If you were to survey immigrants in America, I wonder if Thanksgiving would be the most popular American holiday? Or would it be Fourth of July? Both holidays are pretty great – one involves fireworks and cookouts and the other involves turkey and pecan pie. Yay, America! Let me have this, peeps. Let me have one moment where I can think “America is great because of Thanksgiving” and not think about what it’s going to be like when President Trump is told he has to pardon two turkeys at this time next year. “We’re not going to do that, those turkeys are rapists, they’re illegal, they need to apologize bigly. No pardon. You’re the pardon!” Where was I? Oh, yes. Immigrants and Thanksgiving. Gisele Bundchen is an immigrant and she sounds like she loves Thanksgiving, but she loves it mostly because she doesn’t have to cook the turkey. I guess Tom’s family cooks? Either that or they make their private chef cook on Thanksgiving. Some highlights from Gisele’s People interview:
Her Thanksgiving plans: “I’m always home with my family, that’s what Thanksgiving’s about. We’re going to have it together, and it’s nice to have friends over, my sister-in-law, some friends, and the kids. It’s going to be a nice cozy night.”
She helps with the Thanksgiving cooking: “I help with the cooking, but I could spend the whole day doing it because it’s so crazy. I help pick the stuff, because we have a garden. I help make nice salads and the kids participate, but I have no idea how to make a turkey. I have to be honest with you. I ask for help with that.”
Gisele has an apiary? “Over the past few years, I have learned that bees are essential to the health of our ecosystem. I also learned they are sadly becoming more and more scarce. Our family decided to add a bee hive and harvest our own honey. It has been an incredible thing for our home. It is so intriguing to learn how hard the bees work to make the honey. I love that our kids are seeing and experiencing this first hand. We love to use the honey as a sweetener in some of our snacks.”
She says Benjamin is an animal-lover: “It warms my heart to see how kind and gentle Benny treats all animals. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. He thinks all animals are his friends. He has a lot of empathy and a strong love for nature. Vivi is very connected to nature too. She loves the garden and watching the strawberries grow so she can pick them.”She wants her kids to play outside, not watch TV: “The kids spend a lot of their time outside; they love it. It doesn’t matter the weather, we are always finding things as a family to do in nature. Staying outside with no shoes or just connecting with nature are some of the most special memories I have with my kids. The kids play outside most days. I want them to use their imaginations as much as possible. I love that they get the opportunity to be creative and fantasize about different kinds of places and stories with their friends in our yard. We try to limit electronic time in our house, which at times can be challenging. I believe everything in moderation can work. My preference is for them to read, draw, play music or play outside instead of being in front of the TV.”
I was going to say something snotty about how it’s not really that difficult to cook a turkey, but if you’re cooking a whole turkey, plus the entire Thanksgiving meal, it is tricky to get all the timing done correctly. While it’s generally pretty easy to cook a simple, no-muss turkey, plenty of people screw it up (including me, so I’ll shut my mouth about Gisele). As for Gisele having a beehive or apiary… I’ve become increasingly fascinated by beekeeping. You know why? Elementary, the modern Sherlock story set in New York. In Elementary, Sherlock keeps a beehive on the roof of his brownstone. He loves bees to a crazy degree, and there have been several bee-related stories. I love the idea of a beekeeping revival in America. MOAR BEES!
Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty, Fame/Flynet.
Most people’s parents cook the turkey anyway. If not your parent then your grandparent, aunt, mother-in-law, etc. I don’t think there’s anything at all strange about an adult who hasn’t cooked a turkey and/or doesn’t “know” how to. I do like Thanksgiving, but turkey is just about the least enjoyable meat to eat, no matter how good it’s cooked.
We’re supposed to have turkey on Christmas Day here in Britland. I concur it’s an ‘orrible meat. We generally have rib of beef instead.
But the president pardoning the turkeys is the best holiday tradition I know. Plus, you don’t have to eat the pardoned ones. So there’s that!
The West Wing episode when the turkeys take over Allison Janney’s office. The Best!
Yes! Even I have seen that!
As a Britisher used to roast dinners, I can’t even imagine not knowing how to stick a bit of poultry or meat in the oven to roast it!
We are also supposed to have turkey on Christmas, but we usually have pork. We Croats love us some pork.
