Thanksgiving recap

When we last left off discussing Thanksgiving I had found all of the ingredients. Fast forward to Friday evening and I tackled the 2 desserts (yes, I know that Thanksgiving was Thursday but on this side of the pond it was a regular ole work day). I made a pumpkin pie and the infamous salted caramel cheesecake. I think I finally was able to go to bed about 12:30 a.m. after waiting for both of them to be done baking.

Saturday morning consisted of making the caramel topping for the cheesecake and prepping other dishes. I knew that the beast of a turkey was going to consume the oven for the majority of the day so my plan was to have the green beans and stuffing ready to go in the oven after the turkey was "resting" (until researching cooking times, I didn't even know that this was a part of the whole roasting a turkey experience and that it needed to rest prior to serving).

The turkey, all 22 pounds of it, went into the oven about 1:30 p.m. This was a team effort as I was unable to lift it and get it into the small oven on my own. Once the turkey was in the oven I had a little down time. A short while before the turkey came out of the oven I peeled all of the potatoes and got them cooking.

My assistants, Maëlle and Audray

Making the mashed potatoes wearing my fabulous apron that Grandma made me this summer

The girls helped me out a bit and seemed to be pretty excited about the experience.  Our guests arrived just as the turkey was ready to come out of the oven. James and I attempted more than once to transfer the turkey to a platter and were unsuccessful(no fancy turkey pan and things to lift it out with). This made for a less than amazing presentation of the turkey but other than that everything turned out great.

Our simple table arrangement, using EVERY chair we own

The party of 7 that helped me to celebrate Thanksgiving in France

Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy and green bean casserole (no fancy serving platters in our house yet)

Dessert=pumpkin pie and salted caramel cheesecake

Enjoying the meal

Thankful for these 3 people!

Cousins

 

 

 

 It was the first time I have been responsible for cooking all of the items of the Thanksgiving meal. I was pretty anxious about figuring out the timing and it all turning out alright, so you can imagine my relief when it did. Doing all of the cooking definitely adds appreciation for all that my Mom and Grandma do for the holiday meals. I hope that James and the girls can one day experience a Thanksgiving in the states, until then I am happy to know I am capable of making it happen here too! It is also a bonus to have some leftovers to prolong the day for a little while (and have 2 large bags of turkey in the freezer).