In France Christmas begins with a big feast on Christmas eve. We were invited to share in this event with friends of ours Anne-Cécile and Patrick.
Anne-Cécile is a great cook. We had a stuffed bird – Rooster actually 🙂 and all the trimmings! (Not as many as Gramies – nothing can quite top my Gramies festive dinners!) And this year I found myself thinking “Christmas just isn’t Christmas without foie-gras”
Which will surely astound my family because this was never part of our dinner or holiday festivities at all back in the States. But since I’ve discovered it I’ve gone mad, and the only socially acceptable time of year to spend the extra money on this side dish is at Christmas time. Soo, all of that to say I couldn’t let Christmas pass without splurging on a nice foie gras d’oie. It was a big hit with everyone. Another thing that was also a big hit was Patrick’s traditional Oyster feast.
Yep that’s right. WE LIKE OYSTERS! Imagine that. I always thought oysters were just for the nobles and kings and not the common folk like us. But here in France Christmas is the time of year that even common folks eat like kings! Anne-Cécile made a great Charentine sauce to go with the oysters with Red wine vinegar and diced shallots, yum!
Proof that Rob ate an oyster, and liked it – this was his second!
Patrick’s brother really enjoyed the Oysters!
And this was just the appetizer!!!
So we started eatting at 5pm and we kept eatting until we cut the cake at midnight! Then we continued for three more hours of karaoke around Patrick’s computer. Our gang loves Karaoke. I can’t think of any of our friends that aren’t into it right now. I would love to get one of those Karaoke machines so we can play at our house when folks are over. Unfortunately the version on Patrick’s computer was the kind that doesn’t play the real music, it’s just computer noises going beepedy-beep-beep. I’ll keep shopping before I buy one like that. But you know what, even Beepedy-beep kept us entertained and laughing like fouls for three hours. We were in great spirits. We had a very nice time together.
What did we do on Christmas Day? …. Called our families and chatted on the phone for hours while they enjoyed their feasts a couple hours later. 🙂