamy dessert with a caramel topping. I have found Flan on every dessert menu that I have seen since being in Spain and in my Junior High Spanish class, with Senor Winslow, we constantly spoke of this sweet treat, so what better time to make it? We made our own caramel by boiling water and sugar, and then mixed up some milk, eggs, vanilla and a few dashes of cinnamon. The key to making flan is to bake it in the oven in it’s own dish. You then take that dish and place it in a larger pan that has the capability of holding water. I don’t know the exact science of the surrounding water and how it effects the flan, but that’s just what you do. Once the dessert had cooled for a bit, the 4 of us sat down for coffee and flan. It’s so great having 2 spanish roommates around who can give us their professional spanish opinions, not to mention that in Spain people say what they think and feel, there isn’t any of this Minnesota Nice stuff going on. So, when they told us that the flan was “muy rica (very good, very rich)” we knew that they weren’t just trying to make us feel good, but that they actually enjoyed it. Recipe number 3=success.
Leslie’s Loose Ends:
Barcelona and Real Madrid competed in a futbol (soccer) game last night. In Spain, this is like the Super Bowl of futbol games. I watched the game with a group of Spaniards and enjoyed watching them as they all hooted, hollered, jumped, and yelled profanities at the television screen. Barcelona won 1-0 and surprisingly there weren’t any career ending injuries considering how many players rolled around grasping their knees and ankles in the type of dramatic agony that Titanic’s Kate Winslet would be proud of.
A New Year tradition in Spain is to eat one grape for every chime of the clock, so by the end you have 12 grapes in your mouth. A person who is able to eat all 12 grapes by the end of the 12th chime is supposed to have great luck in the coming year, and those that aren’t able, well, better luck next time.
Sara Castrillo bought her guiris (foreigners) flamenco style cooking aprons! Ha, now all Sarah and I need to do is wear high heels in the kitchen and we’ll be set.
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| OLE! |
Every elementary school age student that I see is the proud owner of a rolling backpack.
I hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you’re not wasting anytime getting that Christmas tree up! The Christmas lights in Madrid have been turned on and the Christmas tunes are bouncing around cheerfully in every store, shop and boutique.
December, here we come!
love,
Leslie
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