Thanksgiving might be American, but food and family is universal.

Since the fourth Thursday of November isn't a holiday in Israel we had class. However being a Thursday, it was a field trip day. This week we went to Abu Ghosh, an Arab town west of Jerusalem. First stop was the town mosque and then we got to visit the elementary school that's associated with it.

One of the residents of Abu Ghosh giving us the history of the mosque.

Melanie and I inside the mosque.

The first grade classroom in the school.

The second part of our day trip consisted of what we were told was going to be an Arabic cooking class. What the teacher really meant was she was about to unleash 15 international students in an operational restaurant's kitchen. We entered the restaurant and were immediately beckoned into the back. After a little awkward shuffling around to fit all of us in, production began. There was little explanation and a lot of activity. Commands and questions went back and forth in Arabic and English as students began chopping ingredients, preparing food, and frying falalel. It was productive chaos as students began doing anything and everything in the kitchen. Activities included just as much coffee drinking, socializing, and hummus spilling as it did anything productive, but I think both the restaurant workers and students had an immensely enjoyable time out of it. And in true Thanksgiving style, it ended with an absolute feast worth of food.

Frying falafel.

Hanging out with chef master Taisub in the kitchen.

Jasper cooking potatoes like a boss... and getting in some practice rounds before being on potato duty for Thanksgiving dinner.

Kitchen selfie with the restaurant owner's brother and my classmates.

After our first feast we all returned home to work off our lunch feast by preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. Although there are plenty of activity options for a Thursday night in Israel, I decided that I really wanted to just enjoy some good food and company so I opened an invitation for people to come over for Thanksgiving dinner at my apartment. The only catch was everyone had to bring some sort of food. After all, I had dessert covered.

الأميرات all dressed up for Thanksgiving dinner.

My part of the pot-luck. Three pies and spice cookies with pumpkin dip.

My abroad-family dinner.

From the left is Jasper, Taisub, Melanie, Nora, Lisa, myself, and Teresa. Noah's behind the camera per usual.

Our Thanksgiving feast consisted of salad, mashed potatoes, pomegranate seeds, pad thai, chicken wings, and lots of dessert. Honestly, I'd take Taisub's pad thai and chicken over a roasted turkey any day... he knows how to cook! Our dinner was blessed in a variety of languages and religious traditions before dinner continued in the same way. Noah was outnumbered 7 to 1 by Arabic students and so more often than not Arabic slang was being thrown around the dinner conversation. Overall though it was a great holiday and it's hard to be anything but thankful about a day full of food- Arabic, American, and otherwise.

To all of my family, friends, and sisters back home - I hope you had a great holiday and I miss you all! And to all of my friends here in Israel (at dinner and otherwise) - it's hard to be homesick when I have you as my family here abroad, I am so thankful to have you all as a part of my study abroad experience. I hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving as much as I did!

Anything is Possible with a little Guesstimation and a Bottle of Vodka

Wednesday night was an important turning point in my week. Midterms were finally over الحمد لله‎, and the following day was Thanksgiving. Additonally, the weather was extremelly bad. So, there was no better use of my night than to hang out in my kitchen and prepare for Thanksgiving: in my personal family's style.

That means pie.

It's not Thanksgiving in my household without at least half a dozen pies in the house. Pie baking usually begins days before the actual Thanksgiving meal. Personally, I could survive without the turkey or the traditional side dishes, but the pies aren't food; they're tradition.

Baking in Israel comes with it's own set of challenges. The supplies in the grocery store are different, and not always labeled in English. Also, there's no such thing as a pie pan in Jerusalem. I would know, I looked. Additionally, my apartment keeps kosher, so I would have to prepare and bake everything so that it remains kosher (and so that I don't "un-kosher" any of the kitchen utensils in the process). 

But first things first, I had to gather my ingrediants. I headed to the grocery with my very American list and some Google translated notes on what words to look for to varify certain ingrediants. Despite having to shop in a foreign grocery store, the real challange didn't appear until I returned home. I had no way of measuring what I bought.

Conversions were necessary. Most things in the store are measured in grams. All of my mother's recipes are in cups and teaspoons. So, I needed to determine a cup. That's where the vodka comes in. A few days ago one of my roommates had a friend over who had brought along a small bottle of vodka. Finishing it, he left it here in our kitchen. Vodka is imported and therefore the label is in English, so, I could verify the bottle I held was 200 grams. From there it's all guesstimation and mental math. A cup is roughly 228 grams. That's just around a bottle and a quarter bottle of vodka. So, I filled the bottle with water ~1.25 times and emptied it into a regular drinking glass and suddenly I had myself a measuring tool.

The roughly 228 grams of water next to the 200 gram vodka bottle.

The first test was the most intimidating- and possibly the most crucial. I had to make the pie crust using only my vodka-guesstimated measurements, a bowl, and a fork. It would be hard to find a more "college" approach to the baking process than that. But let me tell you... I succeeded.

Bringing family traditions to Israel: homemade pie crust. 

The pie crusts rolled out into my make-shift pie pans (aka cake pans I bought at the shuk).

The most exciting moment of my baking was during the pecan pie. After I poured out the Karo into my "measuring glass" I noticed the bottle came with an easy measure feature. Although a waste of having to repour the corn syrup, it was insanely validating learning that my makeshift vodka-bottle-derived measurement system was actually rather accurate.

Proof that I'm a domestic goddess.

And of course, the night ended with pie (or rather, pies plural; plus cookies and cookie dip). Afterall, tomorrow's Thanksgiving and there's no reason to skimp on the options for caloric intake.

My pecan pie.

The finished pies. The pecans on the left and the apple pie with a crumble topping is on the right.