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Published: October 23rd 2008
Thijs (Tice) The Serial Pumpkin Killer
Thys is from the Netherlands and carries a big knife!One of the things that I missed during my 1.5 years of travel was the family get togethers when we made turtle soup. In stating turtle soup, the first question from everyone's mouth is, "you make soup from turtle?" I then say yes, but the turtle is optional. The soup is made of about 17 ingredients and really is a vegetable soup with chicken, beef and turtle if available or desired. Most people who have never had it, describe it as being like chili. I am not sure how to describe it. For me it is just turtle soup!
Because of the enjoyment I gained from this event I decided to attempt the event where I live now in Denver. I had never had sole responsibility of the turtle soup project, as at home I was mainly a stirrer or a vegetable peeler. Essentially there, I was just told what to do and obeyed. I really do not know of anyone that grew up eating turtle soup, that does not still like it. People that I introduce to turtle soup however are often of the mind that it is just ok. They do not have the drug-like addiction for it
like I do. I think most people like it, but are not willing to sacrifice their first born for it, as I would.
Being nearly Halloween, I thought a pumpkin carving competition might be fun as well. Pretty much all events need to have some sort of competition don't they? Also I figured it would be cool to attempt to make home made ice cream. The first batch of home made ice cream that I attempted about 2 months ago was truly a disaster, but in consultation with my mom, she concluded there needed more salt added to the ice to yield the desired "frozen" ice cream. In my first attempt the ice cream never froze and we drank the ice cream. Some people have told me I am going to make a good wife someday. I do enjoy cooking I must admit, but we all know the woman's place is in the kitchen not the man's. Men are to busy out killing animals and gathering wood so the woman can survive to have babies. We all know a woman can not survive without a man.
I contacted a few people and the interest seemed to be there
so it was go time. Time to "get her done" or "get her did" as some people might say in the more rural places of this great nation of ours! The first annual "Turtle Soup and Ice Cream Making, Pumpkin Carving Festival" was going to be a reality! I searched up, down and around for a cast iron kettle, but had no luck. I saw several that I liked on the internet, but they were in Louisiana and I was in Denver. I needed it in two days. I was not willing to drive to Louisiana to pick up a cat iron Jambalaya Pot so I did some brainstorming. I was concerned the direct heat on my big, but thin-walled stainless steel pots would result in burnt soup. The big cast iron kettles we used back home had thick cast iron walls, which reduced the likelihood of burning as it distributed the heat more evenly. I decided to put water in one pot and then place the pot with soup inside the pot with water. Essentially you would have a boiling water jacket around the soup pot. This would result in more uniform heating and a decreased likelihood of burning.
That was the best plan I could come up with, so we went with it. You got have a plan!
On Saturday, the day before the event, I spent about 5 hours trying to find the right propane burner and grinder. I finally found them after visiting at least 6 stores. I also stopped at Pets R Us looking for a turtle, but they only had small ones so I decided to not put turtle in the soup. I mounted the grinder on a board and decided to check the burner first thing Sunday morning to make sure there were no gas leaks.
The big day was finally here and Mark and I went into action. He was on cleaning duty predominantly and I on soup duty. At times I thought back to my mom's favorite saying on days like these, "we are never going to make it." I enlisted Mark to help in peeling potatoes, but after seeing his peeling technique, I quickly realized it was better he continue with his vacuuming duties as I could peel 4 potatoes to his 1 with my left hand. I thought of Aunt Robin's potatoe peeling abilities as she could
peel 4 or more potatoes to my 1 with her left foot. It's a lot different organizing something like this. I was use to being told what to do.
Well Mark did wonders with the house that was declared a disaster area only 3 hours earlier and I had all the vegetables ground and ready to be put on the fire by 11 am. This was an hour later than planned, but I was still happy with the result. People started arriving around 1 and I immediately put them to work. I love bossing people around as I am sure the participants soon realized! I thought they would enjoy seeing things like hamburger, chilli beans, pork and beans, and chicken being ground up, so I put them on that duty. Listening to the comments when the mush came through the grinder was quite entertaining. The most common word being "Gross!"
