A Thanksgiving Feast for My Host Family

This Thanksgiving was different from all of my past Thanskgivings because 1. I’m in France (obviously) and 2. They don’t celebrate thanksgiving in France😜. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t celebrate the holiday, in fact, it was actually my grandest Thanksgiving yet. This is a common occurrence throughout my experience in France so far; moments ending up being much morememorable in France versus in the US. Perhaps it’s the country, perhaps having no expectation going into the experience, a bit of both maybe.

I decided that I wanted to give my host family the full experience of an American Thanksgiving by cooking them the whole shabang! It sounded like an easy idea going into it, but here was my little secret: I’d never cooked a Thanksgiving meal in my entire life. Actually, I’d never cooked any dish remotely close to Thanksgiving food. I really don’t cook much at all in general; frozen food, sandwiches, and maybe some pasta is the most you’ll get out of me. I’d also never cooked anything for my host family or cooked anything at all since arriving in France. Was I worried? No, how hard could it be?

The week before Thanksgiving I researched recipes online then copied and pasted the ingredients list to show my host mom. She only wrote a few things on her grocery list and said we had the rest at home, I trusted her that she already had the ingredients to make this meal great.😅👊🏽

The day before Thanksgiving I started the meal prep with the most important part of a Thanksgiving meal, the pumpkin pie. My French friend came over to my house to help me make the pie. She knew more than I did about baking which was a great help and everything started off smoothly. But when we mixed all of our ingredients together, something was a little off. The mixture was way to watery😵‍💫….we didn’t have enough ingredients or the time to restart so we did what any admirable baker would do, just add flour. So maybe it would become a pie/cake but that still works😅. We finished the pie, baked it in the oven, and it looked pretty decent actually. After my friend went home, I started on the cranberry sauce. I followed a trusty recipe online but the cranberry sauce would not sauce. The boiled cranberries tasted great but they were not forming anything compote…Boiled cranberries work right? I was cooking for French people who did not know what was right or wrong in a Thanksgiving dinner, as long as everything tastes good, all is well??😌. That was enough meal prep for one day, so I left the kitchen and returned the next day, the real deal day of the meal, no mistakes, no crumbs left.

At 4pm the next day, I started cooking for our Thanksgiving feast at 8pm. Thankfully my host sister was there to help me cook, I’m not sure if I could have done it without her. Because I have to be extra in everything I do, as a first time Thanksgiving chef I cooked ten Thanksgiving plates, and I was very proud of myself😊. Since it’s difficult to find turkey in France, we had a rotisserie chicken, which really didn’t make much of a difference to the Thanksgiving tradition, still a bird we could share together. Going into the cooking with no plan, I kind of just cooked things when I cooked things without thinking about timing. Also, all of the recipes I found online were in English and all the measurements and baking times were different, so everything just turned into eyeballing and taking things out of the oven when they looked done. Four hours later, the meal was complete! Here’s a list of what I cooked for 8 people:

Brussel sprouts

Green beans

Salad

Rotisserie Chicken

Stuffing

Mac and cheese

Cranberry sauce

Mashed potatoes

Sweet potato casserole

Pumpkin pie

My host family and two of my French friends from my weekly dance class attended my feast. Everything turned out fantastic and I could not have asked for a better meal! The biggest hits of the table: the Mac and cheese and stuffing. I think the stuffing turned out so tasty because I used baguette, this why everything tastes better in France🥖. The ambience of the meal was fantastic, it was a fun way to incorporate and teach my host family and friends about American culture and Thanksgiving. Like any Thanksgiving meal, of course we had leftovers! There was only leftovers of everything for the day after our dinner, but we had extra cranberries for two weeks! My host mom ended up using them in multiple pies for dessert.

My apprehensions that formed the day before about cooking my first large meal were all repealed after the outcome of an amazing feast. Once again, France does it again, making American-specific experiences better than they are in America! This was my Thanksgiving in France! After the meal I considered, “Should I do this again and cook a Thanksgiving meal in America for my family?” Part of me says yes to do it again, but part of me will stick to just eating the Thanksgiving food😏. Props to my host mom who cooks dinner for 6 people, everyday. After cooking Thanksgiving food for my French family and friends, I definitely want to cook again for them this year! What should I make next?😋