Le Thanksgiving americain

Last night, I hosted a little Thanksgiving party in my apartment, and I think it turned out quite well! I planned it with a couple of the other American teachers in Paris, Vanessa and Chelsea, and the three of us took care of the food--all without an oven, I am proud to say. We did end up seeking out some cooked chicken from a store, but otherwise, we did pretty well. Here's the basic run-down.

We had salad with veggies and cheese...













I made steamed veggies with olive oil and tarragon (which any Beckett fans will be glad to know is "Estragon" in French)...










Chelsea made stovetop stuffing, and Vanessa went on a search for cranberries (much harder than you would think...) and managed to find something similar. They were little red berries in a section of jars labeled "Condiments insolites"--essentially odd condiments. Turns out they went pretty well with the stuffing.













Vanessa made some delicious Southern-style mashed potatoes, which were a huge hit.

















I thought of how great it would be to make a pie or something, but that wasn't possible without an oven...so I mixed up some apples with cinnamon and sugar, a la inside of an apple pie.










We used all of the big plates we had, so the bread was displayed in a skillet. Classy.














I don't have pictures of everyone, but here are a few--this is (starting from the left) Stefan, one of the German teachers, and Marta and Lukas, the two Polish teachers I live with.








On the American side of things, here's Vanessa, Josh (Lindsey's boyfriend), and Lindsey, who's teaching in Amiens. Also, if you look really closely, you can see the Condiments Insolites jar.









One of the things that was coolest about the evening--besides the obvious interesting cultural conversations about holidays and celebrations--was the use of languages. It was truly a bilingual evening--Lindsey's boyfriend doesn't speak French, so a lot more English was spoken than would have been otherwise, though the majority of the conversation was in French. We were changing back and forth constantly, which was a great challenge. Overall, a wonderful evening with really interesting people!