Since corn was the main grain in North America before the Europeans arrived, I think every Thanksgiving meal should include some kind of corn dish, just for symbolic purposes. We can be almost certain that the Pilgrims ate some version of this dish at their feast with the Indians.

The American Market in Geneva and Nyon sells Quaker Yellow Corn Meal. Otherwise, a coarse, but precooked, yellow polenta can do the trick. Like pumpkin pie, it can be a bit tricky, depending on the altitude and the ingredients, and especially when you use polenta, so you might want to do a trial run before the big day.

If you can’t find black molasses (in Europe, what they call mélasse is often a mixture of molasses and other kinds of syrups), the American Market also sells Grandma’s pure black molasses.

Fanny Farmer’s Indian pudding recipe

1/4 cup coarse-grain yellow corn meal
1 cup cold milk
3 cups scalded milk
1/2 cup dark molasses
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon or 1 tsp ginger (whichever you prefer)
4 T butter

Mix corn meal with 1/4 cup cold milk until smooth. Add slowly to scalded milk and cook in double boiler for 20 minutes, stirring frequently.

Stir in molasses, salt, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and butter. Pour into buttered 9-inch/23 cm baking dish. Pour remaining cold milk over the top. Bake 3 hours at 300° F/150° C. Serves 4 to 6.

Photo courtesy of Blogging Experiments.

When you work or live abroad, it is not always easy to organize a Thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving Day is not a holiday in other countries, and it is often difficult to find the right ingredients. Sometimes it’s just easier to make a long weekend of it or let someone else do the cooking. I’ve looked around for some alternatives, and there are some pretty nice ones out there. Just make sure to reserve well ahead of time. The US Thanksgiving falls on the last Thursday in November, which is 26 November in 2009.

Venere gives some good suggestions for Thanksgiving in Paris, along with hotel recommendations, including the restaurant Thanksgiving. Le Saint-Martin offers Thanksgiving dinners for 3 days in a row, from the 26th to the 28th, with a thoroughly traditional fare, for €30 a head.

For hotels deals in all categories, check out Expedia.

Thanksgiving in Rome

The Hotel de Russie, part of the Rocco Forte Collection, is offering a Thanksgiving package in its Le Jardin de Russie restaurant. The package includes luxury accommodation for two for a minimum of two nights, a buffet breakfast in the restaurant or a continental breakfast in the room, and a Thanksgiving dinner for two in Le Jardin de Russie on 26th November. The price varies depending on the type of room you select.

The Thanksgiving menu will offer Thanksgiving salad, autumn salad with Porcini mushroom cream, turkey roll with mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, coffee, and petits fours.

If you speak Italian, the Italian Expedia site is quite good for current hotel promotions in all price categories. Otherwise you can get pretty much the same information on the French version (Expedia.fr).

Thanksgiving in Florence

The Hotel Savoy is centrally located on the Piazza della Repubblica, near the Duomo. Also part of the Rocco Forte group, it is offering a Thanksgiving package including luxury accommodation, a buffet breakfast at L’Incontro or a continental breakfast served in your room, and a Thanksgiving dinner for two on 26th November at L’Incontro.

The package is for valid for a minimum stay of two nights, from 25 to 28 November, and the Thanksgiving menu offers Thanksgiving salad, turkey roll, mashed potatoes, pumpkin flan, apple pie, and coffee.

If you speak Italian, the Italian Expedia site is quite good for current hotel promotions in all price categories. Otherwise you can get pretty much the same information on the French version (Expedia.fr).

Thanksgiving in Prague

The Hard Rock Café will be serving a traditional Thanksgiving menu all day, starting at 11 A.M. A two-course meal goes for CZK 525,  or three courses for CZK 650. Reservations recommended.

We’ve been making Thanksgiving dinner together for oh so many years — ever since we were in college in Paris. Since the pumpkin in France was always too watery, no matter what method of cooking we used and what type of pumpkin, we decided to use sweet potatoes, which give a much more predictable and reliable result, which is absolutely necessary when preparing a Thanksgiving feast for a crowd of 20 or 30 convives. In addition, we’ve grown to like it better (perhaps because we know it will always set, unlike pumpkin?).

Maggie’s sure-fire short or flaky pie crust

250 g flour (farine patissière)
125 g butter (room temperature)
Pinch of salt
Cold water

Place flour and salt in mixing bowl. Mix well. Chop butter into large lumps and add to flour.

Use pastry cutter (or two knives) to chop butter into small bits.

For short pastry: Continue until flour and butter have texture of fine bread crumbs.

