Thanksgivings

November 21st, 2017

We have an awful lot to be thankful for this fall, so we decided to celebrate Thanksgiving as often as we could.  It is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and we've already had two Thanksgiving dinners.  More to come, perhaps.

Actually, I am reminded again of thirty years ago, the year Glenn and I lived in England.  In the weeks before Thanksgiving, I felt some pangs of homesickness, sorry that not only would I not be celebrating my favorite holiday, but that I would actually have to attend class that day and go about all of my daily tasks.  I had a number of British friends who were curious about many aspects of American culture, and they often asked me questions about styles, laws, education, slang, and, yes, holiday celebrations.  Thanksgiving was no different.  I was thrilled when a group of them decided that they wanted to celebrate an authentic American Thanksgiving on the weekend after and wanted me to come as their authenticity consultant.  (I would also bring a dish since it was a pot luck.)  Great, I figured, I would have a Thanksgiving celebration after all.  

Soon after that, I received an invitation from an organization called American Friends of Cambridge University.  It's mostly American alums of Cambridge in the US, but some live in the UK and host various events for current Cambridge students throughout the year.  They would host a gala Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday afternoon.  Wow, two Thanksgivings!  

Then, I got word that my college, Churchill, would be hosting a Thanksgiving dinner  in one of their small dining halls on Friday for their American students, complete with all of the fixings.  Never in the US had I had three Thanksgivings.  But in England I would!  

They were all lovely celebrations, but there was sort of a funny twist at the pot luck dinner hosted by my friends.  One of them showed up with a huge pumpkin and asked me what he should do to make a pumpkin pie.  I think, if asked that question today, I might be able to provide an answer that would involve obtaining sugar pumpkins, steaming, pureeing, etc., but at the time, my only response was, "In the US, pumpkins come in cans." 

Well, that was a long preface to my descriptions of the various Thanksgivings we will have in France.  I knew that I wanted to make something like a Thanksgiving dinner just for the three of us, but couldn't really manage all of the work on a weeknight, so we had our Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday night.  I knew where to get most of the ingredients---even found crispy onions at the Lidl to put on top of steamed green beans---but I was stumped by cranberries.  Cranberries are all over France, dried, in juice, etc., just not fresh.  I got on the internet and identified a store in the Marais called, well, Thanksgiving.  Glenn stopped by on Saturday and scored two bags of fresh cranberries.  He reported the place was full of mostly crummy foods that American expats might crave---Lucky Charms, Betty Crocker frosting in a can, that kind of thing.  But they did have everything that someone might want to cook Thanksgiving dinner.  

Since it was just the three of us, I did not roast a turkey but instead decided to confit duck breasts and turkey breast filets.  I made leek stuffing with cubes of Poilane pain au levain and Eric Keyser baguettes.  I also got sweet potatoes, but we'll have those later because we already had enough food with the turkey and duck, the stuffing, the cranberries, and the green beans. 

No pie for dessert, just chocolate mousse.

Then last night, we went for dinner at a restaurant that I had been wanting to go to since we arrived in Paris, Verjus.  I heard that they were serving a Thanksgiving-themed prix fixe this week, so I made reservations for the three of us.  It was fantastic.  It was probably the best meal we've had in France so far.  We started with several small appetizers, just a few bites each:  melon with caviar, rebluchon fondue with endive, rabbit terrine with pistachios, an onion and grape tarte, and a cod fritter.  The next course was beets sliced thinly like noodles, cooked slightly, and served with hazlenut butter and homemade yogurt.  Then we had pan-seared cauliflower with sourdough croutons, capers, and lemon sauce.  Then came the main course, turkey leg confit, roasted turkey breast, sage and thyme stuffing, French-style mashed potatoes, and sauteed brussels sprouts, all accompanied with a turkey jus and cranberry relish.  For dessert, we had pumpkin cake and rosemary ice cream, with thyme dust.  Oh, and they also threw in a tiny ice cream cone before dessert and a tiny financier with berry jam after dessert. Every course was truly outstanding.  We didn't get home until after midnight (on a school night), but certainly no regrets here.

Not sure yet what our plans are for Thursday.  We may have another Thanksgiving in store.

(Update:  Kate found out that her school will have a Thanksgiving meal for lunch on Thursday, and she has also volunteered to bring Thanksgiving dinner to her religious ed class Thursday evening.)