Here are some of the common goods waiting for you if you want to come grocery shop in France with me!
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| Foie Gras |
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| Bûche de Nöel |
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| Ferrero Rocher and Kinder=some of the most beloved chocolates |
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| The Kinder Surprise are a BIG hit with the little people. |
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label holidays. Show all posts
Christmas is getting close!!!
Tuesday, December 17, 2013
I was walking around the grocery store the other day and it was the first real sign that Christmas was approaching. I love the Christmas markets here in France but without snow and lots of lights and decorations everywhere it feels a little low on the "wow" factor.
Here are some of the common goods waiting for you if you want to come grocery shop in France with me!
The sight of Christmas makes me oh so happy, especially since we have some VIP visitors arriving right after Christmas!!!
Here are some of the common goods waiting for you if you want to come grocery shop in France with me!
Thanksgiving recap
Monday, December 16, 2013
I know that Thanksgiving feels like forever ago, especially with Christmas just around the corner but I wanted to share a tidbit of our celebration here in France.
This was the 2nd year that I prepared a full Thanksgiving meal and it was a success. While I love to cook and bake, for the big holidays back home I often brought one of the simple items needed, like buns! So to be responsible for the FULL meal is a new role for me!!!
The menu:
Turkey
Mashed potatoes and gravy
stuffing
Green bean casserole
Baguettes (from the bakery)
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
So to most of you back home this seems like a simple menu without much difficulty to execute! Oh so not the case! The first obstacle is to find all of the ingredients! Thankfully prior to returning to France this fall I had a light bulb moment in which I remembered how difficult it was to find ingredients last year. So, thanks to my grandma I returned to France with some of the basic essentials: canned pumpkin, cream of mushroom soup, and stuffing mix.
In spite of having these ingredients, I still had to make a trip to the American store to get a cooking bag for the turkey and also picked up one of the 1-time-use thermometers. To give you a point of reference, had I needed to buy pumpkin or other items, you can guarantee multiplying the cost by about 5 of what you pay for it in the states.
Now for the turkey...last year we learned how difficult it can be to secure a full turkey. Yes turkeys exist in France but they are a typical item for Christmas so to request one a month in advance is not the norm! Thankfully James took care of this and was able to order the turkey from the same store as last year. The cost 50 Euros for 10kg (which is about $70 for 20 pounds). The other interesting factor for the turkey both years is the question of will it fit in the oven?! The answer has been yes, both years, but just barely!
The rest of the preparation went great! The pies and side dishes turned out well! Everyone reports enjoying the meal and there were few leftovers remaining, which is a very good sign!
I of course would love to celebrate this holiday in the US and enjoy having the days off of work to share with family, but I am very grateful that my family here in France joins in my excitement and helps me to celebrate the American holiday!
The menu:
Turkey
Mashed potatoes and gravy
stuffing
Green bean casserole
Baguettes (from the bakery)
Pumpkin pie
Apple pie
So to most of you back home this seems like a simple menu without much difficulty to execute! Oh so not the case! The first obstacle is to find all of the ingredients! Thankfully prior to returning to France this fall I had a light bulb moment in which I remembered how difficult it was to find ingredients last year. So, thanks to my grandma I returned to France with some of the basic essentials: canned pumpkin, cream of mushroom soup, and stuffing mix.
In spite of having these ingredients, I still had to make a trip to the American store to get a cooking bag for the turkey and also picked up one of the 1-time-use thermometers. To give you a point of reference, had I needed to buy pumpkin or other items, you can guarantee multiplying the cost by about 5 of what you pay for it in the states.
Now for the turkey...last year we learned how difficult it can be to secure a full turkey. Yes turkeys exist in France but they are a typical item for Christmas so to request one a month in advance is not the norm! Thankfully James took care of this and was able to order the turkey from the same store as last year. The cost 50 Euros for 10kg (which is about $70 for 20 pounds). The other interesting factor for the turkey both years is the question of will it fit in the oven?! The answer has been yes, both years, but just barely!
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| Comparing size and ready to dig in! |
The rest of the preparation went great! The pies and side dishes turned out well! Everyone reports enjoying the meal and there were few leftovers remaining, which is a very good sign!
February recap
Monday, March 4, 2013
So somehow time has slipped away this past month and I need to catch up with a few of the highlights of the last few weeks.
The beginning of the month was my birthday and James did a fantastic job of making it special. This isn't always easy as I come from a family where birthdays (heck any holiday) is a major celebration!!
He had an idea of what he wanted to get me for a gift and was trying to figure out if he could surprise me or not. He decided that the timing would be a bit difficult to pull off. So a few days before my birthday he suggested that we go to Ikea and he got me the desk I had been looking at for months!
Living in an apartment with limited space means that any time I wanted to do any "office" type work it happened on the couch or the dining table. Neither of which are great to be able to be organized or ultra productive.
Since we have had the desk a month, I can tell you I really love having it!!! It is still in need of some serious organizational system but it will get there, baby steps!
I have had the shelves that are over the desk for months and months, and it was so fun to finally find the perfect spot for them above the desk!
