Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was just another day of work and school for us. In fact, David had his office Christmas party that night. With him gone, I let the kids have a special treat, microwave hotdogs. Hotdogs wrapped in cheese, stuffed in a bun. You don't even open the plastic packaging. Just stick them in the microwave oven for a minute and Voilà! Dinner! I think they're yucky; the kids love them. I didn't get the irony of the situation until James exclaimed, "Microwave hotdogs for Thanksgiving! Gee, thanks, Mom!"

Never fear, sweet children. We would have a Thanksgiving meal on Saturday.

Here is our table full of the bounty of the harvest.

The menu:
* Turkey cutlets (a full-sized turkey would not have fit in our little oven)
* Creamy herb sauce (no gravy in German stores)
* Mashed potatoes
* Green bean casserole (thanks to Grandma for bringing a can of Cream of Mushroom Soup to London, no crunchy onion topping in Germany)
* Stuffing (no stuffing mix in Germany. I made my first from-scratch stuffing ever and thought it was outstanding. Everyone else said they preferred Stovetop Stuffing.)
* Cranberry sauce (thanks to my friend Kathy, who passed along a can to me. You can't find cranberry sauce in 99% of German grocery stores. She had hit the 1% recently)
* Apfelschorle (mix of applejuice and fizzy mineral water, no apple cider in German grocery stores)

In spite of it not being a huge, traditional Thanksgiving meal with many different dishes, everyone seemed to enjoy it just fine.

Micaela and James warming their backs on the wall of the heating oven in our dining room after David lit the first fire of the season.

The pièce de résistance! Pumpkin whoopie pies. Kathy also passed along to me some canned pumpkin (which you cannot find in 99% of German grocery stores). I didn't realize whoopie pies are not known throughout the U.S. until I posted something last year about them on Facebook. I got several "What is a whoopie pie?" responses.

For those of you unfamiliar with the delicacy, a whoopie pie is a baked good made of two round mound-shaped pieces of chocolate cake with a sweet, creamy frosting sandwiched between them. This time of year, you also see pumpkin ones with a cream cheese filling. Whoopie pies are considered a New England phenomenon and a Pennsylvania Amish tradition. If you've ever had a Devil Dog, you've had an elongated whoopie pie.

Emilie could be on the packaging for a set of pumpkin whoopie pies.

How could you resist one?