I interrupt Leigh's nice little food blog with a report on our first Thanksgiving together. Yesterday was a great day for us and we were able to share it with a lot of our friends here in Paris. We hosted nine others last night, and Leigh put together quite the traditional spread.
Graham & Meredith (our good friends here in Paris) took care of ordering the turkey. You have to order a few weeks in advance from a butcher. When Graham went to pick up the 10lb bird on Wednesday there were still feathers on the sucker. The butcher plucked the last few feathers and grabbed the blow torch to clean up the skin for us. It was definitely the freshest turkey any of us had ever had and a little different (even if smaller) than the frozen Butterball's we all grew up with. Overall, I would give Leigh and myself a B+ on our first roasted turkey. If we had better knives it easily would jump up to an A-, but we lost some presentation points. Trust me, Leigh let me know about it too.
Leigh and Meredith organized the menu with all of the girls. Everything was accounted for; from stuffing to biscuits, mashed potatoes to green bean casserole Leigh and the gang had it all set up. Though, initially Leigh forgot two of my favorite menu items, corn flake-topped potato casserole and my all-time favorite, jello salad with whipped cream. You would have thought I was negotiating the Treaty of Versailles when I asked for them, but being the good wife that she is, she (eventually) accommodated them in the end. Leigh and I both overheard more than a few people ask "What is this?!" when they moved through the buffet line.
Enjoy the pictures below of our first Thanksgiving.
Buttering the biscuits
Getting to know the bird
"Jack, I know what I'm doing. I did this for a living"
The two party planners: Leigh & Meredith
The spread
Another Louis tradition: pre-meal thoughts/blessing (circa Don B. Louis)
Artsy shot of Leigh's table arrangement (flowers from the open air market)
Suz, Leigh, Meredith, Katy, and Amanda
Katy & Leigh
Post feast
We have quickly move onto Christmas, and I am certain Mrs. Louis will have a non-food related post soon to tell you more about her favorite holiday (besides her birthday of course).
photographs compliments of Suzannah Vanrooy Photgraphy
I love this post and all of the pictures! I'm so glad you guys starting blogging! : )
ReplyDeleteAll of the food looks delicious (even the potato casserole and jello...those are my 2 Thanksgiving "musts" too). Love the DL inspired Thanksgiving thoughts.
I also concur that the cornflake-topped potato casserole and jello are non-negotiables. Must be a Herndon thing. Sadly they didn't make an appearance at my Thanksgiving this year, so I'm highly jealous.
ReplyDeleteLOVE the blog. So fun to follow you guys! After shelling out way too much cash for a Christmas flight home, I mentioned to my Mom that I could buy a flight to Paris instead for just a bit more. It didn't go over so well... Hopefully another time :)