We’re slowly recovering from Thanksgiving weekend. We changed the format slightly and instead of hosting 10 people at the house, we had 60+ people at the Salle des Fetes in Milhac. It was organised by Milhac Loisirs, and replace the Soiree Britannique, which we’ve done for the past 5 or 6 years around the same time of year. That event was getting a bit stale, so we decided to try something new. Since the event was already planned for the Saturday after Thanksgiving, it seemed a logical choice.
Sophie and I did the cooking. It was mainly my standard menu, with a few adaptations due to the kitchen and single oven. We got nine 2.5kg turkey legs, and I followed my usual recipe, slathering the legs in a herb butter sauce, then basting after an hour or so. The legs weren’t cooking quickly, so I whacked up the oven to full and that did the trick. The stuffing went in after the turkey and it turned out nicely. Sophie was in charge of mashed potatoes and vegetable medley of sweet potato, carrots, squash and shallots. I usually roast them, but with limited oven space, we opted to do them on the stovetop. Same for the sprouts, which we did get a bit of time in the oven but not enough to properly roast them. I also made cranberry sauce and gravy.
The meal was very well received, although led to some confusion. Sophie made pizza and quiche, served as apero along with a rum punch made by Paul. We aimed to server the meal at 8:30 and weren’t much later than that. People sat at long tables, and we served family style, with nine sets of each dish placed at intervals. We started with the turkey and sauces since they were done, then followed with the veg, stuffing and potatoes. Many people thought there were only getting turkey, so piled their plates full, and then were surprised when the rest of the food came out. As a result, everyone ended up eating loads, even though they weren’t aware it was traditional to do so.
For dessert, we kept the Soiree Brit tradition of asking the members to bring a dish. I translated my Sweet Potato pie and an Apple pie recipe and we sent them to the members the previous week. I sent these in an email to Sophie, asking her to mention that sweet potato is the traditional dessert, but that apple was ok if they didn’t dare. She managed to swap these around, so had to re-send the email, except without the recipes attached, leading to yet another email. In the end, everyone made Sweet Potato Pie and there were at least 8 of them, plus a few other apple-based desserts. Paul has a whipped cream siphon so he made big bowls of that to go along with the pies. I sampled five of the pies (in two sittings) and although all followed the same recipe, each was unique in taste and consistency.
We hired the same DJ we’ve had at previous events, and he was a let-down. In fact, it was his girlfriend who was the DJ – he just came along for the ride. It was too similar to past events, and he didn’t put on much of a show. This is the biggest expense of the evening and without it, we would have turned a profit this year. So we’ve decided not to pay for entertainment next year and just have a playlist and possibly, a quiz.
Amongst the 60 attendees were a number of our local friends who never attend Milhac events including Benoit & Virginie, as well as Manu & Mathilde and their eldest, Rachel. We also met our newest neighbour Sandrine who bought Bryan & Carol’s place. Anne & Andrew were meant to attend, but they’ve both been badly afflicted by a bug they picked up on their trip to England. We haven’t seen them since before they left, but get updates by email. They’re now on the mend, but it’s slow going. After the meal, everyone congregated at the bar where Will and I were stationed and we shared around our stash of vodka and tonic. M & M stayed with us till the bitter end and we all left after helping the DJs load up their car. They came back to ours for a nightcap and we crashed around 2:30.
I was meant to go down and help clean the next morning at 10:30, but we’d only just gotten up so gave it a miss. We wandered over to Paul & Nat’s around 12:30 and polished off the leftovers. We were joined by Sophie & Dom, Francoise, and Jean Marc and his wife Marie, friends of P & N who were visiting from Angouleme. There was almost no turkey left, but tons of veg, potatoes and of course, stuffing. I was pleased we kept to tradition and managed at least one round of leftovers. We came home mid-afternoon and crashed out in front of the telly for the rest of the day.
There isn’t much else to report. We’re still inundated with work and that’s taking up nearly all of our time. We’ve rehearsed once or twice with Paul and will do so again this week, although I’ve had no time at all to practice. I got a couple of late bday presents including vodka from Cyril and hand-drawn picture of an otter from Marie & Christian. Their daughter’s partner is an illustrator and she commissioned him to make the drawing. That’s the news from Mazeroux city.