Thanksgiving Dinner 2009

This will be our fourth year on the roll to host Thanksgiving dinner for our family. Our family so far consists of us and Richard's extended family. Richard came from a big family so our house was crowded during Thanksgiving dinners. I also invited one of my good Chinese girlfriend's family in Seattle - a family of five to join us this year. I assume as long as we don't move away to another state, Thanksgiving in our house will be an unwaiving family tradition. Most of the Americans don't take food seriously unless it comes to Thanksgiving. They'd rather vote for someone who used the change theme "Change We Believe In" all the way to the Whitehouse than to change their traditional Thanksgiving menu. In the past, I have suggested to spice up our menu a bit as to add a few of my specialty Chinese dishes perhaps but that bill was killed before it had a chance to pass for the House majority voting process. So this year I'm going to stick to the same traditional menu, which actually makes my hosting job so much easier. Richard is responsible for the main entrees turkey and ham, sweet potatoes, plus drinks. Speaking of drinks, I'm always amazed how well Americans are educated on wine and liquors, and how sophisticated their alcohol taste buds are. Except that some of the dishes are brought by guests, I'm responsible for mostly everything else. Below is the traditional menu in our household for Thanksgiving dinner.

Appetizer:

1. Deviled Eggs: To avoid hectic schedule, I make this dish a day ahead of time.

2. Cheese, Crackers, Smoked salmon: We like to use smoked or aged cheese. Whatever plain crackers work. and our local store has the best smoked wild salmon

3. Fruit Plate: whatever handy at the time, usually strawberries, grapes and mellows. I have planted strawberries and grape plants a couple of years ago but it will be a couple more years before I can harvest the fruits for Thanksgiving dinners.

Food:

1. Organic Turkey: Richard is an all thing organic believer so we are going to shop for an organic and the leanest turkey we can find this year. We never stuff the turkey for oven cooking. Instead we cook the stuffing stovetop separately with some fresh herbs and other vegetable ingredients. Richard believes that's a more sanitizing and scientific approach. I already bought the gravy from Trader Joe's a few weeks ago this year. My sister-in-law Amanda's mom Fay was a big help in gravy making but she won't be able to make it this year.

2. Spiral Ham: This is the only type of ham that we've known so far has real meat texture, not tasting smarshy or cardboardy. Richard also cooks some ham sauce to apply on the surface of the turkey before serving. We then use the bones to make soups with some of the leftovers after Thanksgiving.

3. Pork Roast: I will crackpot roast a big chuck of pork with sliced union, finger potatoes and dark beer for 6-8 hours. I will also cook this one day ahead, and then let it sit overnight in the refrigerator so I can take out all the fat on the top before reheating it on Thanksgiving Day.

3. Green beans: Fresh beans, not frozen kind. I sauté them with cold-pressed virgin olive oil, freshly grounded garlic and bacon bits.

4. Vegetable salad: Usually baby spinach and mango/orange, green onion and avocado; or lettuce and feta cheese, green onion, avocado and freshly chopped herbs

5. Smashed Potato: Richard's cousin's wife Elisabeth makes this. Basic ingredients are potato and butter

6. Cranberry Sauce: The best cranberry sauce is from Costco. Homemade cranberry sauce is not even as good as the one sold by Costco before Thanksgiving (of course a matter of personal opinion only)

7. Bread: I bake the dinner rolls before serving with butter. Spread a sprinkle of chopped fresh rosemary.

8. Sweet Potatoes: Richard says he will cook a lot more sweet potatoes this year. He boils them and then adds brown sugar, butter, and marshmallows

Desserts

1. Ice cream. I always use coffee flavor and vanilla flavor ice cream, topped with fresh blueberry and Carmel.

I'm not really a sweets fan so I have never really learned how to make desserts. But a meal without dessert is not a meal in the States. When Richard and I go grocery shopping, he usually has to drag me away from a small flower section, and I have to drag him away from a large dessert section. I never remembered having craves for sugar since my adulthood. I symbolically eat a tiny slice of cakes here and there at other people's houses. Richard craves for sugar the same way as I carve for Laoganmao hot sauce. His eyes sparkle at the sight of white frosty which I consider throw-aways. It's almost funny an organic and nuitrition enthusiast like Richard who is meticulous about reading fat and nurtrition contents on every grocery item we purchase, when it comes to sweets, he suddenly becomes blind-eyed. Richard’s mom and practically every American woman I know are experts in dessert making so they my lifesavers in our Thanksgiving dinner making. The desserts they brought over usually end up being:

2. Pecan and fruit pies. Richard mom Kari has some fruit trees and she made apple pie or blackberry pies etc previously. I have a jar of homemade apple filling from one of my girlfriends Gale. She made it from the apples she picked from her yard. I admire women who are that domestic. I might attempt to try making an apple pie this year. Scary thought!

3. Fruit cake. Kari already gave me a loaf she made last week.

We finish the dessert off with hot coffee and tea. We bought some pea berry Kona coffee from Kona, Big Island of Hawaii this summer. Starbuck Christmas blend is also very good. Every year I go to China, I buy some leaf green tea (That's a tiny Chinese thing I'll start trying to sneak into the Thanksgiving tradition as most of them are not used to drinking leaf tea).

Every time I mentioned to my parents in China I was to host a relatively large party or holiday dinner, they sounded concerned on the other end of the phone. They don't know their spoiled daughter learned a few cooking skills besides boiling water so they still have that trusting issue with me. Wish I could have them here for at least one Thanksgiving dinner to ease their worry. Of course, my parents and sisters in China are such  terrific cooks, I would never be able to catch up with their cooking capabilities. My sisters have been making their own wines for a few years now, something I always wanted to do but have not started yet. Richard and I always say for the amount of money and time spent on Thanksgiving dinner, we could invite everyone to a nice restaurant for a feast. But then when you think about it, there are reasons why Americans make such a big deal about Thanksgiving dinner and its traditional menu. Thanksgiving dinner tradition gives us a chance to share food, entertain others and have family get-together. Cooking Thanksgiving dinner is not only a fun thing to do for the host and the guests alike, but also suggests a comforting thought of being surrounded by those familiar faces and familiar food in this ever changing world. That alone makes one feel warmer when the outside temperature is getting colder at that time of the year. On that note, Thanksgiving and Christmas are always my favorite holidays.