Celebrated A Lovely Thanksgiving!
Since 2006 Thanksgiving was a big hit on the turkey, Daddy decided to do it again this year! Daddy chose once-again the Williams-Sonoma route Thanksgiving recipe booklet but this time, we had the pleasure of working together with Grandpa Tom and Grandma Katy in making a wonderful holiday meal.
Of course, when we were working together, it was absolutely chaos. One would say "too many chefs in the kitchen", literally! However, it was still a good time! Grandpa Tom was super excited in celebrating his first Thanksgiving with his grandson, Erik, and sharing the holiday with family & friends.
We invited Grandpa Tik, Grandma Wai to come over for a festive meal. We also had our friends, the Chen Family (Oliver, Sherry, and big bro Austin), and also this year the Zhang Family (Jing, Lin, and DuDu), plus we also had Mummy's friend from college days to stay the night as well. It was wonderful! 11 adults plus 3 toddlers...what a great holiday get together! Mummy was "fortunate" enough to have day before Thanksgiving off so majority of the cleaning was done the day before.
Since 7 am of Thanksgiving day, the oven was already on, the stoves were running, machines were mixing. Our house smelled wonderful! However, we did not forget about our little Erik, we actually took him to the neighborhood park in the morning to run some of the toddler energy out LOL! Plus, when we got back home, Erik also wanted to "help" in the cooking so he went to the cabinets, grabbed a set of pots and pans and began to cook for his Daddy! So adorable!!! Love it that he does pretend play and uses a lot of imagination! Active mind is great!
So here's what we had:
Butternut Squash Chowder
This was one of the absolute favorites of Daddy's! He had 3 bowls of this stuff!! Grandpa Tom made the chowder according to recipe and it turned out great!! MMMM! A nice bowl of warm soup in a chilly autumn holiday! Just what we needed!
Cider Brined Turkey
This turkey was a bit different since it was BRINED and never have done brining before but turned out wonderfully!...except for the part that Mummy told Daddy to pull the turkey out 30 minutes earlier and it turned out to be not "cooked" all the way through...thus the Turkey was delayed for serving. Still, after it was thoroughly cooked, it turned out GREAT! Even Grandpa Tik, who absolutely hates Turkey, had a 2nd helping! HAHAHA! It was a great team effort by Daddy, Grandpa Tom, and even little Erik! He rubbed some butter on the turkey LOL!
Wild Mushroom, French Chestnut, and Italian Sausage Dressing
The dressing turned out "okay", it wasn't a out of this world WOW! Thought it was a bit dry or not enough mushroom stock. However, Mummy loved the earthy taste from the mushroom and the chestnuts. Mmmm! Yum-O!
Brussels Sprouts with Radiccio, and Pancetta (Italian Bacon)
How can we forget about our vegetables?! LOL! This dish was a surprise! Everybody in our family did not like Radiccio because of its bitterness. So we were not thinking fondly of this dish...but we decided to try it anyways! It turned out fabulous!!! Of all the side dishes, this one was only left with the least amount, maybe a few tablespoons! HAHAHA!
We had a lot more dishes, as usual! Mummy made her Sticky Rice Dressing, which is again one of Daddy's all-time favorite and also Grandpa Tik's. We had another different dressing with Cranberries as a back-up since one of the toddlers have a nut allergy. For the kiddies, we also had baked sweet potato fries and chinese-style stir-fry noodles, in case they weren't ready to be foodies yet.
Then, there's also dessert! We had our annual Apple-Hill pie but this year, it was a blue-ribbon award winning Sour-Cream Apple & Raspberry Pie. Absolutely divine, especially a-la-mode with double-vanilla ice cream. HAHAHA!
As if it wasn't enough, Grandpa Tom also made a Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Triffle, according to Williams-Sonoma recipe!
Pecan Pumpkin Butter Trifle
This is a keeper recipe as well! Everybody loved it, except Grandpa Tik, who absolutely HATES cinnamon. Mummy thought it needed more liquor for the pumpkin cake/bread portion but it still turned out excellent!
