Thanksgiving in France - a 3 day event

Many of you may be wondering how did I celebrate the uniquely American holiday of Thanksgiving in France; well, this turkey day was definitely different than any I have experienced before.

For starters, I had to actually work on Thanksgiving – it was just another ordinary day here – quite a strange feeling. But a lot of the students wished me Happy Thanksgiving – it was so darling! I guess my powerpoint presentation about Thanksgiving wasn’t half bad – they were amazed at the amount and variety of food we eat and couldn’t believe that Black Friday actually happens! 

Inside of my cooking box

The cooking box

Secondly, this Thanksgiving was like Christmas day for me. I got a box of cooking utensils from the school that my chef prof/friend hooked me up with! I mean it’s on loan until I leave, but still, I am now well equipped to cook! I’m so pleased!

 Then that night, the school just so happened to organize a wine and chocolate tasting for only 5 euros. Yes, my life is like a movie.

Didier et moi

Pascal, me, Didier

Didier provided the chocolates (some of which I helped prepare) and a local vingnorion from Saint Lothain provided the wine. 

Dark chocolate with caramel

Marron glace - ie the best!

Dark chocolate with dark chocolate ganach

The chocolates were divine –as usual. We had dark chocolate with dark chocolate ganach, dark chocolate with caramel, dark chocolate with fruit, dark chocolate with peanuts, and my absolute favorite – Marron glacé – which are basically candied chestnuts. Absolutely divine and take 12 days to make and quite expensive – but worth every single penny. 

Dark chocolate with fruit

We had a sampling of the La Maison de Rose’s Novelin (Savagnin ouillé), which tasted somewhat like a light Chardonnay. A Macvin du Jura, an Ecole Buissonnière and Vin Paille.

It was very interesting to see how wine drastically affects the taste of the chocolates  - it quite shocking. They paired each wine with a chocolate in order to bring out the best flavor of both. It was a laid back and casual evening that I quite enjoyed.

All in all, I have to say I had a pretty nice non-traditional Thanksgiving Day!

Friday – Feast round 1

After a week of mist and clouds, the sun finally came out Friday and was a bit warmer! So naturally, good day for a motorbike ride. Bernard took me on a quick ride to Dole, the village dating back to the Middle Ages and were Louis Pasteur was born.   

Medieval area  of Dole

It was nice little town and actually had a stoplight! I haven’t seen one of those in quite a while.  The cathedral was gorgeous and the architecture was so intricate and while we toured the inside, the organist was practicing – fantastic acoustics.

We headed back to Bernard and Pauline’s home in Menetru for a delicious dinner.

For the appéro we had olive tapenade pinwheels, an assortment of olives and garlic, pistachios, and Cerdon by Earl Vucher Georges et fils to drink.  Cerdon is similar to a Crémant but pink in color and lighter and less alcoholic content. It was very nice and not too sweet. I highly recommend trying it.

Entrée: Wild Alaskan smoked salmon, fresh shrimp, bellinis (like baby pancakes), and a wonderful dill dip. It was quite a scrumptious assortment of food. Pauline paired the entrée with a nice light and not too sweet Riesling from Alsace.

Plat de résistance: Turkey stuffed with a mixture of cream cheese, lemon, pistachios, onion, and herbs topped with a rich demi-glace sauce. It was very tasty. Side of cubed potatoes topped with Emmental cheese, and fresh green beans cooked in butter and garlic – oh they were divine. Thank goodness for butter! We had a rich and smooth red wine from the Burgundy region. 

Cheese course: Assortment of various French cheeses – but my favorite was the soft Gorgonzola cheese. I have never before had soft Gorgonzola, always had it semi dry and crumbled. It was a new experience and one that I plan to repeat! We also had a red wine from Montepulchiano Italy, which was very nice but very different than a French red wine. It was a bit drier in my opinion.

Dessert:  My favorite part of the meal! Pauline made these wonderful stuffed peaches served with crème cru (a sinfully rich whipped cream). She stuffed the peaches with cognac, peach, almonds, and almond extract and then baked. They were divine. I had to have two!

As you can see, I had a feast before the planned Thanksgiving planned for the next day. Let’s just say, thank goodness for eating pants!

Saturday – Thanksgiving celebration aka Feast round 2

feta with grapes

I was invited to a Thanksgiving celebration in Besançon with fellow Americans, Brits, and French living in France. It was definitely a food soirée  - the American concept of eating a ton on Thanksgiving was not lost in translation. We had a bounty of food. For the appetizer round we had a fruit juice and champagne punch complete with a frozen ring of oranges and cranberries. There was also a goat cheese, basil, onion dip, an olive and sundried tomato dip, little toasts topped with cream cheese and roasted red peppers, as well as feta and grape sticks.

little toasts with roasted red pepper

THE Turkey

Part of the group

For the main course, Rachael (the wonderful host and fellow American) actually found a 10 lb turkey! In France, turkey is eaten at Christmas, and the availability of fresh turkey is extremely hard to find until about 2 weeks from now. We had three types of stuffings, honey, orange, ginger glazed carrots, green bean casserole, yeast biscuits, pecan and whiskey glazed yams and apples, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, and red wine of course!  It was all delicious and so nice to get a little reminder of home cooking!

Apple pie  by Rachael - divine buttery crust

Dessert, oh dessert. We had 6 desserts and 13 people – we were definitely covered.

Red wine we drank

We had my chocolate chess pie, pear walnut bread and then there was a delicious pumpkin and sea salt pie, sweet potato pie, and 2 apple pies plus this was served with a crémant. 

It was an extremely successful and filling evening and thank goodness for leftovers!

So as you can see, although I did not have a typically American thanksgiving, I had quite a memorable one filled with wonderful people and delicious food and drink.