A Dubai Thanksgiving!

Happy Dubai Thanksgiving! This year we celebrated our second Thanksgiving in Dubai. Our first one was when Jared lived in Dubai before in November 2007. When we had our first Dubai Thanksgiving we didn't really have any friends here, and so did a small intimate Thanksgiving with just the two of us and Jared's roommate at the time Ananda. It was lovely, but I pretty much did everything on my own and then there were only the three of us to eat it (and Ananda is a vegetarian), so not quite as much fun or rewarding to make a huge meal for so few people.

So, this year we decided to host a big Thanksgiving with all our friends here. We invited about fifteen people and eleven people came! Because we were having such a big crowd we decided that we needed at least a 20 pound turkey. One of my student's parents had told me that there was a market that we could order a fresh turkey from, so the weekend before Thanksgiving we decided to check it out. Well, when we got there, they informed us that we could indeed order a fresh turkey to be picked up Thanksgiving morning, but that the biggest turkey we could get would be 10 pounds (not nearly big enough), so we started to panic a little and started looking for a frozen turkey that would be big enough. The market we were at (Spinney's) only carried 10 pound frozen birds and then we tried Carrefour, which also only had small turkeys. Finally, we turned to our old standby Safest Way (the Korean market, which coincidentally carries the largest variety of American products we've seen in Dubai). Luckily for us, Safest Way not only had a 21 pound Butterball frozen turkey, but also all the other American products we needed for our feast: Ocean Spray cranberry sauce, stuffing mix, Ritz crackers, Corn Flakes, Mott's apple sauce, Grand's Biscuits, Green Giant frozen corn, and French's fried onions.

We were so excited to find a big enough turkey that we didn't even consider what we were going to do with it until Thanksgiving. When we got it home we realized that it was waay too big to fit in our freezer (which is one of those little ones below our refrigerator that has drawers). In a panic I called my Grandmother in Florida at 7am her time. I had memories of going to the Plainville Turkey Farm the weekend before Thanksgiving every year as a child to pick up our fresh turkey. So, since I knew we bought a fresh turkey and kept it refrigerated for 4 days before Thanksgiving, I was hoping we could do the same with ours (if it would fit in the fridge!). My Grandma assured me that we could slowly defrost it in our fridge (which would take about 4 days given its size) and that it would be fine. She also advised me to check and make sure it would fit in our oven! Luckily it fit in both our oven and fridge (after some major rearranging).

So, when the big day came, our beautiful turkey was completely thawed and ready to go! Both Jared and I had the day off (coincidentally, the Muslim holiday Eid also fell on Thanksgiving..). We got up early and went for a run in Al Safa before beginning our day of cooking. We made our Apple Pie fresh that morning (complete with homemade crust, since you cannot buy store bought pie crust here) and then made our homemade stuffing (Jared's Mom's recipe) and put the bird in about 1:30 (my office was actually open on Thanksgiving, despite the holiday, so we planned to serve dinner around 8:30pm so that my work friends could arrive in time). Then after the bird was in, Jared went to town making the many side dishes that could be made in advance -- mashed potatoes (also Jared's Mom's recipe with melted cheddar, sour cream, and butter), squash, and sweet potatoes, while I ran out to the store for last minute items. And, as we were getting things ready, we were delighted to discover that we actually got the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and all the American football games for the day... Having them on in the background definitely increased the festive mood!

Preparing such a large meal is certainly a lot of work (and stress!), but we had a great time, and ultimately everything turned out perfectly and a great time was had by all!

Jared prepping the green beans... we intended to make green bean casserole, but the only ingredient we couldn't find was Cream of Mushroom Soup, so ended up just sauteing the green beans.

Our festive table settings and me moving the table to fit all our guests.

Our Patriotic butter that our friend Elizabeth so kindly sculpted for us... She thought it was appropriate for us to have the US flag in our butter to appropriately celebrate such a special American holiday.

The Festivities...

We had 11 friends over (13 people total with Jared and I), many of whom had never experienced an American Thanksgiving before. We had friends from all over the world, including from: England, Ireland, Australia, Germany, Egypt, and the Philippines.

Amazingly, we were able to have a pretty traditional sit-down Thanksgiving, even despite our small apartment. We can seat 6 at our dining room table, and then brought in our garden table which can seat 4 more, and to fit the final 3 people we moved and turned a portion of our couch (which is a sectional that breaks into pieces). It was lovely, and much to Jared's chagrin I made everyone go around and say what they're thankful for (my family's Thanksgiving tradition) before letting everyone make their plates.

