A thankful New Year
While in the kitchen today making a stew that's traditional in my family it occured to me that December has been an oddly satisfying month of blended holidays.
The stew is called "purlue stew" and it's traditionally made with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. It's one of my very favorite foods and I've tried to make it as often as I've done a Thanksgiving dinner since moving to Sweden, which is to say only a few times.
There was no Thanksgiving dinner this year either, although turkey was served during the Christmas weekend at Björn's brother's cabin. That turkey had absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving but it did make me nostalgic for more of my own traditions and I forced Björn's entire family to say what they were thankful for while we ate our Christmas turkey. (They did it Swedishly, with a toast at the end of everyone's turn: a blending of traditions which underlined my own thankfulness for that whole mad crew.)
There were no turkey leftovers for me to use for a purlue stew (since the celebration was at someone else's home and the turkey leftovers belonged to the hosts). But I was also very nostalgic for the purlue tradition so I cheated and bought a chicken when we got home.
So while chopping onions and slicing potatoes and all the rest I thought about my blended Thanksgiving Christmas turkey chicken and all the things that I am thankful for this New Year's Eve. Things like living in a country where people appreciate traditions and an extended family that graciously lets me blend mine with theirs'. Things like a great job where I get to travel all over this wonderful country and yet be at home working in my comfy clothes when I'm not on the road. Things like a healthy happy grandson, his marvelous mother and the wonder of Skype that helps me be right there face-to-face with them everyday. And of course for my husband, the man who makes all of it shine.
So on this day of listening to firecrackers going off outside and making post-Thanksgiving purlue stew from a chicken after eating a Christmas turkey with Thanksgiving thoughts I wish everyone reading this a very very happy new year in which all of your own favorite things can be blended as perfectly as my own.
The stew is called "purlue stew" and it's traditionally made with leftover turkey from Thanksgiving. It's one of my very favorite foods and I've tried to make it as often as I've done a Thanksgiving dinner since moving to Sweden, which is to say only a few times.
There was no Thanksgiving dinner this year either, although turkey was served during the Christmas weekend at Björn's brother's cabin. That turkey had absolutely nothing to do with Thanksgiving but it did make me nostalgic for more of my own traditions and I forced Björn's entire family to say what they were thankful for while we ate our Christmas turkey. (They did it Swedishly, with a toast at the end of everyone's turn: a blending of traditions which underlined my own thankfulness for that whole mad crew.)
There were no turkey leftovers for me to use for a purlue stew (since the celebration was at someone else's home and the turkey leftovers belonged to the hosts). But I was also very nostalgic for the purlue tradition so I cheated and bought a chicken when we got home.
So while chopping onions and slicing potatoes and all the rest I thought about my blended Thanksgiving Christmas turkey chicken and all the things that I am thankful for this New Year's Eve. Things like living in a country where people appreciate traditions and an extended family that graciously lets me blend mine with theirs'. Things like a great job where I get to travel all over this wonderful country and yet be at home working in my comfy clothes when I'm not on the road. Things like a healthy happy grandson, his marvelous mother and the wonder of Skype that helps me be right there face-to-face with them everyday. And of course for my husband, the man who makes all of it shine.
So on this day of listening to firecrackers going off outside and making post-Thanksgiving purlue stew from a chicken after eating a Christmas turkey with Thanksgiving thoughts I wish everyone reading this a very very happy new year in which all of your own favorite things can be blended as perfectly as my own.