Thanksgiving blog: A big succes + "French Pecan Casserole"

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone back home (although a day late)! Wow, what an experience I (we, Ashley too) had! The night before we prepared 3 beautiful pies…then I was up at Ashley’s house at 7 a.m. before work started simply to clean (elbows deep) the turkey, and prepare the stuffing. Our only work obligations were to take the children to school in the morning and lunch time. So after dropping them off at school we returned to Beatrice’s house (where Ashley works) to stuff the turkey. I have never done this before, and the turkey was 13 KILOS, a.k.a approximately 28 pounds! It was massive. We ordered it from the butcher and when Ashley went to pick it up she said they were burning off the feathers and getting ready to gut off the head! WOW. Anywho….needless to say, buying a turkey in France is not like walking into Albertsons in the States and buying a seran wrapped turkey.
We worked vigorously for an hour, putting the turkey in at 10:45 a.m. and continuing to prepare the rest of the dishes. For some reason, I was not feeling well at all during the day, and had ZERO apetite, so that was not fun….but I did my best to stay enthusiastic. Ashley got the kids from school while I continued cooking and making the kids’ lunch. Once we took them back to school it was basically a chaotic afternoon and evening. I brought 3 dishes over to my house to put in the oven (since the 28 lb turkey was in her oven). After a failed attempt once at my Grandma’s sweet potatoes, I decided to try it one more time, so we bought a few more potatoes and I used a bit different technique, and the 7 big ones I made came out well (at least to the eye). Side note: EVERYTHING we made looked yummy, but we had NO IDEA how any of it was going to taste until it was time for everyone to bite into the dinner. Because all the dishes are perfectly displayed, etc, that you can’t bite into it for a taste test, because it’d ruin the presentation! We also found ourselves being chemists in the kitchen….because in France there are ingredients that do NOT exist. Such as: brown suger, corn syrup both light and dark…and these were essential ingredients for the pies…so we had to produce a simple sugar by boiling it over the stove, etc. We looked up substitutions on the internet and COULD HAVE used molasses as a substitute for brown sugar but that doesn’t even exist in France…haha. So…not only was it our first time ever hosting and making Thanksgiving dinner, but it was in a foreign country where ingredients don’t even exist!
So at my house I made the potatoes, another dish of extra stuffing and the green bean casserole. ANOTHER obstacle I had was the ovens here….taking a burned dish to realize that the oven is set to Celsius degrees, and not Farenheit…so once again being resourceful, I looked up the conversion rates of degrees on the internet, and found out that when my recipes say 350 degrees, it is REALLY 180 degrees on the ovens here…and of course every oven is different, so it was really a trial every time we put something in the oven, if it would come out perfect or a bit crispier than wanted. Ashley and I took about a 90 minute break to be alone, relax, shower and get all dressed up for the evening. Neither of us have slept much in the last 3 nights, so I was exhausted, didn’t feel very well, plus overwhelmed with the meal. When I returned to Beatrice’s house it was really fun the rest of the night! We decorated the dining room and it looked gorgeous! Ashley found some table clothes that looked really nice, and we used candles and fall colored berries and flowers. I found the idea to use little pears as place settings. I stuck a toothpick in each pear and taped a small strip of paper with everyone’s name on it. The kids had little turkey place settings that I made a few days ago. They sat at the bar just next to the dinner table. Beatrice’s kitchen was wonderful for cooking and setting out the food, and it was nice to be able to have the kids at their own table. She has a great kitchen, perfect for preparing a lot of food and entertaining. She was even running around helping us clean up and set everything out. She let us use her fine china and wine glasses and she even sneaked away to put on her pretty black cocktail dress so she was dressed up like Ashley and I. It was really fun. Then she got her American flag and hung it outside the balcony in front of the house! It was really cool. The family was very enthusiastic about celebrating the American holiday. Beatrice’s 2 little girls even dressed up in little cowgirl costumes! Then my family arrived and everyone (16 people) gathered into the kitchen to watch Ashley carve the turkey. Oh man…we were so curious/worried how it was going to turn out because it was a big debate all day long how long we’d keep it in the oven (28 lbs, no thermometer in France, + the temperature difference in the oven). But it was