I bet yare (This is what the iPad thought I meant when I typed “you are”. Is today Pirate Day?) wondering how in the heeze we did a Chinese-American Thanksgiving. Well folks, it took some man/woman-power to get it all to come together.
Not only was it a clash of cultures, but we had to have all low-fat recipes as well. Talk about a logistic nightmare, but we did it!
The Chinese side of things:
-deep fried turkey (hellooooo juicy taste bomb)
-cha siu bao aka steamed buns filled with BBQ pork
-not-so-low-fat egg rolls
-magosteens, guava, and persimmon
-sticky rice, which I never actually got a chance to stuff myself with
The American side of things:
-potato soup (kinda the star of the show. I will never need mashed taters again)
-wild rice stuffing (better cold, the day after)
-corn casserole
-roasted veggies (I read the recipe wrong and these tasted like garbage)
-not-so-low-fat pumpkin cheesecake bars (I die)
Amaze balls.
Did you do anything unconventional this year? What are some of your outside the box favorites?
-Mads
La Petite Pancake 
I want some of your Thanksgiving leftovers! Yum! It’s too bad about the roasted veggies, because they look beautiful.
We did nothing unconventional this year–my sister Erica hosted it, and I was expecting an OK-but-not-too-exciting meal, but she did a SPECTACULAR job making things like green bean casserole (which I’ve never liked) and jello with fruit and ham, etc. etc.. Who knew that traditional could be super friggin awesome?? Not I, until this year. =)
Yeah, I don’t know what happened with the roasted veggies. The recipe called for sorghum, which I had to google. The first link was something about a sorghum grass, so I thought, “Oh, I’ll just replace that with rosemary.” Nope. Turns out the second link (which I missed) explained that sorghum is sort of like molasses. They were supposed to be candied veggies. Aaaaaand I think I tried to cook them too fast.
That’s awesome about the meal! Green bean casserole is one of my all-time faves. It was missed this year.
This looks wonderful! What a creative twist on the traditional Thanksgiving feast. Our Thanksgiving dinner was actually completely traditional–nothing weird or exciting! However, my family does vegetarian-ize all of the recipes (with the exception of the turkey!), so I suppose that makes things a little more interesting 🙂
Ooo, that does sound interesting. No tofurkey? haha
If by non-traditional, you mean Marcus’ family made a completely different dinner, then yes, I did have a non-traditional Thanksgiving as well. But really, those egg rolls and bao (which ironically, Mom makes) need to be here in MN stat.
I love how your parents are so eclectic. They are now part Christian, part Jew, and part Chinese. Simply amazing.
Our Thanksgiving with my in-laws is pretty traditional. I’ve tried to spice it up a bit, and it falls flat every time. Sigh. Too bad about your veggies–they look beautiful. I lived near San Francisco for a few years as a kid, and we used to get cha siu bau in Chinatown all the time. I had forgotten all about it.
Oh yay! I’m glad somebody knows char siu bao. Delicious!
I’ll be posting the potato soup recipe soon. It was only a slight variation from tradition and it blew everyone’s socks off. 🙂
Madsy – it was wonderful! We had a great time, and the food was the best. I think I can deal with the low-fat aspect myself – moderation is key. I’m thinking Christmas may be a bit more fat content…ha ha. That’s a severe contradiction of terms: “a bit more fat”.
Your recipes were the bomb. I’m also disappointed in myself for forgetting Sam’s gift of guava. I really was looking forward to some guava something or other…smoothie? And, I’m pretty darn sure your wild rice and cranberries would have been fabulous as a leftover salad. Mmmm.
See you soon!
The wild rice is in the freezer. We’ll see how well it holds up in there, but we had to toss most of the leftovers that didn’t freeze 😦 It was a sad sad day.
I am going to attempt a guava smoothie tomorrow with your guavas. Sorry dude
Thanks for coming! Couldn’t have pulled it together without you!