food comas

It’s been over a year since I had moved to Singapore, and I am glad to say that I am starting to feel a lot more settled here.  With that, I decided it was about time to introducing some new traditions to my expat life.

Back in New York, Natalya and I had hosted Thanksgiving Eve Dinner for all our friends three years in a row.  Sadly, the tradition was broken upon my move to Singapore in 2012 but we both tried to celebrate in our own way.  I didn’t have a proper oven at the time, and so I ended up roasting a small turkey breast for a small Thanksgiving brunch with a couple friends.  Afterwards, I made a Thanksgiving Leftovers Eggs Benedict which was quite a fun experiment.

This year, I finally decided to host a proper Thanksgiving meal, especially now that I have a proper oven in my kitchen.  It was my first year to roast a whole turkey; I tried to start small and managed to find a 9lb frozen butterball turkey at my grocery store which I named Harold (the brother of Hank the chicken).  For the sides, I made some roasted mini potatoes, veggie pasta salad, and apple and walnut cornbread stuffing.    Of course, I also brought back some old classics though like my family’s favorite hot crab dip and candied yams.  My friends helped complete the meal with some honey butter biscuits,  cornbread, cranberry sauce, pecan pie, rice krispie treats, and cupcakes.  The gathering consisted of a few Americans, Canadians, Singaporeans, Italians, and Brits — some of which were Thanksgiving virgins.  It was quite a fun night despite some minor flooding incident due to the turkey brine…

Hope everyone had a very happy Thanksgiving!  Cheers to food, family, friends, and Harold!

For more Thanksgiving meals, see the links below:
Third Annual Thanksgiving Eve Dinner
Second Annual Thanksgiving Dinner

And now, here’s my Singaporean Thanksgiving Eve dinner:

Whole Roasted Turkey
Meet Harold.  He is Hank’s brother.  He got all dolled up for the big show the same way we normally do with Hank — spiced brine, herb butter rub, and roasted.  I used the Whole Roasted Chicken recipe but without the vegetables, and instead put some lemon quarters, garlic cloves, and rosemary in the cavity.

Cornbread stuffing with Apples and Walnuts
Pepperidge Farm takes most of the credit for this, but I did decide to add the walnuts and apples myself after reading a few blogs. I liked the apples, but think need something else to make it a bit lighter and less dense.  Next year, I will attempt to make stuffing from scratch… baby steps!

Candied Yams
My cousin Rose’s recipe… it’s always a winner especially with the gooey marshmallows crust on top.

Crisped Roasted Mini Potatoes
I love these roasted mini potatoes from Thomas Keller.  I prepared it the same way as the recipe states except I used fresh rosemary instead of thyme.

Pasta Salad with Broccoli and Cherry Tomatoes
One of the “lighter” carbs on the menu.  This recipe was super easy — I just tossed some cooked penne with roasted cherry tomatoes and boiled broccoli and plenty of olive oil.

Baked Crab Dip
Any hot dip with cream cheese base is a crowd pleaser.

The rest of the menu (not pictured) included steamed vegetables, honey butter biscuits, cornbread, mashed potatoes, pecan pie, choco rice krispie treats, and cupcakes.  I didn’t make any dessert this year, but I was PLANNING to make these mini pumpkin cheesecakes again… next time!