Thanksgiving in Wien

I’ve always been the type of person who lives in the moment, and so I’ve never really had much of a problem with homesickness. I did get a little sad, though, when I Skyped my family on Thanksgiving and heard about their holiday plans, and so I was especially glad that Central College organizes a Thanksgiving Party “for us,” in that we the exchange students are the ones who need this feast the most, but also “by us,” in that we’re also responsible for cooking the foods and sharing our tradition with our Austrian guests (our roommates and friends as well as the Central College Abroad professors).

I signed up to bake pumpkin pie. It’s the favorite Thanksgiving food of our resident director, so I was instructed to make at least two pies. I didn’t think I would have much trouble, until I called my grandmother for her recipe and heard “first buy a can of Libby’s pumpkin.” There is no canned pumpkin flesh in Austria; I would have to make pumpkin pie from scratch with only Google as a guide. Unfortunately, most recipes on the Internet assume that you’re cooking in America and say things like “go to Kroger and buy the small pumpkins labeled ‘Connecticut sugar pumpkin’ or ‘pie pumpkin.’” We don’t have Kroger in Austria; we have Billa, and Austrians don’t bake pies, so I’m pretty sure they don’t have pie pumpkins either. Luckily, I read in the comments section on some obscure recipe website that Japanese Hokkaido pumpkins (which I did find in an upscale grocery store) can substitute for sugar pumpkins. They’re really small, though, so I needed to buy seven to have enough flesh for two pies.

Pumpkin pie isn’t really difficult to make, once you have pureed pumpkin flesh. You mix together some spices, sugar, butter, and flour, and let it bake for about an hour. Unfortunately, it took me six or seven hours to get to the point where I was ready to begin following the recipe. First, I scooped all of the pumpkin goop out of the pumpkins, saving the seeds (of course) to roast in the oven. Then I baked the shells until they became soft, which took about an hour, and scooped out the siding. This is what I pureed and mixed together with the other ingredients.

The pie crust recipe wasn’t so difficult to follow, with the exception that I didn’t have a rolling pin to roll the dough. Luckily, I had experienced the same dilemma in New York City last summer whenever I wanted to make homemade pizza, and knew that a floured up roll of Cling-Wrap works almost as well.

All in all, Brie (another Central College Abroad student who lives on my floor and was baking apple pies) and I spent approximately 12 hours in the kitchen on the day before Thanksgiving. I can only imagine what our Austrian floormates thought of the invasion of the kitchen by Americans covered in pumpkin glop, but they did get the opportunity to try some American cooking, because we had lots and lots of pie left over on Thursday evening. And students the world over never say no to free food.

Thanksgiving dinner itself was lots of fun. Although the food was American (as well as Mexican- and Korean-American), the experience was definitely international. My mom told me that our family’s Thanksgiving dinner lasted three hours, and after two and a half, my little brother put his coat on and started shooting dirty looks to my parents. The one at Central College Abroad’s office lasted five, with free-flowing wine after dinner and even a quick stop by the Punschstand at the Christkindlmarkt in the courtyard right outside the office.

Andria (from Texas) cuts up the turkey

Me, Meli (my roommate), and Ethan (from Indiana)

Brie, Sara (Jessica's sister, who was visiting for the holiday), Jessica (from Michigan), and Ruth, the director of the Central College Abroad in Vienna program