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The French Turkey!

A Real American Thanksgiving!

I am happy to report that it is possible to have an American Thanksgiving celebration abroad, but I never would have guessed how challenging this task would actually be. Now that I know, however, I will make sure that I import some necessities and plan far in advance for others. I actually thought that I was pretty on the ball when I ordered my turkey at the end of October, but little did I know the other ingredient challenges that would arise before the big celebration was over. It is a bit disgruntling, although understandable, not to have one's national holidays recognized in the place where we live. Thanksgiving is a regular workday here, and D was actually in Poland this Thanksgiving day. But, determined to maintain our national tradition and pass along some American culture to our daughter, we planned to celebrate Saturday the 18th before Thanksgiving and invited some friends over to celebrate as well. I ordered some books for SA from Barnes and Noble.com on Thanksgiving that have still not arrived, but other than that, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving just like at home! It did not, however, happen easily. Here is the story of my gathering of the Thanksgiving essentials. How I wish I had had Publix to count on for all my Thanksgiving needs!

After hearing horror stories of American ladies picking up live turkeys at the market, I talked with a local French man at the outdoor market in our town, and communicated very clearly about how I needed the turkey to be dead, without the plumes, and without the head. He was very accomodating and promised to have the turkey ready to go in the oven for me on the 17th. I was to pick up the turkey in a different town that had a market on that day as the turkey would be fresh for only a day or two in the refrigerator. I was very happy with my accomplishment of finding someone to supply me with a Thanksgiving turkey and having communicated well with him- in French, of course!

My turkey dilemma on the 17th, however, was a little more complicated. After driving around for 20 minutes to another town and another 10 to find the market, walking around the market looking for the man that I had ordered my turkey from (I had no name, just knew that he had a red truck, not many teeth, and a beret type cap), I finally found him and was so relieved to finally ask for my turkey, but he gave me a blank stare and said, "Today?" Trying to keep my cool, I explained that I had 11 people for dinner the following night and that I needed my turkey. He admitted that he had just forgotten even though he had written down my name and my order on his calendar, and asked if I could pick up the turkey the following day in another town (which is another 30 minute drive). Having no choice, I told him that D would pick it up, and I resumed my day of trying to gather the other necessary ingredients for the Thanksgiving feast. Apparently I am the only person that has ever wanted a turkey at this time of year (the French eat them at Christmas).

In the days leading up to our big celebration on the 18th, I planned to prepare sweet potatoes, cornbread dressing, and cranberry sauce in addition to the turkey. My lovely friends brought the pies, yeast rolls (no French bread for us!), green beans, and potato casserole. Little did I know what challenges lay ahead in the area of getting together all that I needed for a successful Thanksgiving dinner. As I searched my cookbooks for turkey recipes, I found only one and it called for corn syrup, which I found out is unavailable here. So, I switched to another recipe that I found in aCooking Light magazine from last year, but it called for sherry (which I never did find but used white wine instead) and fresh sage which is out of season and unavailable at this time of year (the dried was fine). The sweet potatoes proved not to be too difficult. The French do not eat them much, so they can be difficult to find, but my supermarche usually has a supply of them from Israel. The cornbread dressing, however, was more of a challenge. I went to the store with the French translations of my American ingredients but did not find cornmeal. It seems that although it is supposed to exist here, it is not always readily available. Luckily, my friend had some from the States left over from another friend who has since moved back to the States. She had just enough to whip up a batch for me which I used to make the family cornbread recipe that I grew up eating every year (with apples for a twist-knew you would love that, Abby!). The cranberry sauce would be the crowning glory of my accomplishment i.e. hosting Thanksgiving dinner. My brother-in-law who is a real chef has a magnificent recipe for homeade cranberry sauce that I love! I tried to make it last year with groseilles (which I have since discovered are red currants) since I couldn't find cranberries, but it was not the same. This year I was determined to find cranberries, so off to the fresh produce supermarche I went. They didn't know what cranberries are or canberge which my French dictionary said were the French term, but after several conversations in which I described the size, color, etc, we determined that they are "erreilles" in French, and they ordered them for me to pick up- guess when? That's right Saturday morning. :)

Saturday morning at the Branyon house was quite uncharacteristic as we hurried to get ready and get out of the house in order to pick up the turkey and the cranberries and get back in enough time to have everything ready for dinner at 5. Luckily, Danny found the turkey guy with only the afforementioned description and he did indeed have a huge turkey for us- I think it weighed 11 kilos- that's 22 pounds! I got the cranberries (which, by the way, were a product of the USA) and everything was ready to eat around 6 o'clock amazingly. SA made placemats for everyone with fingerpainted turkeys, and we all sat down to a delightful and delicious Thanksgiving dinner! I think it was delicious, by the time dinner rolled around on the 18th, I had come down with an infection and a virus, so I didn't eat much and quickly got rid of all the leftovers. For a stress free Thanksgiving dinner, I recommend eating in the US with the family and letting them do all the cooking! That is what I have always managed to do until I moved to France. Oh well, as we say in French, "C'est la vie!"