Turkey Quest

As our friends and family in America get ready for Thanksgiving, I have another thing for you guys to be thankful for – turkeys! Turkey is one of my favorite foods. Sometimes at home, I would make turkey at non-holiday times of the year just to get my fix. Last year, I simply skipped the whole Thanksgiving tradition, preferring instead to be caught up in the local Sinterklaas celebrations.

This year, I decided that Thanksgiving was a necessity. A few weeks ago, a couple that works with Dennis had us over to their house for a dinner of traditional Romanian food. It was fun to learn a little bit about their homeland by tasting the different dishes. We wanted to return the favor and what better way than with a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Having guests make it seem like it’s worth the work involved. And it was a lot of work.

The main difficulty was getting a turkey. Apparently the Dutch don’t eat a lot of turkey. At the specialty stores, I could get duck, venison, pheasant, and rabbit, but not turkey. Heck, I can even get horse meat at the grocery store. My grocery store does have a service where you can special order cuts of meat for parties and stuff. Knowing this, I carefully wrote a note with all of the details for ordering the turkey including my name and cell phone number. The guy at the meat counter said he would call me on the Monday to let me know if he could get it. When I didn’t hear anything on Monday, I asked my Dutch coworker to call the store for me. I figured she’d have better luck speaking to them in Dutch than I would struggling in Dunglish. She found out that they couldn’t get the turkey. Plan B was to call the restaurant supply store. We shop there for work occasionally and they have a large selection of unusual products. But they also could not get a turkey. I was beginning to worry that my Thanksgiving was going to feature a chicken. Plan C was hunting on the internet for a poellier (a butcher for poultry). We found one in the neighboring town and gave them a call. Lo and behold, they actually have turkeys! So, we ordered the turkey for me to pick up on Saturday.

Saturday morning, I jumped on the train to the next town. Dennis chose not to go along because he was on call for work and isn’t really allowed to be so far from home. But, I was armed with my google map so I would be able to find the poellier from the train station. It was actually not a long walk. Despite our phone call, I was still worried that they wouldn’t have the turkey for me. I was thrilled when they brought out a beautiful whole turkey and wrapped it in a couple layers of plastic. It was an 11 lb. turkey and cost me about $75 – ouch! No wonder the Dutch don’t eat turkeys. Not only are their ovens too small, but these birds are expensive! I packed the turkey into my backpack for the trip home.

As I was walking back to the train station, I noticed a rather large kitchen equipment store. I stopped in to see if I could get a roasting pan. Of course in a country that doesn’t eat turkey, you can’t get a cheap disposable foil turkey roasting pan! I ended up buying a Pyrex roasting pan with a wire rack that holds the turkey off the bottom of the pan and can be used to lift the turkey out of the pan. It had a nice oval shape, a spout to pour off the cooking liquid, and it looked like the right size. I briefly considered pulling the turkey out of my backpack to check the size, but I refrained. I did not refrain from buying a new 9x13 cake pan. I have one at home, but all the non-stick coating is peeling off. Yeah, I spent another $75 at this store.

Almost back to the train station, I noticed that this town has a market on Saturday morning. It’s really close to the train station, so it was really convenient for buying the produce for the meal. I got sweet potatoes, broccoli, apples, grapes, and pecans. At least this stop was cheap – only about $15. But the stuff I bought was so heavy my arms were falling off just walking the two blocks to the train station. I called Dennis from the train and asked him to meet me at the station to help Sherpa the groceries to the house.

Let the cooking begin! On Saturday afternoon, I made Pecan Tassies and cranberry sauce. Do you believe that I could get fresh cranberries, OceanSpray even? On Sunday I got up and started the stuffing – from fresh bread because you can’t get the premade bags of bread cubes. I cooked and cooked and the turkey came out beautifully.

Our friends from Romania came over and we explained the Thanksgiving tradition. Since it’s a harvest celebration, all the food goes out to the table so it looks like a feast! And with all the food served at once, everything gets piled together on your plate. For Europeans, this is rather disgusting. Europeans eat meals in courses, served separately and on separate plates. We explained this to our guests and they played along like great sports. They had their plates piled with everything!

