カリフォルニア便り 第２回
今回、小林まちこさんが送ってくださったのは、「サンクスギビング」がテーマです。食べ物のお話が多いので、読んでみましょう！

To: All Japanese mothers who are re-learning English with their children

It's been a very fast month since I wrote my first letter on Halloween.
It is the time of the year that major holidays and events happen one after another
to wrap up the year. It is also the most beautiful and cheerful time of the year.

During Thanksgiving, many people go home to reunite with their families and with extended families. The airports and freeways become jammed with travelers.
Some reunions are so extended that many ex-partners and stepchildren gather in one place. Mothers are busy preparing nice Turkey dinners to greet their sons and daughters.

Many local charities offer Thanksgiving feasts to hungry homeless and needy people. Many people donate money to feed them, and quite a few people volunteer to help those charities to prepare and serve the feasts. Every year Marie Callender's Restaurant and Bakery donates thousands of pies to the charities. (Marie Callender's Restaurant and Bakery is an American family restaurant chain and is famous for its delicious pies - pies renowned for their light, flaky crusts filled with fresh fruits or creamy fillings.)

For those who do not have any family to visit, many become homesick and throw big parties to blow it away. When I first came to study ESL (English as a second language) in Oakland, California, we were treated with a nice candlelight dinner at
our school dorm on Thanksgiving eve. Next day, the neighbors heard about the poor international students who did not have any places to go, and invited us over to their homes to share the nice Thanksgiving feasts. It was very heart-warming and one of my unforgettable Thanksgiving experiences.

For the newly wed couples who celebrate their first Thanksgiving, they freeze a small portion of the turkey until next year and will celebrate their first anniversary Thanksgiving with that turkey.

The traditional Thanksgiving dinners are roasted stuffed turkey with cranberry sauce, mashed potato with gravy, baked green beans with french-fried onions, creamed sweet corns, baked yams, rolls and cornbreads, and pumpkin pies. There are
so many varieties of side dishes, stuffing ingredients and desserts, and many families have their own secret recipes.

For my family, I usually prepare stuffed Cornish game hen, prosciutto with fresh mozzarella and honeydew melon, potato salad or potato au gratin, a pasta dish,
and a nice appetizer plate of smoked beef tongue, smoked turkey, pate de foie gras, whipped cream cheese, etc. We had tomato, basil and mozzarella filled ravioli with marinara sauce as this year's pasta dish. My daughter and I baked a loaf of pumpkin bread for the first time. It turned out to be very tasty and bad looking pumpkin bread. We need to work on its shape next time….

Of course, our family has prepared traditional turkey dinners before, and the turkey was pretty good. The problem was the leftover we had. We made turkey sandwich and turkey salad the next day, turkey fried rice and turkey noodle in soup the following day. After the third day on, we had to be very creative to finish the big chunk of turkey that was still occupying the huge space in our refrigerator.

Well, even though our family does not celebrate Thanksgiving in a traditional manner, it is still a day to give special thanks to people around us and to the food we eat. I hope that our American-born children will carry the spirit of Thanksgiving in their hearts.

Thank you very much for reading this mouth-watering letter.

Love,

Machiko Kobayashi
My Best English


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