Thanksgiving on Wednesday
As promised, here are some photos of the meal (as documented by my host family).À table!/Time for dinner!
Please observe the different plates on the table. The larger white ones were brought out specifically for this occasion. They call them “American plates” because they’re so dang big. :o) (Really, it's just the cultural difference between having the whole meal at once and having courses.)
Oh, and the menu was as follows:
Main dish -- Ham Noodle Casserole
Side dishes -- Green Bean Casserole, Mashed Potatoes, Cranberry Sauce, and Dinner Rolls
Dessert -- Banana Bread
It wasn’t exactly what I’d initially envisioned (just try finding stuffing or canned pumpkin in France, or in Cavaillon at least!), but I was pleased with it in the end.
Serving the food:
"Eating American":
And just for fun, here’s one from when I made cookies last week. This first batch was a little burnt. I’m still perfecting the execution of this recipe in France.
Anyway, the meal went well, even if it wasn’t a traditional Thanksgiving meal in most respects. However, it was great to get to celebrate it -- even if it was turkeyless, pieless, stuffingless, and on Wednesday.
posted by Kate @ 4:47 AM
5 Comments:
Félicitacions, Kate! You are so cool.
So your family "liked" it... did they have any comments about how it's different from French food or anything?
We missed you so much here in NE. Read Marilyn's review of the day on Nate and Jessica's blog... she covered just about everything that happened at 2115. (We are gonna have to get Malarky... because that is pretty darn fun)
I chuckled at your observation about having Thanksgiving with none of the trappings. Which just goes to show that Thanksgiving is not only about the food -- it's family and thankfulness -- no matter what day of the week or what the menu is!
The pictures were great!
--Mom
P.S. Their table looks rectangular -- am I right?
MOM -- Yep. Rectangular.
ANNE -- Good question! The biggest difference, as I mentioned, is that the French have courses (i.e. salad, then main dish, then bread & cheese, then dessert/fruit(!), then coffee). Anyway, let me go through the dishes one by one.
-Ham Noodle Casserole: not terribly abnormal, but not normal either. Cheddar isn't common here (no grated cheddar available) so I had to buy sliced cheddar and chop it up. They also don't sell condensed soup in a can but ready-made soup, so I had to improvise just a little on that ingredient.
-Green Bean Casserole: They really liked this one (except for the five-year-old who really disliked it). As for the “French fried onions” that are sprinkled throughout, they, of course, simply call them “fried onions” and, like French fries or French toast, find it funny that we go to the trouble to give the French the credit for them.
-Mashed Potatoes: They are familiar with these although I don't think they have them often because side dishes, as such, only sorta exist.
-Cranberry Sauce: The family was totally confused that there was something fruity and sweet alongside the salty dishes. (They thought I'd accidentally put the dessert out with the rest of the food.) The French* are also not terribly familiar with cranberries. The only cranberries I could find in the store came in a jar and were sour. Secret ingredient = SUGAR.
-Dinner Rolls: Of course, the French like their bread. The only dinner rolls I found at the store were probably about as big as a McDonald's cheeseburger, so they were well accepted. Had they been more "normal", I think I would've gotten weird looks.
-Banana Bread: While I called it "bread" I also called it a "cake" because the idea of sweet bread is somewhat foreign to them. The opposite thing happened to me early on when they presented a "cake" for dessert and I mentally said, "oh, you mean BREAD".
[-Pumpkin Pie or Bread: I was really bummed that I didn’t get to make either of these (no canned pumpkin!) because the French* are completely unfamiliar with pumpkin being used to make sweet dishes. Interesting!]
*These sweeping comments made about “the French” are based only on what I gathered from the French people I talked to. I tried to make a distinction between the things I only talked to the family about and those things I gathered info about from multiple sources.
I have greatly enjoyed the accounts I've read of the festivities at 2115 this year. Thanks so much for sharing the fun family vibe!
Kate, you look SO much like your mom in that last picture. I never saw the family resemblance so clearly before.
Lovely Thanksgiving feast!
-RT
Kate,
I notice a theme--less sweets in France. I noticed that myself while in Europe...probably b/c I have such a sweet tooth!
The oven burning I can relate to. We have a gas stove and no thermometer. I basically look at the flame and then babysit whatever is inside. I have ruined at least 3 or 4 granola batches.
Love the photos. You look beautiful!
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