Preparing for Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is one of my favorite holidays of the year. It includes spending time with family, sharing a good meal and relaxing. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, James and I decided to try and bring some of that experience to our home here in France.

The initial plan included my mom sending me many of the ingredients needed that are not easily found here. Due to unforeseen circumstances the connection we had with shipping is no longer available (I will discuss this very sad news in another post).

So that changed the game plan and required me to find most of what I needed here in France. The first step was determining the menu. I wanted to include most of the important items but wanted to try and keep it somewhat simple too. I decided that we would make a turkey, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, and green bean casserole (and we will add some french baguettes to the meal too). For dessert I plan to make a pumpkin pie and a cheesecake (because the Hus can't stand cinnamon)!

Next step, locate the ingredients. The items that are not available in the regular grocery store include: cream of mushroom soup, canned pumpkin, stuffing ingredients, pumpkin pie spice,  and chicken broth. My amazing mom got creative and sent me a large envelope including pumpkin pie spice, a cooking bag for the turkey, seasoning for the gravy and some stuffing.

There is an American store located in Paris and I had visited their website to get an idea of the items available.

After recovering from price shock I created the bare minimum list. The list included: canned pumpkin, mushroom soup and then I wanted some brown sugar (not available in regular stores here) and cream cheese frosting. The last 2 items were a requirement for some cookies I wanted to make to bring to work on Thanksgiving.

I arrived at the store and it was fun to see all of the brands and products so familiar back home. It was not so fun to see the price tags attached to these items.

Items that I purchased (all items were 4 Euros each with the exception of the frosting which was 6 Euros).

I polled a few people to ask how much they think the above items would cost in the states. The general consensus was between $10-15. So you can imagine the pain I felt when I handed over 30 Euros=$38!!!

Now with these items in hand the last thing to take care of was finding a turkey. The same American store sells them for 12.50 Euro/kg (about $80 for a 10 pound turkey) uh, no thank you! We ordered a turkey from the butcher that we usually go to but received a phone call last week stating that he was unable to locate one for us. James then proceeded to call a farm-they told him that the turkeys are usually not ready until December as they plan them for Christmas. After consulting my American co-workers it was suggested to call another grocery store that is often able to order them with a 1 week notice. James was able to do that last week and secured a 5 kg (10 pound) turkey that he could pick up on Tuesday (yesterday).

Yesterday arrived and he received a phone call stating that they were unable to provide a turkey that small and that the smallest turkey available was 10 kg (22 pounds). James called me and asked what I thought and I told him that my main concern was if our oven was large enough to accommodate it. We decided that he would go to the store and look at it and try and guess if it would fit, never-mind that we were going to have enough turkey for 18-20 people and there are only going to be 8 of us!!!

I arrived home yesterday and there was a VERY large turkey in the kitchen. We tested it and it fits in the oven (without much room to spare). So mission accomplished on locating all ingredients!

Sending a great big "HAPPY THANKSGIVING" to all of my family and friends. I hope you have a wonderful day tomorrow! I will be sharing pumpkin cookies with my American colleagues and having an adventure on Saturday as I try to create a Thanksgiving experience here. Wish me luck and if anyone wants to come on over we will have plenty of turkey to share!!!