However, Erik surprised us this year by not wanting a taste of the turkey. Instead, he wanted the Maple-Glazed ham instead!!! LOL! Plus he stuffed himself with lots of sweet potato fries and was more interested in playing with Jason and Austin instead! Mummy even made the toddlers their own Thanksgiving table but only Jason really sat down and chowed LOL! The toddlers though, ate a lot later, and Austin & Erik only wanted Mac n' Cheese instead! HAHAHAH!
Of course, when we were working together, it was absolutely chaos. One would say "too many chefs in the kitchen", literally! However, it was still a good time! Grandpa Tom was super excited in celebrating his first Thanksgiving with his grandson, Erik, and sharing the holiday with family & friends.
We invited Grandpa Tik, Grandma Wai to come over for a festive meal. We also had our friends, the Chen Family (Oliver, Sherry, and big bro Austin), and also this year the Zhang Family (Jing, Lin, and DuDu), plus we also had Mummy's friend from college days to stay the night as well. It was wonderful! 11 adults plus 3 toddlers...what a great holiday get together! Mummy was "fortunate" enough to have day before Thanksgiving off so majority of the cleaning was done the day before.
Since 7 am of Thanksgiving day, the oven was already on, the stoves were running, machines were mixing. Our house smelled wonderful! However, we did not forget about our little Erik, we actually took him to the neighborhood park in the morning to run some of the toddler energy out LOL! Plus, when we got back home, Erik also wanted to "help" in the cooking so he went to the cabinets, grabbed a set of pots and pans and began to cook for his Daddy! So adorable!!! Love it that he does pretend play and uses a lot of imagination! Active mind is great!
So here's what we had:
This was one of the absolute favorites of Daddy's! He had 3 bowls of this stuff!! Grandpa Tom made the chowder according to recipe and it turned out great!! MMMM! A nice bowl of warm soup in a chilly autumn holiday! Just what we needed!
This turkey was a bit different since it was BRINED and never have done brining before but turned out wonderfully!...except for the part that Mummy told Daddy to pull the turkey out 30 minutes earlier and it turned out to be not "cooked" all the way through...thus the Turkey was delayed for serving. Still, after it was thoroughly cooked, it turned out GREAT! Even Grandpa Tik, who absolutely hates Turkey, had a 2nd helping! HAHAHA! It was a great team effort by Daddy, Grandpa Tom, and even little Erik! He rubbed some butter on the turkey LOL!
The dressing turned out "okay", it wasn't a out of this world WOW! Thought it was a bit dry or not enough mushroom stock. However, Mummy loved the earthy taste from the mushroom and the chestnuts. Mmmm! Yum-O!
How can we forget about our vegetables?! LOL! This dish was a surprise! Everybody in our family did not like Radiccio because of its bitterness. So we were not thinking fondly of this dish...but we decided to try it anyways! It turned out fabulous!!! Of all the side dishes, this one was only left with the least amount, maybe a few tablespoons! HAHAHA!
We had a lot more dishes, as usual! Mummy made her Sticky Rice Dressing, which is again one of Daddy's all-time favorite and also Grandpa Tik's. We had another different dressing with Cranberries as a back-up since one of the toddlers have a nut allergy. For the kiddies, we also had baked sweet potato fries and chinese-style stir-fry noodles, in case they weren't ready to be foodies yet.
Then, there's also dessert! We had our annual Apple-Hill pie but this year, it was a blue-ribbon award winning Sour-Cream Apple & Raspberry Pie. Absolutely divine, especially a-la-mode with double-vanilla ice cream. HAHAHA!
As if it wasn't enough, Grandpa Tom also made a Pumpkin Spiced Pecan Triffle, according to Williams-Sonoma recipe!
This is a keeper recipe as well! Everybody loved it, except Grandpa Tik, who absolutely HATES cinnamon. Mummy thought it needed more liquor for the pumpkin cake/bread portion but it still turned out excellent!
However, Erik surprised us this year by not wanting a taste of the turkey. Instead, he wanted the Maple-Glazed ham instead!!! LOL! Plus he stuffed himself with lots of sweet potato fries and was more interested in playing with Jason and Austin instead! Mummy even made the toddlers their own Thanksgiving table but only Jason really sat down and chowed LOL! The toddlers though, ate a lot later, and Austin & Erik only wanted Mac n' Cheese instead! HAHAHAH!
posted by Tabitha | 8:32 AM
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