Me & Jared. :)

Clare, Mahmoud, Me

Me, Phil, and Apple

Chatting between courses.. Since we were having such a non-traditional Thanksgiving this year, we asked everyone to bring a traditional dish with them that might be served on a special occasion or holiday in their family. Ironically, with the exception of our friend Laith who brought a delicious Iraqi rice dish, everyone else brought desserts, leaving us with the biggest dessert buffet ever!

The Desserts...

The dessert spread and chefs (minus Jared who made the delicious Pecan Pie) -- Clare, Mahmoud, Me, Diana.

Jared's delicious Pecan Pie (his traditional favorite)

Clare's Australian Pavlova

Mahmoud's Egyptian Um Ali

The Whole Spread, which included the above dishes + Pumpkin and Apple Pies (made by me, with Jared's help on the Apple), Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins (made by me), and Rum Balls made by Diana. Probably the most delicious and versatile Thanksgiving dessert spread in my life...

Safa Park

My new obsession is running in Al Safa Park. I discovered it about 2 weeks ago and I absolutely love it! Running outside again is so nice after doing 45 minute treadmill runs for the last 2.5 months. Al Safa is a huge green park in the middle of Dubai. Something I never imagined would exist in the desert, although not completely surprising for the place that prides itself on superlatives (which may or may not be currently overlooked given the recent debt issues with two of the biggest state-owned companies here)...

The park itself is a square that runs the 1 kilometer from Sheikh Zayed Road to Al Wasl Road and then width-wise about .6 kilometers (which breaks down to 3,418 meters around (3.418 kilometers), or 2 and 1/8 miles around). There is a great running track around the outside, and on the inside there are lots of built-in barbecues, benches, sports fields, a pond, and even 'allegedly' a waterfall (which coincidentally was not turned on the one time I've gone in).. There are also TONS of flowers! Lots of flowering bushes with pink and orange flowers creeping up the wrought iron fence around the perimeter, and there are marigolds planted everywhere! The smell of marigolds fills my nose as I run around, reminding me of planting flowers boxes with my Mom every Memorial Day weekend when I was a kid.

The running track and parking are free and the cost to get in is only AED 3 (about 80 cents or so). I love it so much and I've been going every morning after I drop Jared off at work. It's on the way home and I get there around 7:30am which is perfect because the sun isn't really out yet and the temperature is cool. Surprisingly (or not), there are a lot of people out running and walking around the track at that time.. Lots of women in abayas too and men in dishdasha. Also, lots of little boys in traditional dress as there is an all boys Emirati school on one side.

And the added bonus is that there is an area where they have animals (horses and camels) hanging out to entertain people (with rides, etc.) on the weekends. So, nearly everyday I get to run by this friendly camel as I am completing my daily 6.5 mile run. Most of my run I am able to forget I am in Dubai and pretend I am somewhere much more lovely and lush.. until I get to my friendly camel, who brings me back down to earth and reminds me that, alas, I live in the Middle East. Oh well... at least I am running in shorts and a t-shirt, whereas if I were living in Boston right now I'd probably be wearing a hat and gloves every time I go out the door... So goes life.

The Race to Dubai

The weekend before Thanksgiving, Jared and I had the opportunity to go to the Dubai World Championship Golf Tournament aka "The Race to Dubai." I was very excited because it is a huge tournament and actually the last tournament of the European Tour Season (comparable to the Tour Championship in the PGA Tour... I think). I had never been to a big golf tournament before and was so excited to get to see all the big European golfers (some of who I had actually heard of..) Rory McIlroy, Ernie Els, Lee Westwood, and Sergio Garcia.

It was a four day tournament and we went for the third day (tickets were free though, so we could have gone all four days, but obviously had to work, etc, and I also thought that one day of golf was probably enough for me). We were fairly under the weather from the night before (our friend Ebi got a private room at a bar called Left Bank in Souq Al Bahar with tons of apps and bottles of liquor to celebrate his birthday), so we didn't get as early of a start as we hoped. We got to the tournament about 2pm, which was actually great because all the leaders were on Hole 10 by the time we got there and so we were able to see their second nine, but not have to be there all day (you can see my interest level in the tournament out was quite high... now, if Tiger was playing on the other hand, I might have demanded we get there early).

So when we first got to the tournament we decided to chase the leaders around for awhile and walk from hole to hole. The course was so pretty and some of the more centrally located greens were set up with couches and bean bags for people to picnic and luxuriate on the course (which Jared loved... bean bags are big here for some reason). Then, after we got sick of running around the course we strategically placed ourselves by the green to Hole 17 (the island green seen below) at a bar they had set up on the course and had a beer while we waited for all the leaders/famous golfers to pass through and then were able to follow them to 18. The whole experience was a lot of fun and definitely worthwhile... It kind of turned me on to professional golf, although I actually think it might be more fun to watch on tv (because you know what's going on... it's easy to get distracted and just watch the guys holding up the 'Quiet' sign when you're there)... Lots of fun though and I'd definitely go again!

