Post Thanksgiving Feast 2017
So, even, though there is absolutely no way I have enough storage space, cooking utensils, or "pans that you can trash" (what I called disposable baking tins to BF when I couldn't remember what they were actually called), I wanted to partake in the Thanksgiving cooking festivities. There's no way that our small apartment would have been able to be used for big, Mexican-American family, Thanksgiving Day festivities. (My Vietnamese family doesn't really understand Thanksgiving.) But, in the effort to partake in the American tradition, I decided to cook a second Thanksgiving day feast. There is no reason for me to do this, except for the fact that I want to have Thanksgiving leftovers forever. Also, on a deeper note, I grew up in a small family - where Thanksgiving was only a 2-4 person affair, but my dad would cook for an army anyways. So, in honor of my dad and family, here's a summary of my gluttunous Post Thanksgiving meal.
(1) Deviled Eggs - So, deviled eggs are a "white" tradition - according to my boyfriend, which I believe is a fair assessment. I can honestly say I've never seen them outside of Caucasian households. In fact, they were introduced to me by my Caucasian grandmother when she moved to California when I was a pre-teen. Still, I like them enough to eat a few pieces. I do get sick of the flavor pretty quick though. The boyfriend was skeptical (as he'd never tried them before) and asked me to put bacon in them to make them more palatable to him, I agreed and they actually turned out better than I anticipated. BF was surprised that he liked them too; he called them somewhat of a dark horse of the dinner.
(2) Stuffed Mushrooms - I made my stuffed mushrooms, a la Olive Garden copycat recipe. One of my nephews worked at Olive Garden and he let me know that they have clams in them, apparently well known to the internet, but unbeknownst to me. In addition, the grocery store was out of Cremini mushrooms for stuffing, so I opted for baby Portabella. I enjoyed them this way - again my BF was skeptical that they would "taste too mushroom-y" but pleasantly surprised. We did note that the mushrooms needed to be eaten pretty hot or else they tasted kind of odd.
(3) Pistachio Salad - So, I didn't actually serve this one to anyone but myself & BF. It's a really weird flavor and dish. If you have no idea what pistachio salad, look it up - I described it to the boyfriend as "Midwestern Green Goop", as it was my grandmother, from Indiana, who also introduced me to this "delicacy". It's a bowl of sugar, in a strange form factor. I made it purely for nostalgia. Yet, it's comforting to eat. Boyfriend was asked for a review - "I liked it, even though it was weird."
(4) Roasted Turkey - This turkey was gigantic (about 20 lbs.), at least by my own standards, and I tried so hard to keep it from being dry. I was somewhat successful. It wasn't terribly offensive, but still not what I would have hoped for. I tried pretty much every "tip/trick" I could find online to keep it from drying out. I'll try not to beat myself up about it too much though, I know that it's a never ending struggle to have a perfectly moist turkey. The skin was super crunchy and delicious - so that was a win enough for me. BF was concerned that the champagne would be too apparent (he doesn't like the taste of alcohol), but said that it wasn't and he liked the taste of thyme from the herbs. IN OTHER NEWS THOUGH, upon trying to remove the turkey from the oven, we spilled a bunch of broth/chardonnay, that the bird was cooking in, in the oven and caused tons of smoke to billow out. The smoke alarm went off, the bottom of the oven caught a bit of fire from the alcohol, we had to blast the air conditioner, oven the windows and doors, fan the oven, fan the alarm, etc. We were laughing so much though; running around, we claimed this was our exercise for the day. Once we got control of the situation, I realized that the turkey wasn't even ready to come out of the oven. "I'm sorry for the set back, but everything will be okay," said BF as he chuckled under his breath.
(5) Seafood Sausage Stuffing - This tastes like nothing I've ever eaten before, both in a good and bad way. It's not bad, I like everything inside of it - but it's not great either. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but not because I didn't like it so much as I typically love stuffing - and this was just fine. I would go with something more traditional, in the future. However, I was feeling adventurous. On the other hand, BF doesn't typically like stuffing and thought it was good. However, we both agreed that more traditional stuffings have more fat incorporated and this lacked that fatty, savory quality. Take that however you will, as a good thing or a bad thing.
(6) Mashed Potatoes - Simple, creamy mashed potatoes are the best mashed potatoes. Always a hit.
(7) Candied Yams - I love the smell of the candy-ing liquid; I have no idea what else to call the sugary, buttery, cinnamon goodness that the yams get covered in. I don't have candied yams often, maybe one every few years. However, each time I do, I remember how good they are. They're so easy and delicious.
(8) Hot Cheetos Mac & Cheese - This was my excuse to try out the famous Kardashian Mac & Cheese recipe. This was honestly the most expensive dish of the night - purely because of the myriad of different cheeses. The changes I made included removing the egg from the original recipe, as I was getting too lazy to add it, and adding Hot Cheetos crumbles on the side for anyone to add atop. In addition, I think I could have roasted the Mac & Cheese for longer, but it was dinner time and I needed to get them out. This tastes better steaming hot than not. When not, there are so many cheeses that it kind of becomes indistinguishable and taste "a bit like nothing, odd" (-BF). However, once you get this recipe hot, it's creamy and tasty. Word of advice, go light on the bread crumbs, they don't hold over very well. In fact, if you're okay with it, I'd say you can remove the crumbs altogether, they don't really add much. Quick BF review: "I am somewhat of a mac and cheese aficionado. It was good but I think I prefer your mac and cheese more. The recipe was okay, I think it was trying too hard to be fancy with all the types of cheeses, but the way you executed it was amazing." (He's so cute and supportive.)
(9) Scalloped Potatoes - I think the key to these is to be patient and slice your onions/potatoes very thin. My onions and potatoes were too thick and I don't think they were cooked for long enough. It was edible, but I don't think they were exceptionally good. They also smelled very strongly of onions. Although, I love onions, hot onion/milk smell isn't necessarily a favorite. I need more practice on them. More on slicing though, I sliced my finger open trying to change a blade on a Mandolin Slicer. Those things are dangerous, be careful.
(10) Summer Squash and Cherry Tomatoes - This was a pretty simple recipe just to get some veggies on the table. What can I say, they tasted like squash and tomatoes. I like those things, so I put them together, also because those are the two free veggies to cook with in the fridge when the store were out of butternut squash. BF: "Just squash...soft squash...pretty standard...I liked it."
P.S. Boyfriend read post and laughed that he sounded super snobby. Don't worry, I just write him that way cause it's concise and he's not just made up of snotty sound bites, haha!