Last night, we celebrated our second Thanksgiving in France. You may recall from last year, we had some difficulty sourcing a few key ingredients, the main one being a whole turkey. At last year’s meal, Babette told us that you can order them in advance from the supermarket so we tried to do that only to be told that in fact, it wasn’t possible since turkeys aren’t in season. We planned to make do with pieces again this year but decided to ask at the boucherie in Mareuil, just in case. Turns out, the butcher has been special-ordering a big turkey for an American lady for many years, so he knew about “Le Tanks-gee-veen”. Because we didn’t want a huge one, the turkey-farmer agreed to sell us one that would otherwise have been for Xmas, prompting Will to comment that the phrase “Christmas comes early this year” is not applicable to turkeys.
We collected the turkey the day before Thanksgiving. We hadn’t been told the price beforehand and were figuring it would be in the €30-40 range, so we had a bit of sticker shock when it came to €54($70) for a 5Kg bird. Having said that, it was farm-raised and likely “harvested” only a day or two before so at least we were paying for quality. This being the second foreign country in which I’ve celebrated Thanksgiving, I should have been expecting to pay through the nose for integral portions of the meal. The first year I lived in London, I decided it wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without pumpkin pie so I special ordered two from a bakery and ended up paying £40 ($70) for them. That was the last time pumpkin pie was deemed essential.
The menu this year was similar to last year’s with a few modifications. We skipped the starter and went right to the main which consisted of roasted turkey coated in herb-butter, stuffing made from cornbread and baguettes, potatoes roasted in duck fat*, pureed butternut squash with a thyme-maple glaze, haricot vert sauteed in garlic and toasted almonds, honey-coated carrots*, gravy, cranberry sauce and bread sauce*. We topped off the repast French-style with a cheese board + baguette* followed by warm chocolate fondant served with clotted cream (imported from England)*. (* = Compliments of Sharon). The guests this year were Mike and Jean Battey (owned the house before Sharon) and Chrisaline and Christophe, the French couple who live next door. They were all Thanksgiving virgins before last night and they all seemed to enjoy the meal so overall, it was a success. I’m now making stock with the bones and will later be making “Thanksgiving-leftovers Soup”, based on a recipe I found on epicurious.com.
In other news, we continue to move forward on the house purchase. All parties have signed the Compromis de Vente (purchase agreement) and we put down the deposit which means the sellers are locked-in (we have a week to change our mind). The expected closing date is 27th December which would have to be some sort of record for fastest sale in France. We’re still unsure what, if any, furniture will be left behind so it’s been difficult to know what we need to buy. Last night, Mike and Jean offered us a sofa and two chairs that they have in storage which was very nice of them. They’re likely moving to the northern part of the country later this year so they have some other things to get rid of too.
The cats are still getting bigger, although these days it’s more filling-out than getting longer/taller. They’re also getting a lot furrier, either because they’re maturing or else it’s their winter coat. The last few days they’ve been going nuts, for no discernible reason, which mostly entails tearing around the place, attacking each other and/or us and scaling the curtains/furniture/walls. It’s been a bit cold for them to go out although today, it’s only 2C and Sausage has been a few times, but in general, they’ve been spending most days indoors. Smoo has been in attack mode, with his brother as the main focus but Will’s feet haven’t gone unscathed either. They’ve been sleeping in our bed, mostly on or next to Will so he’s not been getting much rest.
It’s quiet these days on the work front. I’m officially done with version 1.0 of our product, the eLeaf TruBook. We’ve done a demo for a publisher so we’re hoping that turns into our first sale. We’ve started planning for the next version so I’ve been doing some research in preparation for that. We both have a lot of time on our hands now that our days aren’t spent house-hunting so we’re both adjusting to having too little to do and too much time (to quote Todd Rundgren).
And now, back to the turkey stock.