Shortly after the birthday celebration was Valentine's Day. I really hadn't expected to do much in way of celebrating as I had gotten a Valentine's gift early (I will give full details about that hopefully soon). However, I arrived home late on Valentine's Day (as I was teaching at the University) and was completely shocked to walk in the door to candles, music, wine, beautiful flowers and a bracelet! Talk about knock-my-socks off surprised!
February also brought an exciting new creative venture that I am exploring with one of my BFFs. I will share more details on that as soon as I can!
I hope the month was full of love and celebrations for all of you too!!
The beginning of the month was my birthday and James did a fantastic job of making it special. This isn't always easy as I come from a family where birthdays (heck any holiday) is a major celebration!!
He had an idea of what he wanted to get me for a gift and was trying to figure out if he could surprise me or not. He decided that the timing would be a bit difficult to pull off. So a few days before my birthday he suggested that we go to Ikea and he got me the desk I had been looking at for months!
Living in an apartment with limited space means that any time I wanted to do any "office" type work it happened on the couch or the dining table. Neither of which are great to be able to be organized or ultra productive.
Since we have had the desk a month, I can tell you I really love having it!!! It is still in need of some serious organizational system but it will get there, baby steps!
I have had the shelves that are over the desk for months and months, and it was so fun to finally find the perfect spot for them above the desk!
Shortly after the birthday celebration was Valentine's Day. I really hadn't expected to do much in way of celebrating as I had gotten a Valentine's gift early (I will give full details about that hopefully soon). However, I arrived home late on Valentine's Day (as I was teaching at the University) and was completely shocked to walk in the door to candles, music, wine, beautiful flowers and a bracelet! Talk about knock-my-socks off surprised!
February also brought an exciting new creative venture that I am exploring with one of my BFFs. I will share more details on that as soon as I can!
I hope the month was full of love and celebrations for all of you too!!
Thanksgiving recap
Monday, November 26, 2012
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.
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.
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).
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.
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| My assistants, Maëlle and Audray |
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| 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.
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| Our simple table arrangement, using EVERY chair we own |
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| The party of 7 that helped me to celebrate Thanksgiving in France |
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| Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy and green bean casserole (no fancy serving platters in our house yet) |
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| Dessert=pumpkin pie and salted caramel cheesecake |
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| Enjoying the meal |
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| Thankful for these 3 people! |
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| 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).
Preparing for Thanksgiving
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
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.
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!!!
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.
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| 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!!!
Trying to make Turkey Day happen
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Spending some time with family a few weeks ago and James shared with them that he thinks I should make a real Thanksgiving meal and try and celebrate here in France. I told him that I wasn’t sure that I could find the ingredients here and that I would have to think about what a traditional Thanksgiving meal is.
There is a store in Paris called “The Thanksgiving Store” and it is a grocery store for Americans. I decided to go on their website to see what supplies they have in store and get an idea of the cost. After about 30 seconds of looking I quickly determined that if we are going to have a Thanksgiving meal here in France and buy supplies here, it is going to cost a fortune!!! To give you an idea of the cost of items at the store, the small container of the pumpkin pie spice cost 9.90 Euros and a box of Lucky Charm cereal is 12 Euro, which is about $15 in American money. So my dear American friends and family next time you pour a bowl of your favorite cereal think of me and the fact that I would need to win the lottery to have that everyday. I also do not see whole turkeys in the store in France. We asked our butcher last week if he would be able to get us a full turkey. He is able to do so, we just need to place the order a week or two in advance.
So my mom has graciously agreed to send me some supplies from the states. I have an idea of what I want to make. I want to keep it simple but also make my fellow Americans proud and represent this beloved holiday well!
So please tell me what you think the perfect, simple Thanksgiving meal would include! I will need to finalize my list of items soon to ensure that I get the supplies in time to create this celebration. Of course I will be working on Thanksgiving AND Black Friday so the plan would be to celebrate on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
I look forward to your suggestions and ideas!!!
There is a store in Paris called “The Thanksgiving Store” and it is a grocery store for Americans. I decided to go on their website to see what supplies they have in store and get an idea of the cost. After about 30 seconds of looking I quickly determined that if we are going to have a Thanksgiving meal here in France and buy supplies here, it is going to cost a fortune!!! To give you an idea of the cost of items at the store, the small container of the pumpkin pie spice cost 9.90 Euros and a box of Lucky Charm cereal is 12 Euro, which is about $15 in American money. So my dear American friends and family next time you pour a bowl of your favorite cereal think of me and the fact that I would need to win the lottery to have that everyday. I also do not see whole turkeys in the store in France. We asked our butcher last week if he would be able to get us a full turkey. He is able to do so, we just need to place the order a week or two in advance.
So my mom has graciously agreed to send me some supplies from the states. I have an idea of what I want to make. I want to keep it simple but also make my fellow Americans proud and represent this beloved holiday well!
So please tell me what you think the perfect, simple Thanksgiving meal would include! I will need to finalize my list of items soon to ensure that I get the supplies in time to create this celebration. Of course I will be working on Thanksgiving AND Black Friday so the plan would be to celebrate on the Saturday following Thanksgiving.
I look forward to your suggestions and ideas!!!
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