Thanksgiving comes to Chile!
Thanksgiving at Casa Ursulina
By Sister Ruth Gehres
Chileans have a lot of celebrations, but Thanksgiving is not one of them. For one thing, Thanksgiving is a harvest feast. In November, Chileans, along with everyone else in the southern hemisphere, are celebrating spring. It IS something to celebrate here after the cold, rainy winter.
A couple weeks before November 22, we started talking about having a North American Thanksgiving dinner at Casa Ursulina. The “we” in this story are the five “gringas” working and/or living at Casa Ursulina: Mimi, Ruth, Bridget, Kristy, and Caryn. Mimi and Ruth are Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph. Bridget, Kristy, and Caryn are Humility of Mary volunteers who have given 15 months of their young lives to minister in Chile. Kristy from Cleveland and Caryn from Minneapolis arrived in August. Both live at Casa Ursulina. Bridget will complete her 15 months and will be returning to her home in Cleveland in mid December. She has been living with a family in Chillán.
 |
When we began planning for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, we wondered what foods we would find here, and what we would have to do without . . . or invent. And we decided that we wanted to share our celebration with some of our Chilean friends.. Since November 22 is a work day at Casa Ursulina, we planned our feast for the Sunday before, so we’d have plenty of time to prepare and enjoy it.
On Friday we took the bus to the mercado . . . the big market downtown, a fascinating place full of all kinds of handicrafts as well as all the fruits and vegetables in season “in the zone,” which means in this area. For our rice and broccoli dish we went to a store near the market to buy frozen broccoli, along with frozen green beans . . . things that aren’t in season right now. Wandering around the many bright stands in the market, we found carrots, onions, potatoes, lemons, strawberries, and pumpkin that looked more like squash, but which Mimi assured us WAS pumpkin. In a little store near the market we found raisins for the stuffing . . . Bridget’s big project, along with a jelled strawberry dessert. Cheese came from another little store.
 |
We still needed celery, mushroom soup and dried onion crisps (for the green bean dish), sweet potatoes (called camotes here), and, of course, cranberries. And a lot of “light bread” (which we normally don’t eat) for the dressing. As we had expected, we didn’t find everything.
On Saturday we asked Sandra, a good friend who has a car, to drive us . . . Ruth and Mimi . . . to the big Jumbo (JOOM-bo) on the other side of town. This seems to be the closest thing to Wal-Mart in Chile. Jumbo was all dressed up for Christmas! There were decorated Christmas trees with artificial snow dropping from above, stuffed toys, and lots of other gifts and decorations. When I pulled out my camera to take some photos,, a guard warned me that photos weren’t allowed. (He didn’t say why not.) But I already had my photos.
We spent a couple hours stocking up on everything from toilet paper to milk, plus the things we needed for our Thanksgiving feast, turkey above all. (We ended up with two turkey breasts and some dark meat filets, and later someone brought a chicken, which we added to the pot.) Celery was not to be found in Jumbo (Bridget did find some later). Camotes were out of season, so we ended up with two cans of sweet potatoes, just to have some (not too good). Onion crisps and cranberries? These things don’t seem to exist in Chile. (And what can you substitute for cranberries?) We came home without them.
|
Caryn, Bridget, Kristy On Saturday afternoon, we started breaking up bread for the stuffing . . . about six big loaves of it! We had only one pan that was even close to big enough. It looked like something for the Mount Saint Joseph picnic! We also prepared onions, celery, raisins, and spices for the stuffing. We peeled several kilos of “papas” for our mashed potatoes and a lot of carrots for Caryn’s buttered carrot dish.
On Saturday night, Mimi made the pumpkin pies while the rest of us went to a folk music concert in a plaza near downtown. When we got home, we got to sample the pie. Yes, it WAS pumpkin. Mmmmm!
We planned to eat around 3 on Sunday to give us time to get everything together. The turkey went into the oven before Mass at 11. After Mass we went into high gear. Bridget’s stuffing, laid out on a big flat pan, went into the oven as soon as the turkey came out. Then the green bean and broccoli casseroles. The stovetop was busy with carrots, a huge pot of potatoes, and onions sautéed in flour, trying to be transformed into onion crisps for the green bean casserole. This idea came from Ruth, who also concocted some turkey gravy. Both items were edible.
|
Sandra helps mash the "papas" Everybody knows that the last hour before a big dinner is like a whirlwind. Just imagine that whirlwind in a smal area with limited work space and five people, then more as our guests began to arrive and offered to help. But everyone was in a good humor, and there were no real disasters, AND Chileans don’t expect things to start on time. Somewhere around 3:30 everything was ready. We had put three tables together across the kitchen, with tablecloths (and dishes) that sort of matched, and there was space (and chairs) for everyone . . . adults of all ages with children and grandchildren.
Mimi began the grace by telling about the first Thanksgiving in North America, when the Europeans and the Native Americans actually did something in peace together . . . a rare event as things turned out. After the prayer, she explained how a buffet works, since Chileans are used to having the food on the table, especially at home. (There was absolutely NO room for food on the table!) Chileans are also used to eating vegetables cooked, but cold, as salad, not in casseroles. And probably none of our guests had ever seen anything like turkey stuffing. Most of them sampled most of the dishes, and some went back for seconds. There were lots of jokes about the strange gringo food, but everyone enjoyed being part of this adventure. Almost everyone approved of Mimi’s pumpkin pie and Bridget’s luscious strawberry dessert.
Somewhere around 6 people started to head home, and we headed for the mounds of pans and dishes. The dishwashing ceremony took at least another hour, but we all agreed that our efforts had been successful . . . and we gave thanks for being able to create this feast and share it with our Chilean friends.
 |
 |