Thanksgiving in Vigo on Saturday and a Masters’ Swim Meet on Sunday

Sitting on a train going to Santiago de Compostela at 8:30 AM on a Saturday morning!  I must be crazy!  Actually, I’m going to meet a teacher from Barcelona and one from Madrid to see the city and to rent a car to see the country…but I digress.  Last weekend is the subject of today’s entry.

If you’re a regular reader, you know about my friends Cristina and Fernando.  Several months ago, she asked me if I would cook a Thanksgiving turkey and trimmings at her house so they could experience a typical American Thanksgiving Day meal.  Of course, I said “yes!”.  As the day approached, despite my best efforts, I began to get nervous about upholding the honor of all American cooks on that special day.  And, before I knew how difficult/impossible it would be to get all the ingredients!  I found out where to order a turkey (El Corte Ingles) to pick up the day before I was to cook it.  Also, I managed to find there several small jars of cranberry sauce.  But no sage was to be found? Finally, someone at work mentioned checking with an herbalist at a health foods store.  I scored some “salvia” normally used for infusions (hot tealike drinks) on the Friday evening we were to begin cooking – we being Cristina and I.  After 5 hours of chopping, dicing, guessing at measurement conversions, finding enough large containers to cook in, washing foods, etc. we had the dressing and sweet potatoes made, cooked and in frig ready to be heated up the next day.  The turkey was washed and plucked – yes, it arrived with many small feathers or feather shafts still in it!!  I guess that was to prove it was fresh?  I can promise you that I had never seen a turkey with its feathers until this year.  We seasoned it inside and out, placed apples, celery and onion in its cavity and then put it in the “magic cooking bag” as the Spanish began calling it.  They had never heard of a ‘plastic bag’ that could be used to cook with in the oven!  I left with strict instructions to not place it in the oven until 10:30 the next AM because we were not eating until 2:30 PMish.  Well, Cris had read so much about how long turkeys took to cook that she panicked and placed it in oven at 9 AM!  Needless to say, when it was served, we didn’t really have to carve it, it fell right off the bones onto the platter!!

Cris made broccoli, a purple cabbage dish and baked onions…and, of course, bread and wine – the staples of any meal in Spain!  To my great relief, the meal was a hit – even the gravy I made out of the pan juices, trying to emulate the years of watching my father do that each Thanksgiving.  Probably the biggest surprise to them was how good the sweet potatoes were.  Most everyone out of the 12 present had never eaten one before even though I had no problem finding them at a fruteria down the street?  Two other Americans were present, Rebecca and Ed, a delightful young couple who are teacher assistants in Vigo – she’s at Cristina’s school and I have hung out with them a bit in Vigo as well.  She made a delicious apple crisp for dessert and another guest made lemon mousse.  Even though there are no pecans, pumpkins or mincemeat here, we ate well for dessert!!  About 6 hours after we sat down to eat – after going around the table and having each say at least one thing he or she was thankful for – the guests began to leave.  We three Americans stayed and tried to help Cris clean up but left her with a load of dishes as we departed with our treasured leftovers!  I think we did a great job of representing the US people as good cooks!!

The following morning, Sunday, I was up and waiting on the street corner at 6:30 AM for a ride from a teammate to the pool to catch the team bus to our meet.  The amazing thing to me was seeing a large number of young couples obviously just returning from their nights out!  I found out later that most clubs close at 6 AM!  Our meet was in Carballo, in the northern section of Galicia near A Coruña, about a 2 hour bus ride.  It was such a fun day of comraderie and encouragement even though I was very nervous about my first organized meet in a good number of years.  I won first place in my event, 50 breaststroke!  Of course, there were only 2 women in my age group!!  I am in the 60-65 year old group because it’s based on your age next December(I have no idea why?).  For once, this getting older thing is working to my advantage!  We all ate lunch together at a local café and reboarded the bus for Vigo where we arrived about 4:30 PM.

Another wonderful weekend in Vigo…