Most of the food was completely new to them. Stuffing of course is pretty American, and doesn’t sound very appealing. Soggy bread anyone? Come on, it’s been cooked inside a dead bird! The stuffing got a thumbs up. Sweet potatoes got a mixed review. Waldorf salad with candied pecans was also popular even though they had to ask, “What are pecans?” Likewise the pecan tassies for dessert were totally new, but good.

Now, I have a week’s worth of turkey leftovers. This morning I had to refrain from eating turkey for breakfast – I wouldn’t want to have turkey three times in one day! MMM, turkey heaven…

Now that we’ve shared the foods from our home countries, we decided that our next outing should be to a restaurant so nobody has to cook. I think we already have our next adventure scheduled. Dennis and I mentioned our plans to visit the Christmas Market in Cologne Germany in a couple weeks and our guests thought that sounded like a blast. So they are making their arrangements (hotel and train tickets) and we’ll explore another country together.

The Pedometer

Path in the foggy morning.


The haunted forest.


The sink hole that the monestary fell into. (In the background, you can see the water).



The friendly donkey - checking for treats in my pockets.


My latest fitness gadget is a pedometer. I used to do ½ ironman triathlons and I had all the gadgets: running shoes, bike shorts, tri-suits, sports bras, heart rate monitors, Speedos, swim goggles, sun glasses, and more. And now I’m excited about a pedometer. How the mighty have fallen…. (As if I was ever mighty!)

But seriously, after the stress of moving to a new country and suffering through my first very dark and rainy Fall and Winter, I found some extra pounds had become fairly well attached to my hips (and everything else for that matter). I had to do something, because this is a pretty unhealthy path. My initial attempts were pretty half-hearted. I lost a few pounds, but then got distracted. A few more months passed with no progress. At least during the distraction, I managed to not regain the weight I had lost, but I needed to get motivated

When we were in the US, Dennis was cleaning out some office junk and he found a McDonald’s pedometer. This is a pretty simple gadget that clips to your waist-band and counts how many steps you take. I grabbed it thinking it would be a fun way to stay motivated. I looked up pedometers on the internet and found out that you should aim for 10,000 steps per day, which is supposed to be 5 miles. So, I started recording my daily steps and found out that I actually walk quite a bit. I’m regularly up near 9000 steps without much extra effort. I do a lot of work in the lab and that gets me walking around. I also walk to the grocery store every few days.

I began to get frustrated with the pedometer after going for several long walks. Dennis and I walked around Naarden, a walk that we know is 4 miles, and the pedometer said I went 3000 steps. Hmm, that seems low. Then, we did a 12 mile hike that took about 5 hours. The distance was confirmed by Dennis’ GPS unit. But, the pedometer read only 8000 steps. I was hoping for a record high number, and I got screwed! I was mad. It may be important to note here that I am still a little bit competitive even though I’m not actually racing any more.

I went back to the internet (the Wizard of Oz for the Gen Xers) and found out that most pedometers are not very accurate. No kidding! I found a consumer report showing which pedometers have the best accuracy. Then, I spent a couple hours trying to find that same model in the Netherlands, and another hour trying to pay for it after my credit card was rejected (again). Finally, I got the email saying the new pedometer had been shipped. Yay! But wait, the mailman always delivers at our house during working hours (as if I don’t work). I always have to wait for the post man to do his two delivery attempts before I can go pick up my packages at the post office. Finally, after a few days of waiting, I had my new pedometer.

As luck would have it, the same day I got the pedometer, we went for a long bike ride, so I didn’t get to really test it out. We biked with an expat meet-up group for 60 kilometers (30 miles). Most of you know that a 30 mile bike ride should take a couple hours, maybe 3 hours if you’re talking a lot of breaks. This ride took 5 hours! At some points I felt like I was pedaling backwards to go slow enough. To be fair, we did get stuck for about 30 minutes waiting for a ferry to cross the river. It could have been worse because the ferry only ran every two hours. Thank goodness we got there only 30 minutes before and not 90 minutes before. It was very dark when we finally finished and it was starting to rain. It’s a good thing it was a fun group, but after 5 hours I was done being sociable. Dennis and I may not be racing anymore, but at least we aren’t this SLOW!

