Thanksgiving--France style
Sooo Thanksgiving was last Thursday, as every american ever knows. But French people are like "what are you talking about, what is thanksgiving?" I explained it approximately 500 times to various french people! And it sounds pretty silly: "Well, the indians and the settlers [don't know word for "pilgrims"] ate a big meal together. And then they were friends. And no one knows if this actually happened. And now all families get together and eat a big meal." And the french people are like "that's it?" But hey, I love Thanksgiving! And the Dickinson Center put on a really nice dinner for us, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, sweet potatoes, and a massive amount of desserts. And it was so nice to get together with everyone on Thanksgiving, because at least we were with other Americans, being all together and lovey! I think everyone was a little homesick on that day.
So it was the job of the students to provide the desserts. Alright, great. So Annie and I decided to jointly make TollHouse Chocolate Chip cookies. An American classic. And we also decided to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too, just for good measure. So we looked up the recipes online (I love the internet), procured some american style measuring cups from Laura at the Dickinson Center, and set off the find the ingrediants. Umm hello, France, be more difficult. We went to FOUR different grocery stores trying to find everything. Apparently, baking soda doesn't exist (afterwards, we were told to try a pharmacy to find that...crazy), brown sugar as we know it is a big old veto, and chocolate chips, the foundation of our amazing recipe, were no where to be found. Well, I'm lying. We found these things that claimed to be "pepites au chocolate", but they were sooooo not even close to America-style chocolate chips. They were in these tiny little bags for about 3 euros each. We would have had to buy 6 bags just to get enough for the recipes! I was like "hellooo...Nestle, you are a brand available in France, I've seen you, why don't you introduce your TollHouse chocolate chips and start a revolution!" So we ended up buying these bigger Nestle chocolate pieces, which were less expensive, and then we cut them up. Which worked fine, but created lots of painful blisters from holding knives in awkward ways. And then after we made the cookies we were like "oh, these are such crap, they don't taste good at all!" And by "good" we meant "they don't taste like when we make them at home". But apparently, no one cares! Our cookies were a huge hit! So that boosted our egos a little bit, and I liked it.
And then on Friday, we particpated in very traditional post-Thanksgiving activities: eating the leftovers! And even though the gravy had turned a strange green color overnight and sort of congealed into a gel-like substance, I didn't care. And neither did anyone else. In fact, we ate it with relish. And also on Friday, I went and got my carte de sejour, aka residency card, aka i can stay in the country past November 30th when my visa runs out! Yaaaaaay! So that's neat. And I will be back in the United States of America on Dec. 17 and I cannot wait! I'm going to eat a lot of food, and have a lot of family and friends and Jason time, and be the happiest girl alive. And then come back to France and take finals? Umm...let's not think about that just yet. :-)
So it was the job of the students to provide the desserts. Alright, great. So Annie and I decided to jointly make TollHouse Chocolate Chip cookies. An American classic. And we also decided to make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies too, just for good measure. So we looked up the recipes online (I love the internet), procured some american style measuring cups from Laura at the Dickinson Center, and set off the find the ingrediants. Umm hello, France, be more difficult. We went to FOUR different grocery stores trying to find everything. Apparently, baking soda doesn't exist (afterwards, we were told to try a pharmacy to find that...crazy), brown sugar as we know it is a big old veto, and chocolate chips, the foundation of our amazing recipe, were no where to be found. Well, I'm lying. We found these things that claimed to be "pepites au chocolate", but they were sooooo not even close to America-style chocolate chips. They were in these tiny little bags for about 3 euros each. We would have had to buy 6 bags just to get enough for the recipes! I was like "hellooo...Nestle, you are a brand available in France, I've seen you, why don't you introduce your TollHouse chocolate chips and start a revolution!" So we ended up buying these bigger Nestle chocolate pieces, which were less expensive, and then we cut them up. Which worked fine, but created lots of painful blisters from holding knives in awkward ways. And then after we made the cookies we were like "oh, these are such crap, they don't taste good at all!" And by "good" we meant "they don't taste like when we make them at home". But apparently, no one cares! Our cookies were a huge hit! So that boosted our egos a little bit, and I liked it.
And then on Friday, we particpated in very traditional post-Thanksgiving activities: eating the leftovers! And even though the gravy had turned a strange green color overnight and sort of congealed into a gel-like substance, I didn't care. And neither did anyone else. In fact, we ate it with relish. And also on Friday, I went and got my carte de sejour, aka residency card, aka i can stay in the country past November 30th when my visa runs out! Yaaaaaay! So that's neat. And I will be back in the United States of America on Dec. 17 and I cannot wait! I'm going to eat a lot of food, and have a lot of family and friends and Jason time, and be the happiest girl alive. And then come back to France and take finals? Umm...let's not think about that just yet. :-)
posted by Caitlin @ 8:35 PM
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