KZ in AZ

I had much to be thankful for this year. So much in fact I celebrated Thanksgiving twice. My first Thanksgiving was on the 22nd in Barda. Barda is where my friends Mere and Ryan live and since Mere came to Goycay last year it as my turn to go to her this year. The new Barda volunteers were doing their site visit so I was able to meet them and we all spent a little time together on Friday. We also went shopping and to me and Meres’ delight we were able to find a small 11kilo frozen turkey! This is very rare as we have been told you could only buy live turkeys and they are very expensive. Not wanting the time consuming task of killing, plucking, and cleaning the turkey we had resigned ourselves to not having one. Things were looking up for our Turkey Day (turkey included)! Mere was up at 9am and put the turkey in the “oven,” I however slept till 11am. At around noon we began prepping the dishes that could be made a little early. The menu included:
• Turkey
• Mashed potato’s
• Biscuits and gravy
• Stuffing with fresh cornbread
• Peas
• Mac-n-cheese (Scooby Doo style)
• Pasta salad (spicy)
• Rice a Roni (that’s my peoples treat!)
• Cranberry sauce
• Banana nut bread (with craisins baked in)
• Chocolate pudding
• Boxed (already bad) wine and coke (Jesus-juice)
• Scrubs season 6 and Weeds season 4!
It was a great day of cooking and after that relaxing in our food coma while watching TV.

On the 27th Kelly and I invited our dearest Azeri friends to come and let us share thanksgiving with them in Goycay. Kelly and I spent the afternoon together cooking up a storm. Unfortunately, there was no turkey this time, but we had expected as much. Instead we had two little chickens marinated up the wazoo (literally!) Me and Kellys’ menu included:
• 2 Chickens
• Mashed potato’s
• Biscuits and gravy
• Stuffing with onions and mushrooms
• Peas and corn
• Green bean casserole
• Carrots sautéed with crushed peanuts and honey (better than yams!)
• Cranberry sauce
• “American” Apple crumble
• Azeri Champagne
This thanksgiving was fun for a different reason; because we got to share it with and explain it to our Azeri friends. In trying to keep with tradition, we went around the table and told what we were thankful for this year. I was most thankful for the people sitting around the table and the work I was able to accomplish this year.

All in all it was a great thanksgiving! Below are some pictures of the 2 meals!

Plump and delicious,
Kat Zig

Disclaimer: “The contents of this website are mine personally and do not reflect any position of the U.S. Government or the Peace Corps.”