OK, back to the pedometer. After the first day, I’ve had over 11,000 steps per day and hadn’t gone on a real walk yet. This weekend, Dennis and I had a chance to go for a long walk. We picked a walk through the oldest woods in the Netherlands. In a country where much of the land is reclaimed from the water and by definition “new,” this is an important distinction. The woods also have a haunted legend. According to the story, there was a monastery in the forest that sunk into a big sink-hole. The legend says that it was pulled into hell and the monks still haunt the forest. It’s a big hot-spot for new-age believers and ghost chasers. A more plausible story is that there was a big chunk of ice under the ground and as it melted, it created the sink hole. Anyway, it made for a nice 11 mile walk. The walk was extra long because we started walking down the wrong road from the start-point and ended up going a mile before we realized our mistake and turned back. At the half-way point, we stopped at a café and had some tea and butter-cake to keep us going for the rest of the walk. We didn’t see any ghosts, but the sun shining through the trees was stunning. I also got to pet a couple donkeys that were very friendly and curious. In the end my pedometer said 24,850 steps! That’s better! Now I just have to loose some more weight.

Italian Sausage

I’m sure I’ve mentioned how bad the food is here in the Netherlands. I didn’t think it was possible, but our company cafeteria recently reached a whole new level of awfulness. Seriously, they even serve terrible soup. So, I’ve been cooking at home more often to make sure I have leftovers to take to work.

One dish that always makes good leftovers is lasagna. While living in Chicago I learned that the best way to make lasagna is with Italian sausage rather than just hamburger. It really gives the lasagna a whole different (and yummy) dimension. But, Italian sausage is not available here and nobody seems to know what it is. Maybe it’s really an American thing or maybe the Dutch haven’t figured out Italian food yet.

Just as I thought I would have to wait until I got back to the US for good lasagna, I realized that I know how to make Italian sausage! Yes, at my last job, we occasionally developed Italian sausage seasonings and had to test them by making the actual sausage. The seasoning itself is not difficult – just a blend of salt and spices. The sausage is fresh, so it’s just a matter of blending the seasoning into ground pork. The seasoned meat does not even need to be stuffed into a casing. In fact, most of the time when I’m cooking sausage for pizza topping or lasagna, I squish it out of the casing anyway.

It took me a couple of tries to perfect the recipe, but I finally got a version that I really like.

Italian Sausage

1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp. ground anise
1 tsp whole fennel seeds
½ tsp sugar
1 slice of white bread
¼ cup milk to make the bread soggy
1 lb ground pork or beef

Mix the dry ingredients together in a small dish. In a mixing bowl, soak the slice of bread with the milk. Add the ground pork and the seasoning. You can mix it by hand or with a mixer, just make sure to get the bread broken up and the seasoning evenly mixed. You can cook it in a frying pan and break it up into pieces for lasagna or pizza. You can also make patties or meatballs and fry them. Or you can push it into a meatloaf pan and bake it.

The other challenge here is cookies – I mean the ooey gooey chocolately chippy yummy American cookies. While many of the Dutch cookies are tasty (because they are made with real butter) they tend to be rather hard and dry. Of course, the main ingredient for these cookies is chocolate chips. Yes, it is nearly impossible to believe that the people who invented Dutch cocoa do not have chocolate chips, but it’s true. You can’t get them here. Fortunately, they do sell good semi-sweet chocolate bars that can be chopped up into pieces. That makes a pretty good substitute, especially if I can get Dennis to do the cutting. Baking soda has to be purchased at the drug store – a tip I found on the expat forums. My favorite cookies are Knapsack cookies, with oatmeal, rice crispies, and coconut. I know some stores sell Rice Krispies here because my coworkers know what they are, but I’ve not been able to find them in any of my neighborhood stores. And they don’t sell the sweetened coconut like we get in the US – only the dry flakes stuff for Indonesian food. So, I have my coworkers and my Mom send me the cereal and coconut for my cookies. Everyone at work loves the cookies. Some have asked for the recipe, but I don’t think anyone has succeeded at making them yet. Maybe you guys will have better luck!

Knapsack Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups rice crispies cereal
1 cup coconut
12 oz. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and add to the sugar mixture. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Scoop the dough by the heaping tablespoon onto un-greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350°F for 12-15 minutes and cookies look golden brown on the edges.