Hole 18 Green..

The Island Green, Hole 17

Random Hole.. I can't remember which, such a pretty course though, and weird because it's literally in the middle of the desert so everything had to be brought in and built up from the sand.

Welcome to Dubai.

This is a statement I have heard waaay too many times in the last few weeks, and not for good reasons. We have been having all sorts of bureaucratic issues in Dubai lately, that leave me wanting to scream at the top of my lungs, "I JUST WANT TO GO HOME!"

Example #1 is the lovely picture of the scaffolding you see above. We both left for work last Tuesday with everything fine and dandy, and then when Jared got home discovered a giant scaffolding inexplicably erected in our garden. Now, no one was home during the period of time when said scaffolding appeared, which obviously meant they climbed over an 8 foot wall and hauled tools and scaffolding over the wall in order to erect it. Not OK. So, for 2-3 days we battled with the building maintenance to get it out, spent countless time on the phone with our landlord's personal assistant, and in the building maintenance office screaming at the building manager and his secretary. We explained that we were perfectly happy to accommodate necessary maintenance, but that breaking and entering into our terrace was really unacceptable. They claimed to have knocked on our door to ask permission, but when no one answered decided to go ahead and build it anyway. I tried to explain how disturbing that whole concept was, because there could have been any number of reasons why no one would answer the door (in the shower, etc.) but that no one answering does not open the door to then climb over a wall to get in. I was horrified that I could have walked out of the bathroom after showering to find men staring at me through my sliding glass doors. Quite disturbing, and after battling for most of the week, it was removed and they put all our furniture back and cleaned (surprisingly well).

Example #2 of bureaucratic hell in Dubai is our rental car. The lease was about to be up and so we had been talking to the company about extending our one month rental into a year long rental. We came to an agreeable price (actually a very good deal) and arranged a time to go swap out the car (because they wanted to give us a 2009 Lancer - classy, instead of the 2007 we were driving since they were concerned about the reliability of a 2007 for such a long rental). So, on the planned day and time, Jared and I drove to Sharjah to sign the new contract and make the swap. We went during Jared's lunch hour, so needed to be quite quick about the whole thing, and because we were in a hurry, of course chaos ensued. They tried to give us a car that was missing a hubcap, which Jared deemed to be unacceptable (oh the trashiness of driving around for the next year with a car missing a hubcap!). So, after debating with the rental car guy about how to handle the situation we finally agreed that they would let us keep the current car (with which we were perfectly happy) for another day and they would then deliver a new car to us the following morning (before noon when I leave for work). So, needless to say, they obviously didn't show up before noon as planned (and despite several phone calls that morning to ensure it's delivery). So, as I was leaving for work (in the old car) I called and told them they would then have to deliver the car to my office. So, about an hour later they called to tell me they had arrived outside my office with the 'new' car. Well, the 'new' car was filthy on the inside and reeked of cigarette smoke and the rear-view window appeared to have been smeared with a dirty t-shirt on the inside, deeming it impossible to see out of. Oh, and it was not a 2009, but upon checking the registration, it was either a 2007 or 2008 (it was unclear). I was mid-lesson and pretty stressed that I had to leave in the middle of teaching one of my students, so I signed off on the car and they swapped it, but called the rental car place as I was walking back inside to complain. Oh so fun. So they said they would call me back within the hour with details of how they planned to replace the car. No call back, of course, so the following morning I called to complain, yet again, and was told, yet again, that they'd be dropping off a replacement to our apartment that morning. Of course, that did not happen and they told me they'd have to drop it off at work, again. So, now into Day 3 of the rental car saga, they dropped off a car at my office (this is following about 15-20 phone calls made by Jared and I). Finally, new car #2 was actually an acceptable car. 2010 Model Mitsubishi Lancer with less than 2000 kilometers on it and actually smelled like a 'new' car, however was full of crumbs (as in someone just ate an extremely crumbly samosa all over the car (picture greasy crumbs everywhere). But, at this point, I figured there was no way I was getting a nicer car than this (despite the crumbs) and complaining would get me no where (I could clean the car myself). So, after three days, the rental car saga was finally resolved.

Example #3 would be some issues I have been having with work in terms of still lacking a work visa and possible lack of payment. I won't get into detail on this issue on here, but suffice to say, my stress level has been high enough with the bureaucracy in Dubai that I have never been a more patriotic and US loving American before in my life. All I can say is, GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Lovely scaffolding which could be seen in our garden for about 4 days...

Grilling in the Garden & Almost Thanksgiving

Jared with his new toy... in absolute heaven... beer in one hand, pork ribs in the other, and wearing his bathing suit from just coming out of the pool... what could be better?

