The Illustrated Guide to Cooking Thanksgiving Dinner! (Tanzania Edition)

Marion Walls | KF19 | Tanzania

I’d like to celebrate Thanksgiving with you, the Kiva community! I’d love to cook dinner for us to share but this is the thing: I’m in Tanzania right now. (I’m a Kiva Fellow, serving with Tujijenge and Barefoot Power.) So I’m enlisting your help with getting the food to the table. It’ll be easy! I’ve chosen a familiar Thanksgiving menu:

Turkey with Pan Gravy

Nut Loaf (*vegetarian option)

Mashed Potatoes

Roasted Corn

Seasonable Vegetables

Desert

Coffee or Tea

And just to be certain we end up with the same meal as each other, I’ve provided step-by-step instructions (with full-color illustrations from Tanzania!) for you to follow. You can’t go wrong… So let’s get cooking!

1. Set the oven temperature to “moderate” heat, i.e. be sure to let the charcoal burn down!

2. Cook the Bird till the juices run clear, and the skin is nicely browned. (Turkeys proved elusive – here’s rooster from Bagamoyo instead…)

3. Pick, peel, and roast nuts for the nut loaf. Cashews are abundant here, but feel free to use any nuts growing locally near you.

Oh! I almost forgot to decorate the table!

4. Peel the potatoes – don’t be shy with the quantities! (My neighborhood chip-vendor goes through 3 of these 250 lb sacks every day!)

5. Roast the corn to perfection, then spice it up with peri-peri (chilli) and lime juice.

6. Finely chop a selection of greens, and saute each individually.

7. Fix the desert of your choice. We’re not big on pie here, and the electricity quit (again) so the ice-cream has melted… but cake is a winner at all celebrations!

8. Brew coffee or tea – we grow them both here! Our coffee is world-famous for quality and flavor, but we export most beans to you. We usually use instant powder ourselves, or more often drink tea.

I hope you’ve cooked up a feast!

Happy Thanksgiving from Tanzania!

Marion has written many pages of operating instructions for polymer manufacturing facilities… You too can apply to be a Kiva Fellow for a totally different experience!