PARFAIT!!! Beatrice’s mother was right next to Ashley to inspect the turkey and her word was final, “C’est bon, c’est parfait, c’est impeccable!” And she was sooo right. The turkey was amazing! The meat was just perfect, not too dry or too moist, just the right white and yummy brown meat too. And all the adults agreed it was cooked just right and could not have been taken out of the oven at a better moment. So, I won’t lie, it was by pure accident that our turkey came out as well as it did! Haha. Ashley and I were sooo excited, especially seeing everyone’s reaction to our turkey. Before eating, we took some photos and then Ashley and I told the Thanksgiving story, both in English and French. We fed the kids first (well actually the parents did since we were hosts and officially not working, ha). The kids mostly ate the turkey and mashed potatoes, along with some corn, and the sweet potatoes. Later they all shared a big plate with pieces from the 3 pies. The adults ate just after, and I explained to them that there are not ‘courses’ during Thanksgiving really, that we all just pass the food around and pile anything we want on our plates at one time. It was funny to see everyone up at the buffet/bar picking and choosing their food, eating American style and not like what they’re used to. It was also cool to have them all asking me what each dish was, what was inside, etc. I saw LOTS of smiles and that felt good. Jerome and Virginie were ‘open minded’ and tried everything I think. The grandmother liked trying everything too, and that was great coming from an older woman who has cooked for a long time and never had a Thanksgiving dinner before. We had fun conversations, and Ashley, Kirsty and I randomly broke into song….Mary Poppins, The Sound of Music and Wizard of Oz. The ‘vibe’ at dinner was a lot different than during a French meal. It was a bit more relaxed and loud, since everyone could walk up to the bar and take any food they wanted, at any time…I even saw them hesitate at first and then I said “No, go ahead! No courses tonight, just eat as you like!” And several conversations circulated around the table throughout the dinner. It was a bit fast in the sense that we didn’t eat until 8:30 pm because of everyone working that day, and last minute preparations…and then the little kids were getting cranky and tired, so that was a bit unfortunate. It wasn’t like eating at 3 pm, taking time, hanging out for hours afterwards and eating more pie at 9 pm. Haha. So it was a LONG 2 days ending with a 2 hour dinner and then everyone off to bed. But we had a good time, and got lots of compliments. There are lots of leftovers of course too. As far as the meal goes, the turkey tasted great, the sweet potatoes were not AS good as my grandma’s but tasted good and everyone liked them, the green bean casserole and waldorf salad were yummy, cran salad and baked brie w/pecans yummy too. The stuffing was very good too, not perfect but had a good flavor. The apple pie was definitely the BEST of the 3 pies. It was the pies that only had a slightly different flavor or texture to it…because of the substitution of ingredients. The pumpkin pie tasted as it should but was a bit more flimsy and less thick and firm inside (noticeable only when you cut the slices). The pecan pie looked amazing, and actually tasted amazing too, it was just that when we cut it, it didn’t come out in well defined pieces. Haha. So Ashley and I came up with the new name, “French Pecan Casserole”. Everyone loved the desserts though, and we think Joe (Beatrice’s husband) ate it all by this morning (the day after) for breakfast!

So, I know this blog is really long, but I just wanted to write this all out, more so for myself so that I will always remember my first Thanksgiving in France, first time doing it myself, and the French families’ first Thanksgiving EVER! I missed my family, and the day definitely got frustrating for me at times, and when my parents called I felt bummed out at first….but then once we started the festivities and after seeing how gorgeous our food and table was, I felt better. Ashley and I worked our butts off! And I WILL SAY, that Ashley knew more about preparing the turkey and some of the dishes, more than I did. And I told her that obviously! She should take more credit than me, but she told me that she would not have been organized enough to pull it off, and so the 2 of us made a great team. We planned this weeks in advance, and no matter how prepared we thought we were, I was still taking trips to the grocery store even the DAY OF…haha. But oh well, now I have a new appreciation for my mother and grandmother and aunts! And it was good to have a friend to do it with, because the next time I host the holiday I will have a VERY GOOD IDEA of how to make it work! She and I both got teary eyed a bit during the meal, but it was just bitter sweet. I missed my family and the whole ambiance of the day in America…but I am proud of how it turned out!