Happy Frenchgiving

Feasting on the bounty: Chris, yours truly and Benoît

Chris receives the medal for most food eaten, shown here with triumphant second helping of biscuits and gravy.

The green bean casserole.

Hannah, our Japanese contingent.

The dessert cart.

Let the last Sunday of November be known henceforth as Frenchgiving, and let it be good! And let there be a great overabundance of food in relation to the number of guests, and let there be many languages spoken among them.

The inaugural menu: green bean casserole (my way: haricots verts in a creamy mushroom sauce and topped with fried shallots), herbed stuffing (both vegetarian and with homemade pork sausage), buttermilk biscuits (yes, buttermilk can be found here under the name "lait fermenté"), gravy, gingery sweet potato pie (texture ended up a bit weird), apple crisp, assorted cheese, grapes, wine... and chicken wings that were to be in lieu of turkey but never ended up in the roasting pan. Sadly lacking was cranberry sauce or an analog thereof, though I hear it's available for a pretty penny at some expat-oriented stores such as the conspicously-named restaurant and grocery Thanksgiving in the 4ème. And I similarly missed the forethought to search out sage for the stuffing, a bit regrettable but forgivable nonetheless. Despite the fact that fewer people attended than had been anticipated, it was a success. We ate both excessively and well, which is after all the original act that knows no cultural boundaries.

All my photos of this momentous event in French history can be seen here.