How to do Thanksgiving substitutions

Cooking is one of my favorite things in Musoma. There is rarely a straight-forward recipe. Sometimes you have to plan months ahead to ensure that you have the ingredients for a particular dish. Sometimes the ingredient is simply unavailable so you have to come up with a substitution that works. Either way, I enjoy the challenge of making special dishes for various events. Thanksgiving was therefore a chance for some fun cooking and 'make-it-work' moments.

Pumpkin pie: One key step is ensuring that you have pumpkin. Pumpkins do in fact go out of season here. I used one pumpkin that a friend had saved from the previous month in case there were no pumpkins at the market. There happened to be pumpkins available though so we got a second pumpkin to ensure that we made enough pie.

Mr. Pumpkin on the left wasn't so sure about Ms. Pumpkin when they first met, but ultimately they worked together to make a delicious pumpkin pie.

Pecans that I randomly received in October were saved specially for the topping of the pie.

You can't necessarily tell from the picture above, but we don't have a pie pan, so a pyrex casserole dish was substituted and we ended up with a deep-deep-dish pumpkin pie.

Yep, that is how deep - at least the filling is the best part.

In lieu of a smoker, my friends cooked the turkey in an outdoor pizza oven and it turned out beautifully, not to mention deliciously.

Sweet potatoes here are chalky and white, so carrots were substituted. Its amazing, but it really doesn't harm the end result. We kept referring to the dish as having been sweet potatoes, that is how effective the carrots' deception was.
Green bean casserole takes more work because even the onion topping is made completely from scratch.
The "cranberry sauce" was made from boiled craisins with cabbage to fill it out and wine for color.

The final substitution was that instead of sharing the meal with my birth family, I shared it with my missionary family.

No substitutions were accepted when it came to being thankful, eating delicious food and enjoying each others' company. It was such a wonderful day and I am truly grateful for all the blessings that God has given me.

(I even got to skype with my birth family while they ate their thanksgiving meal!)

Thanksgiving: Tanzania Style

Ok...I know that Christmas is only a week away and I am talking about Thanksgiving. But, I actually ate really tasty food that had a lot of effort put into it for Thanksgiving. I want you all to get a slight picture of Thanksgiving in Tanzania...as well as gloat about the culinary accomplishments of Thanksgiving this year :).

Thanksgiving is a low key holiday here in Musoma, Tanzania. Why is it a low key holiday? Well, mostly because it isn't a holiday here. So a modest, yet special meal was made for Thanksgiving day. Frank*...the last rooster remaining in the backyard was cooked up for this special meal. Frank was delicious and the sides accompanying him were even better! Yay for recipes found online for roasted chicken and vegetables in a slow cooker**.

That was Thanksgiving day. Crystal and I invited another single missionary over for dinner and together we feasted on Frank and finished the evening with 'Miracle on 34th Street'. I can't believe I had never seen that movie. It is delightful!

The Saturday following Thanksgiving there was a potluck style Thanksgiving celebration amongst the missionaries. Crystal and I decided to attempt sweet potato casserole. There were two major hurdle to accomplishing this ambitious undertaking:

1. Sweet potatoes here are very dry...and white.
2. Marshmallows are not available.

Hm...how do you make sweet potato casserole without marshmallows and with white potatoes? The answer: you don't.

Step 1: Dye your sweet potatoes orange (a mixture of red and yellow food coloring with the brown of molasses really sealing the deal for the perfect orange color). Also, as you dye add enough water to the mixture to change the consistency to that of an American sweet potato. Its was interesting how after changing the color and consistency of these sweet potatoes - they actually tasted very close to the sweet potatoes I am used to in the States.

Before and after picture of the Tanzanian sweet potatoes transformation from a white lumpy mass into a smooth(ish) orange delightfulness.

Step 2: Make marshmallows. Surprisingly easy! We had a blast watching the progression this confectionery wonder went through. It was brown...how does a brown liquid turn into a white fluffy piece of heaven? Well, you just whip it and whip it...and then whip it a bit longer for good measure and eventually you have marshmallows!
Crystal and I danced around the kitchen laughing and saying, "Its really a marshmallow!" It took a couple hours from beginning to end, but, it was absolutely worth it.

From brown sugary liquid to white fluffy pieces of heaven.

Step 3: Make sweet potato casserole as you normally would. You've already done the hard part.
**warning**: contents of the casserole may shift during transportation down a long bumpy dirt road. While still wholly edible...not as pretty upon serving.

The best part of the whole process was when other missionaries didn't believe that it was in fact from sweet potatoes. They assumed that we had substituted the potato for pumpkin. Needless to say, it was a hit. Would it have been a hit in the States? Probably not. But here, compromises must be made and you make do with what you have.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you are heading into an even better Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

*Frank was so-named posthumously due to the fact that I felt bad about eating him without having named him. Three cheers for Frank's generous Thanksgiving sacrifice.
**In the morning as I went to plug in the slow cooker it became apparent that the plug would not fit in the socket...hm, that slow cooker was purchased in Tanzania...why does this happen? So, it was slowly cooked in the oven instead.