Thanksgiving in Otavalo

A Thanksgiving to remember!  Four cooks brought their own skills and expectations to the day.   We had several meetings along the way to figure out who was doing what and then things changed a couple of times.  Carmen originally wanted to do everything (along with a teaching day) however we wound up quite collaboratively.   The turkey was grand.   Early in the morning, Helen and I went into Carmen´s kitchen just as she was throwing out the turkey neck and we said simultaneously, "What are you doing??".  "It´s gross, I never eat it!".  "Where are the giblets?"   "In the garbage, they are gross!"   We fished out the giblets, rescued the neck and to her horror, took them to the other kitchen to cook up.

After breakfast and another consultation with our hosts, las tres abuelas went to the big market in search of ingredients.   Bags loaded with brocolli the size of soccer balls, carrots, onions, limes,  we proceeded to find the more difficult items.   Turns out the sweet potato vendor wasn´t at the market that day.   Folks said there would be sweet potatoes "over there, around that corner, outside that door, a little further on thataway and at Plaza Copacabana."   Mushroms, more elusive.   Determined, we found our way to Plaza Copacabana, a whole new outdoor market and there we found sweet potatoes.   The sweet potato vender was a beautiful woman with a new baby in her arms.   I couldn´t resist asking if I could hold the baby while she bagged up our goods.   Further along the way, we found mushrooms for the wild rice Helen brought from Wisconsin.  Photos of the market day appear on another blog entry.

We spent the day cooking, all 4 cooks.   The turkey cooked in the kitchen of Carmen and Carlos´ house were we are staying.   Oven temperature??   Who knew??   Much consultation and questioning.    Phyllis made a wild rice dish, Helen made fresh rolls,  I made a salad, fresh cranberry relish (cranberries from Wisconsin) and steamed broccoli.  Carmen made the best empanadas in the world and a sweet tamale with raisons, steamed in banana leaves.  There was turkey gravy made with the neck and giblets.  We had purchased a chocolate hazelnut cake which turned out to be a bit of a disappointment.   In the afternoon while Phyllis went with Grazia to teach an ESL class, Helen and I walked to downtown Otavalo to pick up the cake.   Walking along Plaza Simon Bolivar, we heard a horn honking beside us and there were Carmen and Carlos who thought we´d been gone too long, were lost and needed rescue!  Carlos spent the whole day racing around from kitchen to kitchen helping everyone and nearly losing his mind in the process!   Glad he thoroughly enjoyed the dinner.

Dinner guests included friends Susanna, Juan, their daughter and son-in-law, lovely granddaughter, Grazia, and two other teachers from the University of Otavalo who work with Dra. Carmen.   After all the turkey worry, the bird and all other dishes were delicious. 

A Thanksgiving to remember.