So, I've been a little lazy with my blog... It's hard to be motivated to write everyday, and we've actually been pretty busy. Plus, a lot of not so fun stressful things have been going on (scaffolding appearing out of no where into our garden, work and rental car issues), so I've been a little pre-occupied and not so excited about Dubai and therefore, not all that enthusiastic about writing about it. But, we did book our flights home this weekend, so I am pretty excited to be heading back to Boston for Christmas exactly one month from today!

And while, we have been a little stressed dealing with bureaucracy in the last week (maybe more on that later..), it hasn't been all doom and gloom because we've been absolutely LOVING our new grill! For our inaugural grill, we decided to go as American as we possibly could and made barbecued pork ribs (which were delicious once Jared got the hang of the heat level controls). And now we are pretty much trying to grill almost every night. So far we've done whole fish (Jared and his love of picking bones out of fish. yuck), chicken kebabs, veggies, HOT DOGS, and even German Curry-wurst. So, you could say we've been enjoying the grill.

This weekend, we were quite busy (as per usual) and headed back to our favorite brunch place, The Lime Tree Cafe for Friday brunch (breakfast bruschetta for me, yum), and then went to a UAE Handicrafts and Art sale to see about starting our Christmas shopping. We were successful on the Christmas shopping front, but also got a little carried way with stuff for us too, and ended up buying a painting... oops. It was too nice to pass up though because it is a painting of the Dubai skyline with the Burj (something that will mean something to us when we leave Dubai -- hopefully sooner rather than later), but done in a more modern art style, so it won't look all Middle Eastern where ever we hang it. Jared also got a little carried away with the homemade chutneys and dips this woman was selling and had to buy some tomato chutney (which was delicious) and then go back to her stand later to buy the delicious little crackers she was selling as well to dip in the chutney.

After we were able to pull ourselves away from the craft sale, we headed home and hung out at the pool for a bit, before cleaning our garden and getting ready to have our friends Melissa and Dom over for a BBQ. Melissa and Dom were running late though, so we ended up just having a couple drinks and nibbles in the garden first while we were waiting for Melissa and Dom to arrive and start the grilling. Soooo relaxing to just lounge in the garden and watch the sunset with a glass of wine, cheese & crackers (with REAL pepperoni), and fresh hummus and tabbouleh with flat bread.

Then when Melissa and Dom arrived we fired up the grill and had some chicken kebabs and German sausage that Dom had just brought back from his trip home to Germany. It was white sausage that he prepared by cutting it up in little pieces after it was grilled, and then covering it with ketchup and curry powder. He called it "Curry-wurst" and kept telling us it was the national dish of Germany... It was very interesting and surprisingly not bad... but not as good as the delicious German potato salad he also brought. So we chatted and drank in the garden for a few hours and then had waffles covered in vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup for dessert. Really a nice night in.

On Saturday, I went to a work event in the morning and then we headed to the beach for the afternoon (perfect beach weather here now!) and then grilled in the garden again for dinner and had hotdogs and homemade chicken shawarma with our leftover kebabs. Very yummy, and then after dinner I was pleasantly surprised to get TWO calls from home! My step-mom Deb and my Grandma both called me and I was just overjoyed because it was my very first calls to receive from people at home. So nice to hear familiar voices and it made me so excited for the holidays.

My pumpkin chocolate chip muffins... So easy and yummy and a little taste of fall and home.

Before we can get to that though, we've got our Dubai Thanksgiving coming up.. I can't believe how fast November is flying and how soon Thanksgiving will be here. We have begun planning and have invited all our Dubai friends to come over and have a traditional American Thanksgiving with us. Thanksgiving is probably our favorite holiday because, although I LOVE Christmas, it really becomes all about the gifts and not about togetherness. Thanksgiving is better because it is really just focused on being with family, enjoying a delicious meal (you already know about our obsession with good food), and relaxing while watching American football. And while we're very sad that we'll be missing out on Thanksgiving with family (at Jared's mom's house), we're still excited to have a relaxing day of cooking together and then eating and drinking with friends. We keep debating how big of a bird we can fit in our oven and have begun to discuss the menu... I can't believe it's next week...

And thinking about the weekend before Thanksgiving just conjurs up memories of when I was little and would go to the Plainville Turkey Farm with my Grandma and Grandpa Weske the weekend before Thanksgiving to pick out our enormous turkey (Grandma never made anything smaller than 23 pounds) and pet the chicks and bring home a turkey feather... And more recent memories of going to the Harvard-Yale Football game with Jared's dad and brothers... Oh how I miss fall in New England!

The finished product of my Pumpkin Chocolate Chip muffins... I tried to make them look festive with my limited supply of festive fall things... They'll be on the Thanksgiving dessert menu at the Jared/Jen Thanksgiving Feast.