And on Christmas Eve we have cod. I don’t know why we traditionally eat a Scandinavian fish here in Croatia, when we have plenty of our own fish, but traditions are weird.
What happened to the turkey that was in CJ’s office? I can’t remember the ending.
Yeah, I consider myself a pretty accomplished cook and I cook meat and fish for my kids at least 4-5 days a week but I’ve never made a turkey. And I’m not an immigrant, it’s just that someone else in my family has always taken care of it. I don’t eat meat now but when I was a kid I did look forward to the turkey because I thought the skin was so good. Makes me shudder now to think about it.
Not a big fan of turkey in general, but when it’s deep fried it’s frickin’ delish.
However, the actual deep frying process can be tricky and dangerous if you are not careful (see comment #7).
I’ve cooked a roast chicken a couple of times. I had no idea how to do it though – my aunts/grandmother would always do it. Mom would occasionally, but not as skillfully.
So, to ‘the google’ I went, found an easy recipe, and bam. Great tasting chicken.
I’m not at all surprised that she doesn’t know how though – her diet sounds incredibly strict- plus I’m sure they have chefs.
Why I am not surprised?
Lol, I know. You can keep bees but cooking a turkey, lord no you just need help. Go on, if you want to apply for the role of super woman I’m going to need a ” I COOKED THE BEST TURKEYS ” article ASAP! Your slipping mrs. Now goop is in the lead.
Color me shocked.
Perhaps because she has no idea how to eat a turkey?!
Of course she doesn’t. She grew up in Brazil where her parents or grandparents or someone else most likely did the cooking (is cooking a turkey even one of their main dishes during the holidays because they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving) and then at a very young age became a model and now has people cooking for her and Tom. At least she admits it.
Brazilians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. Nor does the rest of the world.
But we do eat Turkey on Christmas!
Well you pretty much stick it in the oven and leave it alone. And I’m with you Allie B., I don’t care for turkey. But the gravey is another story. So I cook a turkey, husband eats the meat, and I pour gravey on any carb within reach.
The gravy is the best part!!
Oh Tate, I have to disagree. The stuffing is the best part!
Gravy on stuffing! The turkey is just the vehicle for all the good stuff around it!
Yeah, I feel like turkey has been shoved down our throats as the “healthy” lunch meat, and I’ve just had all the turkey I ever need. But gravy on everything else? Yes please!!!
Oh, jam some herbed butter under the skin and on top, like Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa.
Ina is the best!
@NotSoSocialButterfly – I learned that from Ina too! And also how to roast potatoes. She really is the best.
I’m an immigrant too and I don’t know how to cook a turkey either! We usually have a roast pork leg for thanksgiving.
My father was a firefighter. Thanksgiving was always an extremely busy day because people set their kitchens on fire cooking the turkey. And then there are the ones who set the patio or themselves on fire trying to deep fry the turkey. Butterball has a hotline for answering turkey roasting questions.
The Bradys usually spend some part of Thanksgiving at a homeless shelter for veterans here in Boston.
I married a plumber. Apparently black friday is the busiest day of the year for plumbers – because everyone tries to cram leftovers and scraps down their garbage disposals and breaks them during thanksgiving – then call them the next day because they don’t want to do it after all the hassle of the holiday.
We’re Canadian, and in a small town, so I don’t actually see much difference in his hours during the year. I do find that a lot of people seem to like calling the on-call phone at 6:30am on a Saturday to complain that they don’t have hot water- but then don’t want to pay time and a half for after hours work, so they’ll wait it out until Monday. Or he’ll get called out in the middle of a blizzard at 10pm to go fix something that definitely wasn’t an emergency. I have a decent amount of grudges held against these sorts of folks.
Don’t clog up your garbage disposals, people. OR – go ahead and do it – and be suuuper nice to the plumber coming to fix it.
Ive never made a turkey and I am 39!! Healthy parents and in-laws. I think I could do it though, just never have and have never been that interested.
Me neither, and I consider myself a pretty solid cook.
I am absolutely mystified by all these comments. Why should she have to be able to cook a turkey? I am 42, can’t cook a turkey, will probably never attempt to cook a turkey and yet feel at peace with myself (and I come from a turkey loving nation – for Xmas not thanksgiving).
