Thanksgiving in France

First off, I have a big, fluffy cat sitting on me while I'm writing this. It makes me happy. But that's not the subject of this post.

The subject is just what one might guess from reading the title: my experience of Thanksgiving in a country that doesn't actually celebrate the holiday.

We decided to have a Thanksgiving party on Friday night, not on the actual day but I really didn't even notice because I was working and there is not Thanksgiving stuff in the stores here, only Christmas decorations.

I did go shopping with my American friend in the Auchan (their version of Wal-Mart) for the supplies for the next day. I didn't buy a lot but I scoped out the things available in preparation for the next day. (It's amazing how many essential Thanksgiving ingredients they don't sell here. Of course, they're probably shocked by the miniscule size of our stores' cheese sections so I can't say too much.) I was off the next morning until 4 so I had plenty of time to run back to the store.

Well, Friday morning came and went while I slept. Then I woke up to the unceasing ringing of the telephone. You know those days when everything seems to go wrong but ultimately ends up ok? That was Friday.

It was Anne trying to get me to answer the phone to let me know there were two cases of swine flu in Marie's school and I needed to go pick her up. Ok, but when was I going to get the shopping done?

I panicked a little but then realized that there is a perfectly decent grocery store right across from the school. So, after I picked Marie up from her masked schoolteacher (it was creepy), we went to the Casino grocery store. Marie was very helpful in attempting to carry the flour for me and we found everything pretty quickly. I was really excited! I had to get creative with a few ingredients but it all worked.

Then we got home, ate lunch, and Marie took a nap. I used this time to cut apples for the Apple Pie Cake and grate a lot of Cheddar cheese. Then I picked up Paul and set to work on the real cooking.

You must keep in mind that this was the first time I had made any of the things I was planning or had even really cooked any real meal at all. I can bake, so I wasn't too worried about the cake, but I was freaking out a bit about the rest.

The putting together of the cake and the macaroni and cheese were much easier than I expected. But I couldn't work the oven. It's complicated and the instructions are in Italian. Why? I have no idea.

So I called Anne. She was supposed to be home at 6:30, an hour before our guests arrived. It was 7:15, I couldn't work the oven, the mac and cheese needed to bake for 45 minutes, and she wasn't there yet. Yikes!

And then company arrived. I had never met them before and I was in a kind of frenzied state of cooking and stressing out. It was slightly awkward but not too bad. Anne and Julien showed up pretty soon after and we got dinner figured out. We spent the evening comparing me to different Desperate Housewives. I started as Susan but I didn't burn the mac and cheese so I ended up being Bree.

We had turkey cutlets with gravy that tasted like brown, wet flour, packaged mashed potatoes, corn, really good green beans that Anne made (I couldn't get ingredients for green bean casserole but it tasted almost the same), my mom's and grandma's recipe for macaroni and cheese, and the cake. I was pretty surprised that it turned out pretty good and there was so much food I was stuffed and we had leftovers.

All in all, it turned out to be a really pleasant evening. I'm also more confident in my ability to grocery shop and to cook, but I still like baking better. You cannot believe how amazing the smell of nutmeg, cinnamon, and vanilla are after not smelling them for months. The mac and cheese was definitely my favorite and almost tasted like Mama's, but I can not wait until Christmas to eat the real thing with my family!