...for eating. Thanksgiving is my absolute favorite holiday and I have never been away from home during the feast. Thankfully, my friends here felt the same urge and necessity to create a meal worthy of an American Thanksgiving. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, 12 of us piled into my friend Meg’s cozy French apartment for a potluck style feast. She had decorated the place beautifully: candles and holly were everywhere- she had placed coffee beans in old jam jars for decoration, which was stunning. As the only fortunate one with an oven, she had the task of making the essentials: sweet potato casserole, cookie dough cheesecake bars, baked apples with confiture du vin (jam with wine), and ice cream coffee punch. In other words- unreal. Other staples included green beans, apple crisp, cranberry sauce which I made, stuffing, brussels sprouts and homemade rolls. We did not, however, have the turkey but made up for this fact with two delicious rotisserie chickens. Let’s be honest, still delicious and not nearly as much work. Our meal started at 4 with the obvious French aperitif, and lasted well into the evening. Wine, Vouvray and cidre complemented the food beautifully as we all went around to say what we were thankful for. The usual comments were made, but something we all said in common: we were thankful for our experience. Sure, it may sound cheesy, but the fact that we were all willing to search high and low to find a simple ingredient that France does not carry is indicative of our commitment to continuing American traditions while in this country. We all discussed how we were thankful for meeting one another, and how lucky we are to be in a fantastic town with other assistants. After the necessary stuffing our faces and our bellies until our pants no longer fit, we did the next best thing: go out to rage and dance. Needless to say, it was a fantastic Thanksgiving.
So, that was Thanksgiving round one. Thanksgiving round two consisted of my friend Meg and I at French mama’s house, cooking Thanksgiving for her and her family. French mama, aka Chantal, very generously bought all the ingredients, (including an 8 pound turkey) for Meg and I to turn into a Thanksgiving feast. We began cooking at 3 pm (we were set to eat at 8pm, aka the French way of eating dinner despite the fact that consuming a Thanksgiving meal that late is almost impossible)- I took on the task of the turkey. I also laughed out loud when I saw the turkey because, if you can imagine, an 8-pound turkey is fairly small by our standards. Chantal and her husband told me they thought it was hysterical that we were going to consume such a large bird (I didn’t tell them that my friend’s family had a 25-pound turkey). Leftovers are not a concept in France, so they did not understand the beauty of making turkey sandwiches for the week following Thanksgiving. With that being said, we made the typical lineup for Thanksgiving, including homemade pumpkin pie, and sat down for a very French Thanksgiving. The bird was not carved at the table, nor did people take seconds- Meg and I laughed afterwards because normally, we have to roll ourselves from the table after Thanksgiving. However, it was super neat to enjoy Thanksgiving, French style.
I have a week and a half left of teaching, then Christmas break! I have no idea where the time has gone- I cannot believe it’s December. My babies are doing well, some better than others (we’ve been doing “what is your name” for 2 months and some still have no idea how to answer), but their cuteness makes up for the fact that english is obviously a struggle for them.
I’m off to Belgium on the 17th until the 22nd, then my parents get here on Christmas Day, so a lot of traveling, eating, and good company will be had.
Happy holidays!
Bisous!!
