Thankful for food and the family that makes the food

pumpkin pie

Apple pie

Trying a new thing here – multiple photos in a post! If you click on any of the photos it’ll pop up to full size and then you can scroll through (the > arrow will show up when you mouseover) to see the other photos in this post.

We went to two Thanksgivings today. For lunch we went to a potluck with Jens’ friends hosted by a very awesome coworker of his. Lots of delicious food but unfortunately I was too busy stuffing my face and playing with a cute baby to remember to take photos.

Then we went to my parents’ house for dinner, where my younger sisters were cooking up a storm. The menu there was:

Pictured:

  • Roasted horseradish root vegetables (this is what Jens made to bring, and the recipe is after the jump. It went really well with the roast.)
  • Fennel avocado salad (we also brought this. Only my mom really ate more than a few bites. The others aren’t really into fennel. And apparently my dad is not a fan of coriander, which was in the dressing.)
  • Pumpkin pie (recipe courtesy of Cook’s Illustrated, baked by sister)
  • Apple pie (also baked by sister)

Not pictured:

  • 2-rib roast (humanely raised beef, choice, from Whole Foods. $12.99/lb. It’s been my job the past two years to bring the meat, then my family roasts it. I keep meaning to order from a farmer’s market stall but procrastinated too long and had to go to Whole Foods.)
  • Mushroom gravy
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Green beans and other assorted steamed/boiled vegetables
  • Stuffing (I have no idea what kind. It’s the kind they’ve made the last few years in a row.Edit: apparently I am very wrong on this point. The stuffing was new, and consisted of made-from-scratch cornbread plumped with turkey broth, dried cranberries, Arkansas Black apples, and spicy sausage. In my defense, I remember asking if the stuffing was different and someone at the table claimed it was the same as last year’s. Obviously that source was mistaken.
  • Steamed rice
  • Cheese biscuits (very flaky and cheesy, but not the Red-Lobster style ones that my sister usually makes, which I love unreservedly.)

Someone asked me the other day if my family does a “traditional Thanksgiving.” I gave them a blank look and said, “We have rice because we’re Asian and prime rib instead of turkey because nobody likes turkey. But that’s traditional for us, so I guess the answer is yes.”

So whatever your traditions are I hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

For the horseradish root vegetable roast,

Roasted root vegetable salad with horseradish

Ingredients
1 1/2 lbs parsnips
2 large yellow carrots (less sweet/more flavor than orange carrots)
4 beets
1 1/2 Tbsps prepared horseradish
2 cloves garlic (used the frozen minced garlic from Trader Joes)
olive oil

Directions
Toss everything together on a large rimmed baking sheet (cover with foil for easy cleanup). Roast in a hot oven until all the veggies are roasty, at least 30 minutes, but it’s hard to overdo it. Yeah, this isn’t much of a recipe. Jens is playing a videogame so I’ll try and get better instructions later.

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5 Comments to “Thankful for food and the family that makes the food”

  1. Um, the stuffing actually wasn’t the same we usually make…

    And here Ate Claire and I were, thinking you guys just didn’t like it this time. BUT YOU DIDN’T EVEN NOTICE!

    • What?! I specifically asked if the stuffing was different and someone said that it was the same that you usually make. What was the stuffing? Inquiring minds want to know!

  2. Seconding Eileen… I actually made cornbread from scratch to put in the stuffing, and we got rid of the walnuts and used dried cranberries instead. We kept the apples but used Arkansas Blacks instead of Granny Smiths, and we used spicy sausage this year. Joy was pretty disappointed about the walnuts, actually.

  3. Also, Ate Claire put FRESH BITS OF CORN in the cornbread! C’mon, man! Also, she used turkey broth to plump up the cornbread. There is sage and thyme in it also.

  4. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again. I fear change. And the stuffing was very different.

    And generally I don’t like fresh corn in my cornbread–I like it sweet rather than savory!

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