Turkey in Turkey III, the facts and figures

I hosted Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday for the third time in three years, something that has quickly become my favorite tradition in Turkey. As I've explained to the many non-Americans I've shared the occasion with, Thanksgiving is the best American holiday because there's no religion and no gift-buying involved, just eating and drinking with people you (hopefully) like.

Once I cooked a turkey successfully the first year, I decided not to really mess with that, but when October rolls around, I always start looking for new side-dish recipes to add to the ones worth cooking again. This year's menu included:

• A brined and roasted turkey with apple juice gravy (no cider 'round these parts)
• Cornbread stuffing with sausage
• Green mashed potatoes
• Caramelized spiced carrots
• Fatty 'Cue Brussels sprouts (sans bacon, sadly)
• Fresh orange-cranberry sauce with walnuts
• Spinach salad with candied spicy walnuts, dried cranberries, and blue cheese
• Assorted cheeses, olives, and nuts to snack on

And for dessert (not made by me), a quince tart and Iranian halva.

On the guest list:

• 5 Americans
• 3 Brits
• 2 Iranians
• 2 Germans
• 1 Dane
• 1 French
• 1 Turk

The ingredients in the meal were a little melting pot of their own, including:

• American cranberries and Danish sausage from Denmark
• Danish blue cheese from Lebanon (I decided to hold onto the French Roquefort from Djibouti for another occasion)
• rosewater brought straight from Iran that morning
• American maple syrup acquired in Portugal
• sea salt, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, and various other things transported from America
• and, of course,
• a turkey from Turkey

Since so many of the guests were celebrating their first-ever Thanksgiving, I decided to make a little speech explaining the meaning of the holiday, in the warm fuzzy way we learned in elementary school before we knew anything about colonialism or small pox. As I went through the story, it started to feel strangely appropriate, speaking as I was to a group of people who have settled in a land that was not our own, relying on each other to help us get through the hard metaphorical winters -- the bureaucracy, the strangeness, the language barrier, the loneliness -- and harvest something valuable from our sometimes faltering labors. Şükran günümüz kutlu olsun! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!