Saturday, November 29, 2008

Thanksgiving, Korean style

So as many of you know I had my big Thanksgiving shindig on Saturday. It went pretty good actually. Most things were ok. Here is a rundown of what we had.
1) chicken - can't compare to turkey, but it tasted delicious - we bought it fully cooked
2)mashed potatoes and gravy - good, but the gravy was store bought so not as tasty
3)crescent rolls - again with the store bought, good but not my mom's
4) green bean casserole - pretty good, I missed not having french fried onions, but it tasted pretty good, we made it is the microwave...
5)sweet potato casserole - with nuts and marshmallows and fresh sweet potatoes. This one was better here than anywhere else actually...the sweet potatoes here are much better than at home, they aren't as pretty but they tasted so good...we made this in the microwave too.
6)cranberry sauce - canned store bought stuff, I love this stuff, but you all know how it tastes, all the Korean's thought it was really good...
7) stuffing - this one turned out ok...I used a fresh French baguette for the bread (best substitute) and so the texture was a little wrong but it tasted ok...
8) pumpkin pie- first I must say that pumpkin pie is like my favorite thing at Thanksgiving. I love everything about it, crust, pumpkin and whipped topping. To me with out all three parts, in that order it is not good...second we had MAJOR issues with the pie this year. At first we were going to buy the pie, not my first choice but I don't have an oven, no baking a pie. CostCo HAD pies. We didn't get one the first time we went because we thought it would go bad before our dinner. Huge mistake, they were all gone when we went back. Then Judy, the sweetheart that she is, went somewhere else to buy a pie and thought she was buying a pumpkin pie that she found in a department store. But really it was a pumpkin pastry. We tried it, it was good, but I told you the issue I have with the pie, must have three things and be in the right order, this had 2 crusts, not the same. No problem, I have a microwave and a recipe. But now I need to buy a microwave dish and pumpkin filling. No worries I know where our version of Wal-mart is, they have a pie plate. I also know where a foreign store is that isn't far away and I know they have pumpkin, I have seen it there before. Herein lies the problem, as with CostCo they were sold out. Seems like everyone was like just a little better with timing than I was...To early to buy a cooked pie when I saw them and therefore didn't think I needed canned pumpkin, waited too long all gone. Well ok, no problem, how hard can it be to make a pumpkin pie totally fresh? I asked myself this and then realized that like everything else I would have to do it in a microwave or on the stove. Yeah, we bought a pumpkin and made a fresh pie. It wasn't a complete disaster but let me tell you: I will be buying canned pumpkin to have on hand for the next party I decide to throw...Even if I plan to buy the pie I will have at least 1 can of that stuff on hand!!! Anyway, we boiled the pumpkin on the stove while I made a crust and then we had two layers. Good start, now to cook in the microwave, let cool and add layer 3. Really it wasn't bad but it wasn't my mom's so it wasn't perfect.
The pastry:The pie:The piece (notice the 3 layers):
Yeah so that is what we had. The friends that Judy and Erica invited over brought wine and decorations and flowers for me. They were fantastic! We had a great time, after dinner we (or I) drank wine and we played hearts, then Texas hold'em (which actually Judy and Erica's friend actually knew how to play and therefore he was able to teach them in Korean. All the terms like "pair" and "full house" and "straight" are the same in Korean as English so it was really easy to play!)and hwatu, which is a Korean card game played with weird cards. I think I have talked about this game before.
Overall we had a great time. I miss my family but I have new friends. Right now I wanna die because it is the morning after and I am still full, somethings never change...

6 comments:

jilllenz said...

Looks like your Thanksgiving dinner was a big success!! Except for the turkey, was practically the same! We still have bunches of leftovers, too bad I can't send you some!

We have snow today for the first time. Well it may have flurried before but never stuck to the ground. I think I will go for a walk in it.

Give Judy and Erica a big hug for me. I know they provided the love that made the Thanksgiving dinner special.

Love, mom

Amanda Tedesco said...

Mom, I did hug them for you...But I would rather hug you! It did go really well, I am suprised...I wish our snow would stick.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you did super, cooking such a big meal with only a microwave and crockpot. Necessity is the mother of...oh well.
I'm so glad you are making some friends. Know that really helps when you miss your family.
Grandma

Amanda Tedesco said...

Grandma, yeah it was a ton of fun and I couldn't have done it without Judy and Erica. They do help get over the homesickness a lot too! Love you!

Anonymous said...

I think I have eaten enough pumpkin pie for the rest of the world combined, so that might be why there was none left at the store you went to. Hope everything else is going well and I still cant believe you were able to cook all that without an oven.

Jason

Amanda Tedesco said...

Glad to hear that you had a good Thanksgiving, at least that is the feeling I get when you say you had a lot of pumpkin pie!!! I think with pumpkin pie the more the better!!!Yeah I am amazing I know...;)