Thanksgiving, part deux

I want to go to Paris. Danny wants to go to Paris. Yeah, yeah, I know, everyone wants to go to Paris. I can't help it, when I think of food, I think of Paris. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat in Italy (pizza, pasta, gelati,) Czech Republic (Staroceske trdlo,) Austria (schnitzel and streudel,) Germany (flammkuchen,) Ireland (sausage,) to name a few and the list goes on and on (and on and on and on...,) but as great as all of those places are, nothing holds a candle to Paris. Every corner, every bakery, every restaurant offers something luscious, delicious, rich, and amazing from the pampelmousse (grapefruit) sorbet to the pain au chocolate from the steak to the foie gras, yum yum yum. But, alas, Paris is out of reach temporarily due to lack of time and money. Instead, I indulged the foodie by duplicating my favorite American meal. (You may recall that I was responsible only for dessert at our family gathering this year.) So, sans dessert this time, Danny and I had a second Thanksgiving feast.

candied yams

mashed potatoes and enough cranberry sauce for a large family

Tom

and the piece de resistance...stuffing (and courtesy of our new diet - more on that in a future post - there is still some left in the freezer for future food emergencies.)

Where should we go for dinner? France?

The novelty hasn't worn off yet...I don't know that it will.   One of my favorite parts of living in Europe is that I can go to another country for dinner.  (The excitement that comes from crossing a border for a meal is not new for me...some of you have accompanied me on journeys to Canada for dinner too.)

These holidays, May Day (May 1) and St. George's Day (May 6) were bridged by the Bulgarian government - that meant only 10 days after returning from the holiday weekend in Vienna, which came only 5 days after spring break, we were on vacation again, this time for 6 days.  Of course, I was on a plane asap...off to Baden Baden, Germany.  Geoffrey and Cora generously invited me to spend the almost week with them enjoying the beauty of the spa town - more on that later. We decided to spend the holiday on Friday out of town.  As you can imagine, I was thrilled when we jaunted off to Strasbourg for a day of exploring, strolling along the water, and some delicious food.