Today will be the second time I’ll celebrate Thanksgiving in the US and the first away from my Jaye. For this year, my friends and I decided to prepare the food. It’s one thing to have a thanksgiving dinner, it’s another to prepare for one. I was amazed by the level of trust they gave me to prepare the spread. I volunteered to help out in the turkey as well as make my mom’s famous stuffing. They obviously haven’t browsed through my “Cooking with Arn” series. We had…
Bread crumbs stuffing. Prepared by TA. The second fastest dish we were able to whip up.
Macaroni and cheese. Prepared by Lui and Gea. Rich and creamy! Nothing else we would have wanted for the Thanksgiving pasta dish.
Cranberry Sauce. Prepared by TA. It was better than that gravy in a jar we bought. The fastest dish we were able to whip up. TA opened the can and I threw it into the garbage can. See? Team effort.
Meat stuffing. Classic Filipino – stuff meat with more meat. This one was mom’s special recipe and I feared I’d screw this up. I was already 4/5 along the recipe and it was nothing like the stuffing mom made which was supposed to be color red, sweet, tasty and tender. I was staring down a big bowl of white pork meat with no flavor and no color. I wanted to abort the whole thing and just settle with probably torta or something.
Trust mom. They know best. So I did.
I placed a can of tomato sauce and cranked up the heat. Nothing else I can do but hope for the best. A few minutes later, the tomato sauce evaporated and colored up the dish. It also sweetened the dish and it now tasted so good.
Thanks mom! Never doubted.
Turkey. It took a team effort to nail this dish. I cleaned the turkey and Lui, Lei and Gea prepared the marinade. Gea and I prepared the foil tent. TA and I came up with the ingenious way of lowering the turkey into the oven without burning ourselves (a series of inclined planes to slide the tray). Lui basted and determined the cooking time. TA took care of the turkey’s presentation.
This is the first time I handled turkey and I’m not familiar with its structure. While cleaning the turkey, there was a paper bag inside labeled “giblets” which I had no idea what to do with. Inside the belly of the turkey I pulled out something long. I had a confused look and just thought that this was probably a male turkey, a very male turkey. Lei tapped me on my shoulder…
“That’s the neck.”
The turkey cooked for 5 hours under its foil tent and Lui’s marinade recipe. The end product was just awesome. The turkey was so moist and flavorful. Everyone agreed and it really was delicious. No gravy needed. They made me carve the turkey since I “cooked” the turkey.
No I didn’t. We all did. Eating dinner and enjoying with friends were as happy as preparing everything and spending time with them. Isn’t that the thing that makes Thanksgiving so special?
