My Mexican Thanksgiving
Marisol, my amazing girlfriend, decided she wanted to make me a Thanksgiving dinner so I wouldn't miss home during the holiday. I deeply regret that I didn't have my camera with me while we (she) was preparing the Turkey but I'll attempt to do it justice with words.
(Warning: Graphic depictions of food stuffs and gluttony follow. If you hunger easily or have eaten nothing but Turkey leftovers since last Thursday, you may want to skip directly to the pictures.)
First, she injected the turkey with white wine, and then proceeded to put butter, bacon, salt, and pepper between the skin and the white breast meat. This, she explained, was the critical step to enhancing the flavor of the white meat. The bacon mostly disintegrates during baking but the usually dry and tasteless breast meat soaks up all that flavor and and juice leaving it juicy and delicious. I could only nod my head in amazement. There was also a glaze of some sort that was brushed onto the skin and then a stuffing made of a dozen ingredients including ground beef, white raisins, almonds, celery, carrots, a bunch of spices, and five or six other special Marisol secrets.
Then there was the Sweet Potato Surprise, a specialty from my family that is topped off with nothing less than a layer of marshmallows. Marisol was skeptical, but consented in the end and I'm proud to say that everyone, Marisol included, raved about this dish. My grandma would be so proud.
Finally, she whipped together a pumpkin pie, from scratch. There were no pumpkins to be found anywhere so we bought a yellowish gourd about the size of two footballs and went to work. I was the most nervous of how this would turn out since it is my favorite single part of Thanksgiving. It, I shouldn't be surprised, turned out amazing. Perfectly spiced and perhaps the best "pumpkin" pie I've ever eaten.
Finally, there were the other usual suspects: rolls, mashed potatoes, salad, gravy, and cranberry sauce. A perfect Thanksgiving away from home.
(Warning: Graphic depictions of food stuffs and gluttony follow. If you hunger easily or have eaten nothing but Turkey leftovers since last Thursday, you may want to skip directly to the pictures.)
First, she injected the turkey with white wine, and then proceeded to put butter, bacon, salt, and pepper between the skin and the white breast meat. This, she explained, was the critical step to enhancing the flavor of the white meat. The bacon mostly disintegrates during baking but the usually dry and tasteless breast meat soaks up all that flavor and and juice leaving it juicy and delicious. I could only nod my head in amazement. There was also a glaze of some sort that was brushed onto the skin and then a stuffing made of a dozen ingredients including ground beef, white raisins, almonds, celery, carrots, a bunch of spices, and five or six other special Marisol secrets.
Then there was the Sweet Potato Surprise, a specialty from my family that is topped off with nothing less than a layer of marshmallows. Marisol was skeptical, but consented in the end and I'm proud to say that everyone, Marisol included, raved about this dish. My grandma would be so proud.
Finally, she whipped together a pumpkin pie, from scratch. There were no pumpkins to be found anywhere so we bought a yellowish gourd about the size of two footballs and went to work. I was the most nervous of how this would turn out since it is my favorite single part of Thanksgiving. It, I shouldn't be surprised, turned out amazing. Perfectly spiced and perhaps the best "pumpkin" pie I've ever eaten.
Finally, there were the other usual suspects: rolls, mashed potatoes, salad, gravy, and cranberry sauce. A perfect Thanksgiving away from home.
Just minutes after ravaging our dinner.
Master Chef and, err, host guy.
Javier and Amandine.
A thank you kiss on the forehead.
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