Saturday, November 27, 2010

A Whirl in the City of Angels: Thanksgiving 2010

Every year, it's tradition for me to hop in the car or on a plane down to Los Angeles and spend Thanksgiving with one of my best childhood friends, who's currently working down south. This year's trip was a particular whirlwind, since (1) I was so busy in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving that I had zero time to even think about going away, and (2) I had to rush back immediately after Thanksgiving for another event (more on that later on in the week). So here's the chronicle of this year's Thanksgiving trip.

Driving south with fellow Stanford-ites.

The view over Pacheco Pass.

--Scenes from Los Angeles--


I got in late Tuesday night after a long drive down Highway 5.  On Wednesday morning, we hit up the wonderful Santa Monica Farmers' Market (was too busy shopping for food to take any photos) and then planned our Thanksgiving menu over delicious bowls of pho.

That's Jessi, whom I've known since fifth grade! ^

Then, I cooked Thanksgiving dinner in under five hours.  I'm quite proud of that fact, especially since I had no clue what I would make before going to the farmers' market that morning.  Granted, I had numerous helping hands, without which I could never have pulled this one off!  (We had Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, since people usually have other plans on Thursday.)

--Scenes from the Thanksgiving kitchen--


Thanksgiving Menu 2010

Jerusalem artichoke citrus mint salad
JalapeƱo cornbread with garlic chive goat cheese spread

Lemon rosemary pepper trout
Garlic and herb-ed chicken legs

Roasted crabapples wrapped in prosciutto and thyme
Haricot verts with fresh cranberries
Caramelized rainbow carrots
English peas with mint
Garlic mashed potatoes
Pomegranate-ginger cranberry sauce
Roasted delicata squash with sage, balsamic vinegar, and olive oil

Roasted figs with fresh ginger honey syrup and salted pistachios, over vanilla ice cream
Dark chocolate "thing" with pumpkin mascarpone cheese, vanilla whipped cream, and caramel


Suffice it to say that the food all went over terrifically, and we ended our night with delicious roasted ginger figs, chocolate pumpkin dessert, and hilarious moments of Apples to Apples.
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Thanksgiving morning = post food coma food coma
chili cheese homefries and whipped cream waffles


Thanksgiving day dinner: Doing the "Asian" Thanksgiving
kimchee, banchan, and rice in K-Town

Then, on a plane, homeward bound....


--Epilogue--

Just because I had a whirlwind of a Thanksgiving doesn't mean that I didn't have time to seriously reflect on what I'm truly thankful for this year: the incredible and unbelievable support that I receive from the wonderful people in my life.  If there's anything I've learned from this past year, it's how unspeakably lucky and fortunate I am to have the support, faith, and encouragement that I do, how I have people to fall back and rely on when things get particularly rough and life starts throwing massive amounts of s*** your way.  The amount of gratitude that I feel for these people who stand by me can hardly be properly or fully expressed in words, and I'm deathly afraid that I'm not really doing them any justice in this clunky "thank you" paragraph...!

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Anyways, I hope that you all had a great, relaxing, and yummy Thanksgiving!  Now, onto the holiday season!  Tinsel!  Christmas lights!  Hot chocolate!  --Here. I. Come.

7 comments:

  1. Awesome recap! We play apples to apples on thxgiving too. Love it! Your menu also sounded wonderful. Kudos for thinking on your feat and for sneaking in a bowl of pho. Yum!

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  2. Oh wow S, what gorgeous photos! You just took me on a trip with you. And how cool is that to get to stay close to your childhood friend and spend some special holidays with them! And finally what an awesome menu thr!! I'm glad you had a fun thanksgiving!

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  3. Your thanksgiving menu sounds amazing!

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  4. Oh, I loved this. And that fig picture is SO nice. What lucky friends! And I wish my phone had such an awesome photo app. *stares at Android glumly*

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  5. I love your blog. It's fabulous and... yummy!

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  6. I'm so impressed you whipped up that menu after shopping at the Farmers' Market and in under 5 hours!! You're my hero! I'm the complete opposite - I need to plan everything before shopping, so a situation like that would've made me extremely stressed ;)

    Glad you had a gorgeous Thanksgiving, love your pics!

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  7. Awesome recap! We play apples to apples on thxgiving too. Love it! Your menu also sounded wonderful. Kudos for thinking on your feat and for sneaking in a bowl of pho. Yum!

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I love hearing from you and reading your comments! Thanks so much for stopping by the blog. Happy feasting!