Thanksgiving Day 2011
Hey everyone!
How was everyone's Turkey Day? I'm usually anti-Turkey, but it being my first Thanksgiving as a married lady, Keat and I thought this would be the perfect time to make our first turkey together. This would also be the first time we would be hosting Thanksgiving for our friends and family as a married couple. Talk about pressure!
I started on Tuesday by making sweet red bean (mungo) ice cream. I haven't had any myself, so I can't really say how it was haha. No, I didn't serve it on Thanksgiving, but it's in the freezer for whoever wants to try it.
On Wednesday night, I started making my lech flan cake:
Wednesday night, everything was going right. The burnt caramel was gorgeous. The leche flan mix was perfect. Even the meringue I made was gorgeous...complete with perky Madonna boobies. When I went to invert it yesterday, I got leche flan soup. I guess I did something wrong and the leche flan didn't set up right. IDK, I was quite disappointed.
My family was so kind to at least taste the cake...which they said was pretty good. Oh well, there is always next time to try to perfect it.
Then...before I knew it...it was Thanksgiving Day...I woke up around 9am to prepare.
I found some post-its and figured it was a good way to organize the menu and cooking schedule. For sure, I knew that the turkey would take the longest, so I scheduled for it to go into the oven at around Noon. We got a smallish bird - at around 11 pounds. We were going to also stuff it, so we planned for 4 hours.
Before sticking the turkey in the oven, I made some easy banana cinnamon cupcakes with Scharffen Berger chocolate chunks since my first dessert failed:
After the cupcakes were done, we tackled the turkey. We had been brining it since Tuesday night in a sugar, kosher salt, and apple cider vinegar solution. I took it out of the brine and dried it with paper towels. Keat and I then took turns giving it a butter massage. Earlier in the morning, I prepared some stuffing which I let cool. Keat had the honor of stuffing the bird. Sorry no pictures. My hands were covered in turkey juice. Cross contamination is a no-no!
The color isn't the best in this picture because I took it with my camera phone, but we were thrilled with the carmelization of the skin. We took it out of the oven and let it rest under a foil tent while we were finishing up preparing the table.
You will notice that it was a very eclectic menu. We had everything from the traditional things that go with turkey, like Keat's mom's cranberry sauce and his gravy made with the turkey drippings, to Chinese roasted duck brought by Cousin Star, my "Pinoy na Pinoy" sweet spaghetti, Chip and Lara's Mexican Corn with Lime, Chile Powder, and Cotija cheese, my sister's friends' Chinese salt and pepper chicken wings, my bread and cheese plate complete with bruschetta tomatoes, black pepper'ed fresh mozzarella medallions, and TRUFFLE brie, and Manang Gem's homemade rice cakes called "puto" seen below:
This tray of puto reminds me of the Philippine flag! Here are more goodies:
These are a tradition in our family. We HAVE to have these or else Thanksgiving would not be complete. Seriously the easiest buffet items you can possibly make!
I admit, due to a misunderstanding of how to tell when it was done (*stupid turkey popper*), this COULD have been taken out a good 15 minutes before we actually did. I feared it would have been too dry by the time it got to the table, but it wasn't bad at all! I was told the drumsticks were tender and the white meat was moist! Keat and I were pleased with it! Doesn't the skin look amazing?
I was a proud momma.
On my "game plan" wall, my guests wrote down what they were thankful for. It was really great to see what was said. Here is one of the interesting ones:
I would have to say our first time hosting Thanksgiving was a success! The good food, three bottles of Chandon, friends, and family sure made for a wonderful get-together. I can't wait for the next holiday party at my place! I confess, I was so tired from all the cooking yesterday that I woke up at 10am this morning. I failed at the Black Friday shopping.
So what about the leftovers?
This morning, I made balatong/mungo with leftover turkey meat and turkey drippings I reserved, tomatoes, and spinach. Yes, Keat is going to be so happy when he gets home this afternoon.
I surely hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and ate yourself silly! I was so grateful to have my loved ones with me last night. Happy holidays, my loves!
xoxo,
Jo
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