The recipe was for 3 gallons of soup so we had to put some of the soup in a crock pot. Around 3 we got the pumpkin carving going. Thijs, pronounced Tice, from the Netherlands, who was going to stay with Mark and I came with a white
pumpkin. Everyone else had the traditional orange colored pumpkin. Thijs also had a Crocodile Dundee like knife, that cracked me up. At times he would hit his screwdriver like carving tool into the pumpkin with a hammer. I was constantly being entertained by Thijs and wondered what he would do next. Europeans do not celebrate Halloween like we do in the states, so this was all new for the 4 Europeans that attended the party. Kirsten is from Vienna, Austria; Agnes from near Hamburg, Germany; Angelika from Salzburg, Austria; and Thijs from Amesterdam, Netherlands (Holland). It was an international pumpkin carving competition and I could hear the Star Spangled Banner playing in my head as I carved my pumpkin! I began carving my pumpkin towards the end of the competition as there was not space enough at the table for everyone to carve at the same time. I was looking at the other athletes work and knew I could not beat them in pure artistry as I have two left hands and am right handed. I knew the only chance for me to win was by cheating along with a dash of creativity. I had a beer to help spark
Artistic Shot
Can you be artistic taking pictures of ground vegetables? the creativity and started carving. When I pulled out the portion of the pumpkin that's void created the teeth, I saw a tiara. I placed it on top of the pumpkin and saw my only chance of winning. I would create a Princess Pumpkin. I had the creativity element that I sought, but knew that would not be enough alone to beat the stiff competition present. I knew I would have to cheat. I realized we had no judges yet and suggested we get Derrick's little girls to judge the competition. Derrick is a neighbor of ours who has two little girls. This was the only chance for my artistically inferior entry to win. Surely two little girls would pick the Princess Pumpkin! The pumpkins all were very unique. Casey's pumpkin, who I referred to as the Grandpa Pumpkin had no teeth, but the biggest smile of all the entries. Mark put hairlike slits on the side of his pumpkin and had a pumpkin that had nasal drainage. Kirsten had a great traditional pumpkin that I referred to as the Batman pumpkin as it's mouth appeared to be the common Batman silhouette. Angelika's pumpkin was good as well, but she
carved it upside down. When the pumpkin was right side up the opening to the pumpkin was against the ground. She then decided to carve a face on the other side of the pumpkin as well. I called her pumpkin Two-Faced. Agnes's pumpkin had a star for a nose which looked great. Tammy's pumpkin even had ears carved into the side. CC had the most artistic pumpkin, carving a cat's face. It was quickly evident she would win the competition, so I instituted a time limit forcing her to stop carving before she was done. I was afraid even with her partially completed pumpkin she might still win top prize. All the pumpkins were quite interesting and unique.
The girls came over with another girl friend of theirs and they all picked a different pumpkin. I needed to do more cheating and emphasized to the one little girl that my pumpkin was a Princess Pumpkin and she changed her vote to mine and I won the competition to the the disdain of the other participants. We all had a great time carving the pumpkins and all the pumpkins were well done and anyone of them could have won. But
Agnes trying to grind a tin can?
Time to give Agnes some instructions. they didn't! It was mine that WON! Yipppiiieeee! 😊
After the pumpkin carving we cleaned things up and got the soup ready. I put a partial stick of butter in the soup in honor of master turtle soup maker Betty, a lady back home that always insisted that the butter goes into the soup. I use to have fun arguing with Betty about the need for the butter and the health benefits of not including it. We transferred some of the the soup in the crockpot to the pot outside and vice versa to get a uniform flavor in both pots.
We had put the homemade ice cream on about 30 minutes earlier and it had frozen this time due to the addition of copious amounts of salt on the ice. I had realized though, while walking around in the kitchen and seeing the vanilla extract on the kitchen counter that I had left it out of the ice cream. Oops! Maybe no one would notice even though vanilla extract is a key ingredient in make vanilla ice cream.
Derrick and his kids came over and we all ate the soup, the wings, the ribs and had
ice cream and chocolate chip cookies for desert. We had made the cookies earlier in the day as well. I was really impressed with everyone, as everyone was extremely helpful, fun and had great attitudes. I must admit it was a little stressful at times for me trying to organize everything, which I guess is how mom must have felt all those years. Albeit with the great attitudes of the participants everything seemed to go just fine and I hope we can do this again next year.
If your interested in making turtle soup a 3 gallon recipe for turtle soup follows:
5 pounds potatoes
1.6 pounds cabbage
1/2 cup onions
0.2 pound carrots
0.4 stalks celery
0.4 pound green peppers
25.6 ozs pork and beans
25.6 ozs chilli beans
19.2 ozs catsup
19.2 ozs chili sauce
19.2 ozs barbecue sauce
32 ozs tomatoe juice
0.5 oz pickling spice
0.25 lb beef roast
3 pounds chicken
0.75 lb turtle
0.5 lb hamburger
grind all ingredients start all raw vegetables cooking in water to cover cook meats ,saving juice except turtle juice. I cook hamburger in water,then drain to throw away fat in water add all beans and
meats about 3 hours later. sauces and juices with meat add chilli powder to season. cook pickling spices in water,drain,add water -cook about three times adding water not spices to soup cook another two hours or until you think it taste right can substitute chicken and hamburger for turtle ENJOY!!!
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Beth Baalman
non-member comment
Nice Photography
Great photography Dave! Next year when we are cooking the pig I would like to be on the beer drinking team since you have the picture taking under control. By the way, you never mentioned how your ice cream tasted without the vanilla.