Just popping in here to honor the day. You will be glad to know that it is already night time here in France and that I am exhausted after spending the day cooking, which means that I will need to be concise. Concise. Can you imagine that?
Two things are on my mind tonight. One is that I find myself missing New York dearly. I know, I know, my previous post was dedicated to my ambivalence on that point, and how utterly exhausting and confusing I found my last visit there a few weeks ago. But that crème brûlée pumpkin made it clear that beneath the surface, my love for New York, and New York in the Fall particularly, was still intact. And Thanksgiving being a normal school day over here, I was fully expecting to find myself missing those lazy five-day breaks I came to love. I only have good memories of all the Thanksgiving we celebrated in the States. For a few years it was always at my husband’s house apartment in the city. Once, we went to her brother’s in Connecticut. There were two other times in Connecticut, one on my husband’s cousin’s farm near New Heaven, when my third child was a baby. There were donkeys are lamas, my then eight-year old son spent the night playing with a family friend who had found an axe in the garden – it was perfect. The second time was four years ago, when my fourth child was just a little one year old. It was in a warehouse in New Haven, the headquarter’s for the same cousin’s dad’s playground structure company. As you can imagine, it was wild. A long table for over fifty people, all candle-lit, the candleholders made out of random metallic structures found around the factory. My daughter and her little brother spent the evening skateboarding on wooden structures that had been set up specifically for that purpose. Yeah, safety might not be that family’s best trait. But it was so fun for everyone involved, including me. See, it was so fun that I already wrote much more than I intented to. Suffice it to say that after that, we had two years of Thanksgiving Covid, when the six of us just escaped to the country. A small, intimate Thanksgiving, but I loved it both times.
Which brings us to November 2022 in Paris. We went to some friends’ house on Friday night, so that the kids could stay up late without worrying about school. And this year we’re doing the same thing with the same friends, only at our house. Which is why I have been cooking all day, and will be cooking all day tomorrow. I like it, and I was able to revive some of the spirit I loved. But it was not quite the same. I did not get to hang out in my PJ’s for the best part of the morning and to cook with my daughter. She only had time for whipped cream when coming back from school at 6:30 pm. No one was home all day and I felt quite lonely. Sure, it smelled nice and I made sure cinnamon was plentiful in almost everything I made. But it felt so much smaller than anything I had every experienced in the U.S. I love many aspects of Paris, don’t get me wrong. But there is a sense of abundance, of warmth, that has no equivalent here, and that I find sorely missing on a day like today. Which is not very grateful of me to say, am fully aware. But I do miss the United States today, and there isn’t much I can do about it.
There is, though, one thing that I am grateful for, and which is the second thing on my mind. Actually the first in terms of what is most present. And that is simply that I have the incredible privilege and fortune to just be with my entire family today, and tomorrow. No one was killed, no one was bombed, no one was taken hostage. We are not anxiously waiting for a son, a mother, a cousin to come back. We did not have to bury anyone. We are all alive and well, which makes this Thanksgiving a particular blessing, but also tinges it with some real sadness, as it is the first time I realize that what I was taking for granted can be taken away at a minute’s notice. The situation in Israel and Palestine has been constantly on my mind over the past few weeks, and I find it impossible to not think about it even more on a day like today. I am grateful that a pause in fighting is now in place, which couldn’t have fallen on a better day. And I send my blessings to all the mothers and families in the region, even if they don’t celebrate Thanksgiving or are in no state to celebrate anything.
So, Happy Thanksgiving to all. As far as I’m concerned, I made bacon-maple pecans for snacks, ordered some deviled eggs and am hoping to make cheddar twists at some point before our guests arrive. There will be roasted brussel sprouts with hazelnuts, a crisp green bean salad, and the classic sweet potato casserole that was a staple at aunt Deborah’s house. I managed to bake a pumpkin cheesecake WITH NO CRACKS – but with a seven-year-old boy fingerprints- and I am ever so proud. And let’s not forget my first classic apple pie. There will be a pecan chocolate Ina Garten confection if I ever find the time and energy tomorrow. So, yes, busy week in the kitchen, as I’m sure it was for you.
Have fun everybody, and next time I come here it will be time to talk about… the holidays I’m afraid???? I might need to wait a couple more weeks for that.
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