When I arrived in France Christophe told me he had always wanted to experience an American Thanksgiving...it seemed like a perfect birthday present for him (his birthday was Sunday) so I decided to do the whole shabang. Thanksgiving is a pretty easy meal to make, I figured it wouldn't be too hard.
Here was the menu:
Apps: Baked brie with fig jam (I realize this isn't exactly American but we always have it at our family thanksgiving), and fresh Kale Chips
Dinner: Sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing and turkey. (I realize we were missing regular potatoes and corn - but these people can only eat so much and they had had those two before)
Dessert: Apple Pie seemed like the most logical and American thing to make...but we eat Tart de Pomme (French version of Apple Pie) all the time- so I went with something American they had never had before....Chocolate Chip cookies.
Unfortunately I did not take into account that France does not have the many ingredients that makes Thanksgiving such a simple meal to make. I also did not factor in that I was making 6 separate baked dishes in one tiny european oven...with one oven rack.
Here is a list of things France does not have...and how I compensated:
----Brown Sugar (had to find a Chocolate chip cookie recipe that didn't need it and used regular sugar for my sweet potato casserole)
---Baking Soda (they simply do not bake with this so it was nowhere to been seen in the grocery stores. But I did find Sodium Bicarbonate sold at the Pharmacy!)
---Fried Onions (I actually hand battered and fried fresh onions to use as a topping)
---Condensed Soup (I went to two grocery stores and found some triple mushroom soup, I added chopped mushrooms to thicken it up a bit)
---Chicken Broth (but I found bouillon cubes and made some broth!)
---Bags/Boxes of Stuffing (celery, onions, apples, butter, baguettes and my fresh made broth did the trick for homemade stuffing)
----Cranberries (in any form) (I found some apple sauce that listed cranberries as an ingredient- I put it in a fancy dish and put it on the table for symbolism) (I also mixed some Cranberry juice with sprite for the kids- they promptly spit it out)
----Turkey (we had a chicken - whats the difference anyway?)
---Chocolate Chips (I had to carefully cut up a bar of chocolate into tiny pieces)
---Semi-Sweet Chocolate (I used milk-chocolate)(side-note, Laetitia does not own cookie pans)
Here was the menu:
Apps: Baked brie with fig jam (I realize this isn't exactly American but we always have it at our family thanksgiving), and fresh Kale Chips
Dinner: Sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing and turkey. (I realize we were missing regular potatoes and corn - but these people can only eat so much and they had had those two before)
Dessert: Apple Pie seemed like the most logical and American thing to make...but we eat Tart de Pomme (French version of Apple Pie) all the time- so I went with something American they had never had before....Chocolate Chip cookies.
Unfortunately I did not take into account that France does not have the many ingredients that makes Thanksgiving such a simple meal to make. I also did not factor in that I was making 6 separate baked dishes in one tiny european oven...with one oven rack.
Here is a list of things France does not have...and how I compensated:
----Brown Sugar (had to find a Chocolate chip cookie recipe that didn't need it and used regular sugar for my sweet potato casserole)
---Baking Soda (they simply do not bake with this so it was nowhere to been seen in the grocery stores. But I did find Sodium Bicarbonate sold at the Pharmacy!)
---Fried Onions (I actually hand battered and fried fresh onions to use as a topping)
---Condensed Soup (I went to two grocery stores and found some triple mushroom soup, I added chopped mushrooms to thicken it up a bit)
---Chicken Broth (but I found bouillon cubes and made some broth!)
---Bags/Boxes of Stuffing (celery, onions, apples, butter, baguettes and my fresh made broth did the trick for homemade stuffing)
----Cranberries (in any form) (I found some apple sauce that listed cranberries as an ingredient- I put it in a fancy dish and put it on the table for symbolism) (I also mixed some Cranberry juice with sprite for the kids- they promptly spit it out)
----Turkey (we had a chicken - whats the difference anyway?)
---Chocolate Chips (I had to carefully cut up a bar of chocolate into tiny pieces)
---Semi-Sweet Chocolate (I used milk-chocolate)(side-note, Laetitia does not own cookie pans)
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| A funny picture I snapped of Jean - he was watching me cook |
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| The whole gang thanskgiving-ing |
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| This is Justine's plate of thanksgiving...she took a bit of each thing and claimed she didn't like anything. sigh. Louis did the same |
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| Luckily- the adults actually loved everything! (Yes, I know my marshmallows got a little too crispy) |
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| Everyone said the stuffing was their favorite |
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| This is how the dog relaxes during dessert Overall, and all things considered, the meal went pretty well! Everyone came back over Sunday and we had the left overs for lunch (I've turned them into true Americans!). The funniest part of the meal was that they LOVED the chocolate chip cookies- wouldn't stop talking about how incredible they were. Ha! If only they had had brown sugar...could've blown their minds! |
Wow.... Great job Allie. You can make Thanksgiving for me anytime...
ReplyDeleteWow!! I am very very proud of you. I would love to take some credit but honestly we all know if anything you cook comes out incredible all the credit goes to dad. Good job- girlfriend!
ReplyDelete