For flaky pastry: Stop when texture is that of large bread crumbs (the flakes are caused by pockets of melting butter, so lumps must be bigger).

Add cold water, tablespoon by tablespoon, mixing all the while with a knife. Mix until dough sticks together but not to hands or bowl–not too much water. Proceed carefully.

Turn out on lightly floured board and knead lightly. Roll with rolling pin to required shape.

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Tom’s sweet potato pie filling

(for 9-inch or 22 cm pie pan)

2 cups cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (patates douces)
2 well-beaten eggs
1-1/4 cups milk
3/4 cup brown sugar (cassonade or sucre de canne brut)
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
4 tbsp vegetable oil

Bake two medium to large sweet potatoes at 220°C until perfectly cooked and soft (a knife should encounter little resistance). Let cool to room temperature and remove peel. (Two sweet potatoes should be more than enough to get two cups–one will do if it’s big enough.)

Heat oven again to 220°C.

Line pie pan and pre-cook pastry 10 minutes or until edges are beginning to turn darker in color. Remove from oven.

Put 2 cups of baked sweet potato into a large mixing bowl. Add other ingredients and beat until smooth.

Pour mixture into pie pan. Bake 10 minutes at 220°C, then reduce heat to 150°C and cook 50 minutes or until filling is firm and starting to darken on top.

Note:

These are obviously American measurements. Refer to “How to convert measurements for American recipes” for metric conversions.

Alarming increase in rate of obesity in European children

As covered in our article “Obesity education leads to fewer French, Swiss obese children” of May 2008, obesity has taken on epidemic proportions in European children. According to IOTF (International Obesity TaskForce) figures, Europeans are starting to wake up to the seriousness of this with regard to health. One in five European children now fall into the obese range, with an annual increase of two percent, according to another IOTF report.

Some European countries now have an even higher rate of obesity than Americans, going as high as 30% in some countries.

Two-thirds of these children will remain obese for their entire lives, and their life expectancy is reduced by several years, since obesity leads to a long list of other serious illnesses, including early-onset heart disease, respiratory disorders and musculoskeletal diseases, according to Swiss government statistics that came out in January 2008.

The good news for Switzerland

The 2002 statistics had revealed that one out of five children in Switzerland were obese. The good news arising out of the 2008 report is that in Switzerland and France, obesity rates in children are dropping, and are now one in six, most probably thanks to active campaigns on the part of the government to educate children about how to eat. The European Congress on Obesity, held in Geneva in May 2008, made these figures public.

Diet and sedentary lifestyle main causes of increasing obesity

This rise can be attributed to numerous changes in lifestyle, but mainly to diet and sedentary lifestyle.

As children have taken on eating habits similar to those of Americans, the rate of obesity has risen. One of the sounding alarms for this health crisis is the rise in type 2 diabetes in obese children.

Children don’t walk to school anymore; they are often driven, even when they live two blocks away. Television, iPods, computer games, chatting, MySpace, and other such couch potato and deskbound activities aggravate the problem even further.

How to teach your children good eating habits

The time is now, today, and not tomorrow: start by researching the sites listed below to get informed, and then to find fun, interactive ways of teaching your children the importance of diet (and health).

The Food Pyramid

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) developed the Food Pyramid was developed in the 1960s as a response to the alarmingly high rises in heart disease in the U.S., along with a pamphlet called Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is updated every five years. In the 1980s, they started publishing Pattern for Daily Food Choices, but unfortunately Americans didn’t take much note, so finally in 1992, they decided to produce it in graphic form, in what they call Food Guide Pyramid.

MyPyramid

As European childrens’ eating habits increasingly resemble those of American children, obesity has continued to rise. The USDA developed an array of pamphlets, pyramid planning programs, sites and wide-reaching educational methods and media for teaching Americans how to eat, including the MyPyramid site. These materials and methods can easily be adapted to a European setting.

Teaching children how to eat healthily

MyPyramid for Kids gives parents resources and ideas for teaching their children good eating habits. Some of these include simple common-sense suggestions, like getting children involved in cooking (they are more likely to eat their broccoli if they helped prepare it) or setting the table; praising their efforts and making them feel an important part of the process; interactive computer games such as My Pyramid Blastoff; coloring pages, and other educational materials, adapted to different age groups.

As we continue to build this blog, Kids in the Kitchen will include recipes to help you get your children involved in the kitchen. I’d be willing to bet that they’ll eat the guacamole they helped make, even if it’s not really as good as their Mom’s. And above all, Kids in the Kitchen will guide you in your own anti-obesity campaign, so that your children look forward to a longer and healthier life.