I’ve made turkey because my mom always worked during the day so it was up to me to prep or finish. Reynolds makes the bags that you add flour, shake up and then insert turkey. Poke holes and cook spending on poundage as per box , and voila falling off the bone. Just marinate it, dry rub whatever and you’re fine. The sides are the star anyway
As someone outside of the USA, I can tell you turkey is not really a popular meat like some people think. I wouldn’t know how to cook one either. If it’s not a tradition you grew up with then why would you know how to do it?
Yep I never had turkey until I went to Canada. It was just kinda like a really disappointing chicken… Turkey can’t beat beef!
I’ve never cooked a turkey either. We went to my parents’ house or his mother’s house. Now I go to my daughter’s house. My husband did most of the cooking. Since he died, I live on yoghurt or salad and still never cook. Vegetarian, anyway.
I’m not a fan but I have no beef with anything she said here. She’s not wrong at all by trying to minimize her kids’ screen time and to encourage their imaginations. I love that they raise bees, too.
And I’d be laughing at the Trump turkey pardon scenario if I weren’t so frightened of and disgusted in general with him.
I can’t cook a turkey either. In fact, I’ve never had turkey. We don’t eat turkey in Argentina so I suppose it could be similar in Brazil. I know some people do eat it but it’s not that common. We’re more into cows, pigs and chickens.
I too was going to say something snide and then I had to get over me and remind myself that turkey is on the very short list of things I can actually cook (brining your bird is key!!!). I can bake all day and feel pretty confident, but actual cooking is not my forte.
Turkey is the traditional Christmas dish in Brazil. Christmas without turkey would be weird here in Brazil, but then it was probably her family that cooked it. I really don’t see a problem with her not knowing how to do it though…
Kaiser, go for it if you have a good spot. It’s fascinating, and you grow attached pretty quickly. So, I have to wonder, why only one hive? That makes no sense, usually you keept at least three in case desease or parasites struck or your hive doesn’t make it through the winter….
We have a friend with one hive and he hasn’t had any issues. I never thought of that.
I was actively discouraged to keep just one, but maybe it’s a different bee keeping culture with you guys. Still it’s an amazing hobby and bees are *so* awesome, I have no words!
If she is so environmentally “aware” (caring about pollinator extinction)
how can she deal with an husband who claimed he’d vote for trump? I can’t abide a fb “Friend” who supports trump- how can she be married to one with all her environ/organic talk?
Considering her stance on ice cream I’m not surprised that turkey is an issue for her.
Pecan pie? (I agree it’s delicious)
Husband is an executive chef, I a pastry chef, and can you believe that until two years ago neither of us had cooked a whole turkey. When we attempted to, we forgot to remove the gizzards, and they cooked inside a plastic bag in the turkey! We don’t tell our employees that story 😉
What you did, not removing the gizzards, is pretty common! If you’ve never done a whole chicken you can do the same thing also with the neck, liver, gizzard and heart.
My mom did that! And she stuffed the turkey too. My aunt will never let her forget it
My entire family (aside from my brother) are immigrants. None of us know how to cook a turkey. We LOVE Thanksgiving but…we do chickens instead.
Same (expect for us would be Some of our spouses) we do pernil or ham or chicken too!
Haha, Puerto Rican here, we did two chickens with a side of rice and beans!!
Immigrant here, Don’t know how to do most of the Thanksgiving fare ( Or why would anyone want to do anything with sweet potatoes or pumpkin for that matter.. Dear God!) I’ve learned to do the Mac&Cheese but outside of that and weird spins on potato/broccoli salads I’d say for my household we truly don’t do holidays with the American Fare … which then leaves our S.Os to whine/grumble/produce things that only they eat ( aforementioned pies, cranberry sauce the casserole that looks to be splooge drenched?)
To be fair my mom does a good turkey but we all sorta go for the pinneaple ham/pernil , cause it goes better with the sides we end up making ( lots of Rice and beans/ plantains/ flan/guava this and that empanadas, etc etc)
I love turkey, but I’m with you on the sweet potatoes, pumpkins and cranberry. Yuck!
I’m meh on cranberry sauce in general, but I recently discovered one way that it’s absolutely revolting: when you mistake it for strawberry jam, spread it on toast and take a big bite, expecting strawberry.
