#thanksgivinginfrance

thanksgiving cause it was thursday.
then i'll do a post on paris another day because i feel i need to do thanksgiving first because i just got off facebook and saw everyones thanksgiving posts.
so yeah.
thanksgiving.
in france.
hahahahahahhahahahahaha.

first of all, corinne is as domestic as a dog. ok that was bad because dogs are domesticated but basically what i'm saying is being a successful stereotypical woman is not one of my strong suits. every year for thanksgiving i hide away from the kitchen until something really cool is happening on the macy's day parade or when my mom calls me down for the dog show and then i'm so wrapped up in the dog show i obviously can't help. i make one pie and it doesn't even involve baking. so, when claire suggested i do thanksgiving for the family...boy were they in for a treat. and boy was i in for a new experience. so i've never cooked thanksgiving before, i've never really watched my mom from start to finish cook thanksgiving before, so how was i going to do this when i couldn't just call up my mom (8 hour time difference sucks) and ask her what to do? and to make matters even better...I'M IN FRANCE. i don't know the language so finding ingredients for things was fun...and the basics that i needed, pumpkin pie filling, corn bread mix, cranberry sauce, well they don't believe in that. so it was definitely interesting. luckily, in paris there's a store literally called "thanksgiving" and it's run by an american woman who's lived in france for 30 years and long story short she opened this american food store so she had my thanksgiving needs. (and my mountain dew needs. no shame.) so i bought canned pumpkin, corn bread, and cranberry jelly. i wanted to get stuffing but bertrand is allergic to onions and they all have onions so it was a no go. booooo. but i got these supplies and figured everything else i can get in a normal grocery store.


SO! it was one of the boys birthday partys on saturday the 22nd and his brother came to visit for the weekend and so they were like oh we should have thanksgiving on sunday! so ok cool fine. i made my chocolate pie on saturday at jillian's house because claire was in the kitchen and i hate being bothered and not having my space when i'm cooking so i just kinda took over jillians kitchen. and made her do the worst part of making the pie, the whipping the cream part. and she only had a whisk. hahaha sorry jillian. i'm such a great friend. anyways, i made that first because it chills in the fridge until it's ready lalala. saturday evening the whole family went to some party so i was home alone so a good time to get cookin. so i turned on some music and facetimed my family and made my pumpkin pie and mashed my sweet potatoes. i got so much done i tell ya. fun fact: i don't think they believe in can openers in france. true story. the cans for the pumpkin and cranberry jelly were normal ones you open with a can opener. they don't have a can opener. so i had to be risky and i had this mini dagger that i poked into the top of the can and hammered it down with scissors. probably could've found something besides scissors but they were there so it's what i used. i still have all my appendages, no stab wounds, so it was fine.

how i opened the can. so safe.

sunday. thanksgiving in france day. oh boyle.
i woke up and claire told me she bought a chicken because they don't do turkey here. ok cool. i've never made a chicken before. so she's telling me it takes a while to cook so we should start at 11. ok fine. so we oil it up, put herbs and salt and pepper on it, i tried not to vomit because raw meat just disgusts me. then put it in the oven. so it was going to take about 2 1/2 hours to cook so i was like ok then i'll just hang out until it's almost done because i have to cook the sweet potatoes and the corn bread still afterwards and it'll be really quick. but claire was like stressing and was like "you can make it now, the boys will be back from church at 1." well normally thanksgiving dinner is at about 2-3. she did not understand that at all. and she kinda rushed me cause it was like "well they'll be so hungry when they get back, the chicken will be ready at about 1:30, how will we keep it warm?" and stuff so i was like ughhhh fineeeee. this is why i like to be alone when i cook. too many chefs in the kitchen! so i made up the corn bread muffins, started doing the mashed potatoes, got the sweet potatoes topping ready and yeah. then the boys came home. CHILDREN STAY OUT OF THE KITCHEN WHEN CORINNE ESPECIALLY IS COOKING. i almost blew a casket. i don't know if that's the right phrase. but goodness gracious! they were looking at everything and putting their noses on the stuff like mmmm what is this? and it's like it's thanksgiving now leave please thanks. and claire didn't care. it's like um i'm using the whole kitchen, i have dangerous objects and high temperatures, they should get out because sometimes they don't quite think. but they didn't. whatever. so i was frustrated out of my mind. and my favorite part of thanksgiving didn't turn out right. i didn't boil the potatoes long enough so they were still kinda raw and weren't mashing and there were some super crunchy ones still in the mashed potatoes. i was dissappointed in myself. anyways, i was just about to finish and claire was like "i'm going to buy some bread. what kind of bread do you eat with thanksgiving?" and i was like "well we have the cornbread." and she was like "oh. well we're french so i'll go get some bread." ok whatever floats your boat!

so they set the table all nice using their china and fancy glasses and everything turned out pretty ok, nothing was burnt and no one was injured so it was fine i suppose. they of course had to have their "french wine" and "french bread" because you can't do anything too american in france i guess. itold them since it's an american holiday, we need to speak in english. everyone can speak in english and i'm not going to celebrate an american holiday sitting in the corner not knowing what's going on. so i thought we'd have a nice conversation, what we're thankful for, how thanksgiving is in the states, or something like that. nope. the adults (i still don't fully consider myself an adult) started getting into a heated discussion about immigration and the boys were so bored and H (it was going to be his birthday on tuesday) he was just asking for his presents and when will he open them and blah blah blah. so even though most of it was in english, i was still in the corner. silently thinking to myself what i'm thankful for. so dinner was over, i don't think they understand you're supposed to gorge yourself, and so they pulled out their "french cheese" and claire said "ok now this is french so we'll speak in french." alright. cool. i'll be over here if you need anything. in my english bubble. so i was a bit frustrated, the boys didn't even truly appreciate my dinner and my hardwork but whatever it was fine. then it was pie time! so i made pumpkin pie and my world famous chocolate pie. well somehow my pumpkin pie ended up being H's birthday cake...? they ruined the beauty of it with 9 candles. that he had to blow out and everyone knows how good kids are blowing out candles are without getting spit everywhere...they made him do it twice because they didn't get a picture the first time. -_- and even better, he didn't even like my pumpkin pie. so why it was his birthday pie without even asking me if it was ok, i don't know. i get upset over little things but it was thanksgiving. not his birthday. he celebrated his birthday 3 times. once on saturday for his party with his friends, then on sunday during thanksgiving, then on his real birthday on tuesday. kids and birthdays is so weird here in france. but anyways my chocolate pie was great and everything was fine and good and thanksgiving was over. never doing that again. i facetimed my family yesterday (real thanksgiving) and i'm so sad i wasn't there. i have a friend who was in nyc for the macy's day parade (on my bucket list) and my family had the dog show on and my nephews were there playing and my brother showed me they bought mountain dew and i missed them all and it's weird not being home for thanksgiving. truly makes me appreciate my family and modern technology so i can facetime them and it's like i'm there. but alas, thanksgiving went fine so now i am proper wife material because i've proven i can cook and i can cook thanksgiving in a foreign country. now accepting applications for a husband. k cool bye.

pumpkin pie!

the final product!

the best time.

success.