American as Apple Pie!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

This year, like past years, I will be celebrating this weekend. However, unlike other years, we're going to celebrate with family rather than friends. I am a little bit sad about this; it's been five years of Thanksgivings here in La Roda. One of those years, I was back in the States and my friends made a Thanksgiving feast all on their own--complete with turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie! So, the tradition has caught on. ;) But I wanted to share the fun with the family and so this year Angelines's sisters and brother with their families are going to come over for Turkey dinner on Sunday. This afternoon, my mother-in-law is coming by to help me with some of the prep.

In past years we've taken the turkey to the baker's to cook it in the big bread oven. This year, I'm going to see if I can do it in our little gas oven. The turkeys here don't tend to be monsters like in the US (18 lbs and up!!), especially since I've ordered this one before Christmas. Most turkeys here are raised for Christmas Eve dinner, which means they're not quite fattened up by the end of November. My poor, meager, turkey has been sentenced to an early death! I'm sure any guilt will wear off by the time my house is full of turkey smell, Sunday. ;)

To celebrate Thanksgiving with my classes, I've had cooking lessons all week. We made little apple pies in each of the private classes. Pumpkin pie, I decided, was too labor intensive given that you can't buy canned pumpkin here. And besides, is there anything more American than an apple pie?

All the kids LOVED the activity. I was a little wary because my last class on Tuesdays is just a pair of high school boys--17 years old. My inner feminist was angry with myself for even considering NOT baking with the boys. Of course, if it were a mixed class, I wouldn't think twice, but being that they were just boys I was wondering if they would be into it...wondering if I should make up some other activity for them... After thinking it over and consulting with my friend Sara ("There's no reason those mama's boys shouldn't know how to make an apple pie! And besides, it's tasty!"), I opted to go for it.

It was a huge success. I think the boys liked it even more than the girls! One was in awe by the way I folded the pie crust to be able to neatly put it in the pie pan, "es guapo, eso, ¿eh?". By the end of class both of them were talking about making apple pie for their Christmas dinners this year. :) We had a blast all together, and the pies came out beautifully.

The activity consisted in first labeling everything on the table, and then filling in the ingredients on the worksheets I gave them. As we worked, they had to fill in the measurements, too. The younger students then had to order the steps of the recipe, while the older ones had to write the steps themselves. I also gave them a second worksheet with key vocabulary (cut, add, bake, mix, etc.) and a short explanation about apple pie.

Here are all the labels. The pie you see, was my sample one. Since there wasn't time for their pies to bake and cool during class, they each took home a slice of mine. I also had to have some crust already made and in the fridge, since it has to be cold when you work with it. I felt like the professional cooks on TV as I said, "you have to chill the dough 30 min." and then whipped a cold batch out of the fridge to be rolled. :)

And here are the pies! The one on the far right is the boys'. You can't really tell, but they cut a smiling face into it and then laughed, saying, "it looks like the sun on Teletubbies!" :)