Where's the Turkey?!; A Family Food Photo Essay; The Thanksgiving Post

Ladies and gentleman, cats and dogs, rub your hands and paws together and lick your chops, cause this post is serving up a whole lot of scrumptious! To your left, from the Far East, we have a heaping bowl of “Chinese Knock-Your-Socks-Off Sticky Rice Stuffing.” To your right, we’ve got the Wong boyz’ “Magically Non-Spicy Jalapeño Cornbread.” And as our center showpiece, we give you the much talked about “Perfectly Smoked Twenty-pound Turkey,” brined and oiled by our very own Auntie Lana and Uncle Ed and sliced by, drumroll please…… my mother! There’s lots to be thankful for this year, folks, so put on your thanking caps and start thanking!

A Clean Palette.

Uncle Ed's Vegetable Patch. Beware of Owl.

Uncle Ed lookin' coo.

YAMS.

Auntie Lana and Smoky the R2D2.

There's the Turkey!

Checking if it's tanned enough.

An Olive-Oil Brush-Up.

Headless, but happy.

Woodchips getting ready for next Thanksgiving.

Shallot-chopping Momma.

Droooooooooool.

Oh hello.

  

Matthew's so happy it's Thanksgiving.

He can't help but jump for joy.

Sistah sistah!

Green tomatoes. Good for a pie?

Uncle Ed's babies.

Pretty Persimmon tree.

     

Papa: Chomping on a Char Sui Bao/ Stop, Drop, and Roll?

Mama: Turkey surgery.

Hmmmmm?

Auntie Margaret and Happy, together forever.

“Chinese Knock-Your-Socks-Off Sticky Rice Stuffing.”

The ritual begging.

The gang- it's amazing how they form one entity. They're like the Power Rangers or something.

Oncle Stan and Uncle Ed patiently waiting to pounce.

Ta Dahm!

All mine.

I'm so thankfulllllll!

Oncle S and Auntie M: Faces of Drama.

Eeeeeeee.

Beers and Burps.

And here comes the vacuum cleaner...

Modest Muffins; Substitute the Sour Cream; The Pre-Thanksgiving Post

It’s hard to believe that it’s almost been a year since the end of 2011 when I moved back to the Bay Area. Almost around the same time last year, I had reconnected with my friend, Olivia, whom you may remember from the beginning of my blog. The picture of us I’ve included in this post is from the Renegade Craft Fair photo booth where we tried to look our hipsterest with the mustaches and all.

This past Friday morning, Olivia came over and helped me make some…drum roll please… MUFFINS! I had bought a tub of 0% fat Greek yogurt a while ago and needed to use it, so I substituted it for sour cream in the Joy of Baking's Sour Cream Chip muffin recipe. I also substituted the chocolate chips with fresh, fish-face sour cranberries and then added some leftover pumpkin purée I had from making pumpkin cheesecakes for work. What I love about muffins is how they are so simple and low-maintenance. According to Wikipedia, they’re the humblest of breakfast pastries, so I like to call them modest muffins (sounds like the band Modest Mouse too!). You just take some flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, add the dry mix to the wet mix of sour cream or Greek yogurt, an egg, melted butter and vanilla extract and add whatever other spices, nuts, or fruits you desire. I realized after the fact that my muffins were Thanksgiving themed, which was perfect seeing as that wonderful Turkey-filled day is coming up.

The left half are sprinkled with brown sugar, the right half are plain.

Some things I was thankful for that day: spending time and catching up with the lovely Olivia- she’s always such wonderful company- and fun too!, having the muffins turn out rather well- moist and flavorful!, and knowing that my parents will be coming up for the holiday after all- yay! It’s funny how one day full of food and family can conjure up so many positive emotions and feelings of gratitude that we should really strive to have most of the year round. What are you going to say when it’s your turn to be thankful?

Making the Cut; Brief Brunch Bruschetta; The Late Post

Let me apologize for skipping last week’s post. It was a whirlwind of a week that included helping someone move, Oakland Art Murmur, and a trip to the hospital. It also included making bruschetta with someone I had been hanging out with for a couple of weeks. You might remember me mentioning a waffle pants-wearing guy named Ken. Well, since that Earl Grey Elaagen Daz night, he and I had been spending a lot of time together, attending a lecture on dark matter, experiencing a Flying Lotus concert, and just having fun getting to know each other.

Due to circumstances I’d rather not detail, we’ve stopped seeing each other, but I’m happy to have learned all that I did about him. For one, his parents own a sushi restaurant and he used to run the non-sushi part of the kitchen. Awesome! Right? For another, he’s watched the movie “Julie and Julia” maybe as many times as I have or more, so he knew what I was talking about when I described the part of the movie where Julie is making bruschetta and gushing to her husband about how much she loves cooking and how she should write a blog about it. The sounds and images of the bruschetta making and eating never fail to get my appetite going. The mouthwatering crunching of the pan-fried bread and the lip-smacking look of the bright red tomatoes tossed with the beautiful green basil always make me soooooo hooooongry! So when Ken suggested making bruschetta, I got super excited and was more than willing to jump on the bruschetta train.

 Saturday morning, we walked down to Arizmendi and grabbed a loaf of Rustic Sourdough, still warm to the touch from the oven. Back at my place, we got to washing and cutting. I guess Ken gets somewhat OCD about cutting food correctly, so I let him handle that. What amazed me the most was the way he sliced the onions- leaving little grooves so that some of the pieces came out as triangles. It was like knife wizardry! I was able to make a little cutting contribution with my knowledge of chiffonade, or cutting vegetable leaves, e.g. the basil, into thin ribbons. I pan-fried the slices of bread using Ratto’s delicious olive oil while Ken tossed the tomatoes, basil, red onions, garlic, and olive oil. We plated the bread and bruschetta and bon appétit! We indulged in the crispness of the crust juxtaposed against the softness of the bread’s middle and the fresh juiciness of the tomato-basil mixture. It was just what I wanted and needed at that moment and I’ll always remember it fondly.