Do not recommend.
Not only does it not taste quite right, your whole family will laugh at you when you whine about that horrible new brand of strawberry jam. (Not to mention the short period of panic you experience when they say there WAS no new brand of strawberry jam and you have to rush to the fridge to figure out what the hell you just ate.)
My sister-in-law’s parents retired out of state a couple of years ago, so our family invited her two sisters to have Thanksgiving with us. The sisters are in their 30s and they were laughing that it was the first Thanksgiving that they had ever had with turkey and all of the traditional trimmings. Their parents are originally from China, so their mom always makes a fabulous Chinese dinner with all of the trimmings.
I don’t know what salad ingredients she could be picking in a northeast garden this time of year..oh, I really don’t care..I wonder why she’s interviewed so often though
Her face looks different. Smaller eyes (facelift or something?) and apple cheeks.
YES! I thought I was crazy! I’m like eyes lips something something
Facelift? Are you crazy? She is 36!
Ok but what else makes your eyes look smaller? She definitely did something.
I once heard a model say that THE MOST insecure people in the world is a group of models in one room. They are all in a panic about something they do have and shouldn’t, or don’t have and should, compared to the others. Crazy!!!
I have cooked all but one of the turkey dinners I’ve eaten, for both sides of my family, for the past three years. If you cook regularly, it’s not that much more difficult to roast a turkey – what is really difficult is nailing down the timing so that everything is hot at the same time.
Some strategies to make things easier:
-use a digital thermometer with a probe that can go into the oven, and an alarm (this is a lifesaver)
-take out the turkey’s backbone and flatten it out (called spatchcocking the bird) so it can fit flat on a roasting pan. That way you can also roast veggies in the oven because it’s more space -efficient and cooks more quickly
-we have a dual-zone oven and it is amazing, though it’s not as much a big deal when you’re generally roasting everything at about the same temperature.
-rest the turkey for around 20 minutes after roasting so the moisture doesn’t run out- this will give you a chance to throw the other things that need to be hot, like your carrots or brussel sprouts, in the oven, and to make the gravy.
-make a time schedule for the day-of, and pre-make things or delegate tasks. Unfortunately my immediate family is completely useless in the kitchen but my husband is a ringer. There’s tons of good cooks in my husband’s family but lately they’re preoccupied with childcare – if they find themselves with a behaving child around dinnertime we throw a task their way; if not, things take a little longer and no one complains.
Happy thanksgiving, all!!
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Happy Thanksgiving!! 🙂
Indigenous person here. I do NOT celebrate Thanksgiving. It’s tied to colonialism and the deconstruction of a thriving Indigenous population pre-contact and it’s just a yearly reminder of the first illegals to come here that my People welcomed with open arms only to watch them attempt to commit cultural genocide.
It’s particularly relevant this year with everything happening in North Dakota and the struggle against armed security against a peaceful people fighting for what’s rightfully theirs. Especially after the company MOVED the pipeline without protest from the Brismarck area due to their residents’ concern about the clean water.
So it’s okay to move a pipeline based on a few white people, but you’ll butcher maim and use military forces against People who have been here since time immemorial fighting for the same clean water.
#disgusted
#NODAPL
✊🏾 Stay Righteous Sis! (Just listened to Another Round Interview the professor behind Native Appropriations discuss her time with the Protectors and everything that’s happening there! Horrible but also Inspiring the love and perseverance of the people there!)
My best wishes from Canada and I hope that this mess is resolved in your favour Tania. It makes me so upset to see it on the news that I can barely watch.
Yeah, I can see why you wouldn’t want to celebrate. Pilgrims take your land, but hey, here’s some turkey! Effed up
Totally agree. I have never celebrated Thanksgiving and it kind of disgusts me how people say it’s their “fav holiday”…do they not know the history behind it???
I saw a protester had an arm amputated. I’m disgusted. I abhor state violence against peaceful protests. Shameful stuff happening.
No real thoughts on the turkey issue. But can we address her FACE in that thumbnail that shows on the homepage? Holy fillers Batman! Honestly, if you cover her hair up, I could almost think it was Caitlyn Jenner with the amount of work done.
You are OBSESSED with Gisele! Is this news?