Tales from the Huffmans

It’s good to be home again!  Don and I had a wonderful trip to China, where Hangzhou seems like a second home to us.  We’ve lost count of the times¹ we have visited there, but we think this was trip number 18.  We have a wonderful, warm circle of friends² there, but there are also things that make our home in Iowa especially welcome again– our  king-size bed³ that is long enough for Don’s two meter height, our daughter Kim with her cheery laugh, and, of course, our big, faithful black labrador dog, Blitzen.  According to Kim, Blitzen missed us terribly⁴ while we were away, but probably no more than we missed her.  At the moment she’s close by, looking out the door at the birds, squirrels⁵ and occasional cat in our back yard.

 

This is the time of year when many people head for “home,” wherever that may be.  Thanksgiving Day⁶ is next Thursday, a time when almost all Americans head for home and family if at all possible.  Throughout the country people are planning Thanksgiving gatherings, especially the food.  Of course, most menus will include turkey⁷, so the big decision will be how to fix it.  Our son Jim, a chef in Des Moines, will be here for Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in seven years.  The restaurant where he is executive chef has served big Thanksgiving brunches⁸ and he had to be in charge of getting them prepared.  This year the restaurant will no longer do this, so he happily announced⁹ that he will be home for Thanksgiving dinner and he hopes it will be like the one I would fix when he and Kim were younger.  So, next Tuesday I’ll go to the super market¹⁰, buy a whole frozen turkey, and start thawing¹¹ it on the back porch.  With turkey we’ll have bread dressing¹², green bean casserole¹³, escalloped white potatoes¹⁴, baked sweet potatoes, corn, cranberry and pineapple jello salad¹⁵, rolls, and two kinds of pies (pumpkin¹⁶ and pecan¹⁷).  Jim will prepare and bring the sweet potatoes and one of the pies.  All families have their traditional meal items, but I know ours is pretty typical.  I don’t enjoy fixing a big turkey so will get a small one, probably about 10 pounds.  In the past I’ve prepared ones as big as 25 pounds¹⁸.  Never again!¹⁹

 

It’s no coincidence²⁰ that the Sunday after Thanksgiving is the busiest travel day of the year in the U.S.  People may have gone home on Tuesday, Wednesday or even early Thursday morning, but almost everyone has to be back to work or school the following Monday, so the airports are jammed²¹ and the highways crowded.  I’m glad we will already be home!

 

 

Notes:

1. have lost count of the times: have forgotten how many times something has occurred (记不得有多少次了).

2. a …circle of friends: a group of close friends.

3. king size bed: a bed which is very large, both longer and wider than normal (特大号床).

4. terribly: very much.

5. squirrels: 松鼠

6. Thanksgiving Day (感恩节): the fourth Thursday in November, a day when families get together for a large meal in memory of the historical event at which British settlers and Native Americans feasted together in friendship.

7. turkey (火鸡): a large, native bird in the U.S. which has been domesticated, and is now part of the traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

8. brunches: meals which are served about mid-way between breakfast and lunch (早午餐).

9. announced: stated or said.

10. super market: a large store which sells all sorts of food and items to be used in the home.

11. thawing: the melting of frozen items (化冻).

12. bread dressing: (AmE.) a mixture of bread, onions and spices prepared along with chopped internal organs of the turkey; dressing here means stuffing (指填入火鸡肚子里的面包等填充物).

13. green bean casserole: a dish prepared with green beans, mushroom soup and onions, probably the favorite vegetable dish in the U.S. (由绿豆、蘑菇汤、洋葱等做成的砂锅，颇受美国人喜欢).

14. escalloped potatoes: potatoes sliced, with a sauce and baked in an oven (烤土豆片).

15. cranberry and pineapple jello salad: a mixture of gelatin, pineapple, and cranberries (越橘、菠萝和果冻做成的沙拉).

16. pumpkin (pie): 南瓜馅饼

17. pecan (pie): 山核桃肉（跟鸡蛋、白糖及调料等做成的）馅饼

18. 25 pounds: 相当于 11.36 公斤

19. “never again”: an idiom meaning I hope never to cook a turkey that large in the future.

20. coincidence: an occurrence of two or more events that occur at the same time and seem to have some connection, but actually are independent events (巧合).

21. jammed: so crowded as to be unable to move easily, full of people.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 3:16 pm and is filed under Travel and Customs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.