Because Puppy is based here in Germany and won't make it home for one of her favorite holidays, she asked her parents if we could have Thanksgiving dinner while they were visiting instead. So Saturday, after an uneventful trip back from the Mosel, we did some mad grocery shopping for the dinner Sunday, and then when we got home, Nancy D and I insisted that Mr. and Mrs. Puppy teach us how to make juk.
I should explain how I am surviving the German diet without keeling over, and my secret is . . . Chinese food. Everytime I visit Puppy and her parents, they cook and try to teach me how to make amazing traditional Chinese food (Mr. Puppy is from China and Mrs. Puppy is Chinese-American). Unfortunately, generally when I eagerly try to make the dish at home, I often end up doing things like cleaning grease off the ceiling. Juk is a rice porridge dish that Mr. and Mrs. Puppy made a few nights ago and Nancy D and I fell in love with. So despite my previous Chinese cooking difficulties and the fact that we still had leftover juk in the fridge, we insisted that they teach us how to make it. Politely insisted, with "pleases" and everything.
Turns out, juk takes hours, so it was particularly kind of them to teach us considering the late start we were already getting. First you have to debone a chicken (they almost lost me right there). Puppy was eager to practice her knife skills and so I watched as she popped joints and separated chicken parts under the careful supervision of Mr. Puppy. It was like watching a chicken snuff film, particularly when she got to the part where she had to slowly and carefully pull off the skin. She did an excellent job, however, and we threw the carcass in a pot to boil. Juk is a slow cook dish and the results are delicious and if you ask very nicely I will make it for you when I get back, complete with the fried bread you dip in it. And afterwards you can help me clean off the ceiling.
After dinner I went ahead and made my Aunt Doris' special maple-pecan pie so that we'd have one less thing that needed the oven the next day. Then I Skyped for a while (if you have anyone who lives far away or goes away on trips and you haven't tried Skype, you need to download it immediately. It's free), I LOVE Skype, it makes being away so much easier. Hmm, that sounds a lot like I'm a spokesperson for Skype (I love Skype, ever since I started using Skype I've had more energy, am more positive, I've even lost weight!).
The next morning the chaos began. I know it's July, but think back to Thanksgiving morning and all the crazy timing of dishes and divvying up of oven time, and then cram it all into Puppy's extremely small German kitchen. It was a long day after a long night, but when 6pm brought all our guests, the house was clean and dinner was perfect. Our guests included Randy, a guy Puppy works with, and his wife and 2 kids, a German couple and their tiny daughter Yula, and Hakkan, a Turkish man who also works with Puppy and speaks perfect English and German. These are all Puppy's neighbors and it was really neat that they're all so friendly and social. I also have to document that the German husband's name is Norbert and this was the first time I had ever met anyone named Norbert and I was delighted!
Dinner was a complete success and I am really grateful that I got to be a part of it.
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