Home from Miami: A Different Kind of Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving in tropical Florida. Sunshine, blue skies, soft breezes, palm trees--a big difference from our usual gray and chilly November holiday.

Our youngest son lives in Miami, and last year he came home, so this year we made the trek down south to be with him and his family. We had a great time. Meeting his mother-in-law was a highlight of our trip, and friends, he really lucked out there. She's as sweet a woman as any man could hope to have for a mother-in-law.

We arrived Tuesday; our daughter-in-law had to work and our granddaughter was in school, so we just chilled at their apartment until they got home. Then we went shopping for Thanksgiving dinner. Being from Venezuela, last year was her first experience of a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner, and she had no idea how to prepare a turkey. We kept it simple: turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, corn, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Since she did not have all the kitchen tools I would normally use, or the spices, etc, we bought canned cranberries and pies from the store's bakery. The goal was to have fun cooking and keep the work at a minimum.

We had a special treat that evening: our granddaughter Allison is living in Fort Lauderdale now, working on her Master's degree, so she joined us for dinner at a lovely restaurant called Tony Roma's. It was wonderful to see her, as it's been a year since we were all together.

The next day our d-i-l had to work again, so Tommy took us to see where he works, on Brickell Key.

This is about as different from our home in the West Virginia hills as you could possibly imagine: white, soaring skyscrapers, tropical plants and trees, water everywhere, and lots of traffic and people. It was fun to see how this part of the world lives and works.

Lorena's mother arrived that evening, and the two of them made a traditional Venezuelan bread called arepas for dinner. Delicious! I watched carefully so I can give these a try at home.

Kneading the dough. Marisella worked it for quite a while, adding more water as needed to get it to the right consistency/ I think this will take some practice.

Finished dough, called masa

The arepa maker. I ordered this same one.

Forming the masa into balls.

Into the baker.

As you can see, the balls of masa need to be fairly large.

Then close the lid, wait, and....

Tada! Finished arepas!

Time to eat!

I've already ordered the arepa maker (through Amazon) used to cook them. These round breads can be used for any meal, and can be filled with all kinds of things, from eggs to cheese to meats, etc. They are made using a white corn flour, salt, and water. That's it. So simple, and so good. We split them in two, buttered, and layered meat and cheese. Yum!

Thursday was the day to cook the turkey and all the fixings. I have to say, this was the easiest Thanksgiving dinner I've ever made. Maybe because I had two other women helping, and because we kept the menu simple. It was done on time and everything was perfect.

All of us at the table. From left, Lorena, Tommy, Larry, Natasha, Marisella and me.

The rest of the day we were couch potatoes, watching movies and talking. Tommy's mother-in-law does not speak a lot of English but she's learning, and I found I could understand a lot more Spanish that I realized. I can't speak it, but between the words I know and the Spanish words that sound like English words, it was not hard to communicate. I tried their Venezuelan coffee, which is quite good--it's basically strong coffee that is added to hot milk with sugar stirred in, and then whipped until a froth forms on top. Tasty.

We spent Friday visiting Sunny Isles beach, which is the closest beach to my son's apartment,

and having lunch at a Russian restaurant called Matroyshka. It's just across the road from Trump Tower, Trump Palace and Trump Resort.

Trump properties. 

Another view

This area around Trump's properties is heavily Russian and Russian-owned. The area is even called "Little Russia". I noticed many pregnant women, and remarked on it. As it turns out, many Russians come to Miami to have their babies, and according to this Bloomberg article, Sunny Isles is where the more affluent come to stay at Trump's properties while awaiting childbirth.

The food was delicious.

I had Chicken Kiev, a beet salad and a cabbage salad, a chicken salad, some very tasty rice, a fruit salad with some unusual little yellow berries called Physalis peruviana, also known as goldenberry, and here in the States known as ground cherry. They grow in a papery husk like tomatillos, but taste like a sweet/tart cherry. I have grown ground cherries before and the flavor of the ones I grew was nothing like these. Mine had a musky taste that I did not like; these tropical berries had none of that.

I also got dessert, because I was so curious about the cakes and other desserts in the deli.

One slice was huge, enough for 4-6 people! I ate a little of it and shared some with the others, but we took most of it back to tthe apartment with us. This multi-layered cake was called a mixed berry cake. It had sweet pink and white gelatin-like fillings between very thin layers of cake. A little went a long way!

In the evening Tommy and his wife took us back to the airport. I hated to say goodbye. Seemed like we had been there so short a time, but it was actually four days. We landed in Columbus, Ohio, got to our motel very late, and left Saturday morning for the drive home. It was gray, chilly, foggy and drizzly. Such a change from the bright Miami sun.

I hope your holiday weekend was as nice as ours was, and that you're getting rested up and ready for the next big thing: holiday decorating! Many people are already in full swing, but I haven't even started. How about you?

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.