By Jennifer Tietz T’15
Jennifer Tietz, T’15, grew up in the Midwest before graduating from the US Naval Academy with a BS in Mathematics. She also earned a Master of Engineering Management from Old Dominion University. Prior to Tuck, Jen served as Lieutenant Commander and Nuclear Surface Warfare Officer in the United States Navy. At Tuck, she’s active in the Armed Forces Alumni Association (AFAA) and founded Tuck Tastes, a food/gastronomy club.
Eighty pounds of turkey, 35 pounds of Yukon gold potatoes, 18 pounds of sweet potatoes, 16 pounds of Brussels sprouts, 10 pounds of green beans, 35 onions, 16 loaves of homemade bread sliced into cubes for the stuffing, and LOTS of pumpkin puree went into making the food for the 2014 “Tucksgiving” dinner. But a whole lot of love and excitement were the secret ingredients.
In October, I reached out to Sally Jaeger in the MBA Program Office to let her know I’d be happy to have a few students to my house for Thanksgiving. In past years faculty members had students who were unable to travel for Thanksgiving over to their house for dinner, but many of those faculty members were travelling or unable to host this year, and Sally was concerned that students might not have a place to go (though I don’t doubt those in the MBAPO would have tried to host everyone themselves, if it came to that). Since I run a club called Tuck Tastes and have showed much enthusiasm in the past for cooking for the Tuck community, Sally thought that it could be a perfect match. I remember the day we decided we’d do the event. It felt like Christmas had come early, as the opportunity to cook my favorite meal of the year for loads of people, many of whom were international and would be celebrating their first Thanksgiving, was a dream come true.
Thanksgiving is a family event and to have a proper family dinner, we would need a long table. Stell Hall, with its fireplace, warm décor, and chandeliers was a perfect choice. Decorating this enormous room would have been a gargantuan task, so we let the room do most of the speaking for itself by decorating only the table. We adorned the long table with white linen, LED candles, silk leaves, fall gourds, and Tuck green linen napkins held together with custom-made twine napkin rings. The Byrne Dining Hall staff helped us set the table with real silverware, wine glasses, bread baskets, and glass plates. They also set the serving line up with the warming dishes and large utensils. From beginning to end, this was a huge community effort and gave me the opportunity to work with the wonderful staff members who help make Tuck as amazing as it is. Mother Nature did her part and gave us 10 inches of snow to help us celebrate, and to slow my progress between grocery stores!
My mother and I started our preparation the week before Thanksgiving by cutting up the loaves of bread we’d made at a King Arthur Flour baking class into cubes that would dry for the stuffing—about eight pounds total. We also went to the store and bought as many ingredients as we could, concerned that they would sell out of crucial items as the holiday approached. The 
three days leading up to the event were a frenzy of slicing, dicing, sautéing, running back to the grocery store to get more ingredients as our attendee list soared to 80 people, and searching for any refrigeration space we could find to hold prepared food waiting for its turn in the oven. On Wednesday, I prepared solution to brine our three huge turkeys before five of my classmates came over to help peel and slice potatoes, prepare Brussels sprouts, and dice more onions.
On event day, mom and I were up early to begin. We had to get three turkeys in the oven, which involved a lot of driving around town (two of my classmates had left me keys so I could use their ovens). One of the brine bags had sprung a leak, so mom continued her mashed potato preparation while I figured out how to get more than a gallon of brine liquid out of the bottom of my friend’s refrigerator. Once the crisis was averted, I resumed my timeline and we fastidiously prepared, loaded, and transported the food in preparation for a 5 p.m. dinner. The menu was turkey, homemade stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallow topping, green bean casserole, Brussels sprouts with pistachios and cranberries, cranberry port chutney, rolls, and assorted pies with whip cream. We filled 22 large pans with food by using all five burners on my stove and a total of six ovens around town. The setup crew was there at 4 p.m. and helped the event come to life.
By 5:10, around 85 people had arrived and we were ready to pull the lids off the warming dishes. People made it through their first plate quickly and went back for seconds (and some for thirds). We lingered around the table for a few hours, telling stories and sharing what we are thankful for with new friends. Several people told me they will forever remember their first Thanksgiving in Stell Hall. That, and the amazing Tuck community that made it all possible are what I am thankful for this year. I also will forever remember Thanksgiving in Stell Hall as the first (and probably only) time I got to make a family dinner for 85!