Thanksgiving!
Trip Start
Sep 25, 2008
1
15
36
Trip End
Ongoing
Laon,
Picardy,
France
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thanksgiving!
So the three American girls hosted Thanksgiving for all the assistants. Anne, Merima, and I planned out our dishes and went shopping on Wednesday. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to find Turkey or not. Jocelyne lent me some pots, and she and another teacher told me that turkey is only really found around Christmas, otherwise it has to be special ordered from a butcher. We had resigned ourselves to chicken, but as luck would have it, we were able to find a turkey/filet/roast thing. I was glad we didn't make an actual turkey, because a lot of poultry here still has its head at the store, and I definitely could not chop the head off of something. Our menu was roasted turkey, green beans, Grandma Carol's mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with marshmallows, stuffing, and cranberries. Luckily Merima's brother was in the week before, because he brought us a lot of our supplies. For example, marshmallows do not exist in France, plus they really don't eat cranberries either. Oh, and he also brought pumpkin pie filling, so we were able to make two pumpkin pies for dessert. After we were done shopping on Wednesday, we went back to my place to make the pie. It was getting late, so the two girls left while the pie was in the oven. It was actually in the oven about 2 hours. I have come to the conclusion that my oven doesn't work properly. It only seems to work on the broiler setting, which means everything is burnt on the top and not cooked on the bottom.
The next day (Thursday), when I went to take the pie out of the mold I discovered that the crust was still raw. The pie filling was completely cooked, but not the dough. I tried putting it back in the oven, but it didn't seem to do anything. We ended up eating it, and it tasted fine, it just wasn't as crunchy as it should be. Due to the pumpkin pie issue, I was really worried about cooking the turkey. My teacher had given me a Dutch oven, and Jason assured me that it should insulate the food pretty well and cook everything evenly. So I cut up some onions, carrots and potatoes, put them in the bottom of the pan, then I made a rub for the turkey of garlic, rosemary, basil, and olive oil, and put the turkey on top. It looked amazing; I was pretty surprised at myself. I put it in the oven and hoped for the best. It cooked for 2 hours and smelled delicious, and when it was done, it still looked delicious! Miracle! After everyone arrived, around 6:30ish, Anne and I finished up the green beans, potatoes, and stuffing. We ate at around 7, and everything turned out really great. We had to finish the potatoes in the microwave, but other than that everything worked out well. I was pretty proud of myself, hosting my first Thanksgiving. The turkey was moist and delicious, and everything else was good too. Our French thanksgiving was more American than I thought it would be, we had all the traditional dishes. I was very happy with everything. We even had a French person show up for dessert, a friend of Merima's. He enjoyed the pumpkin pie, and as some of you heard, we were all having a good time, chatting and drinking wine. Overall it was a grand success, and proof that I can cook if I put my mind to it.
