Hopefully everyone is enjoying the long weekend and spending lots of time just relaxing, eating good food, being with good company. It's the time of the year when you think of family constantly and can't wait until the next time you're able to see everyone. For me, the next time will be during the December holidays - I'm super excited because I'll see my sisters again (one of them lives on the East Coast now, so every time with her is precious), and get to catch up with the rest of my family!
Family comes in all forms and shapes. They can consist of those related to you, or even those who you've come to share life's moments with. That said, I just wanted to do a special thanks post for the readers, my extended virtual family - I've hit 1000 page views meaning that I've managed to interest some of you into tuning in to my regular postings. I can't say how grateful I am to everyone for supporting this blog! This blog began with a small thought I had while out on a hike with MOH months ago. I had expressed a desire to start a writing portfolio of fusing two of my passions in life (science and food) but just couldn't find the motivation or catchy enough title to start. MOH finally gave me the push (and name of blog's title) and it's been half a year and the blog is still up and running, thanks to all my continued support from you all. I can't say it enough, but thanks for hanging around and reading my ramblings!
This Thanksgiving, MOH and I decided to branch out and switch up some of our usual dishes for new items. We usually do green beans, ham (for MOH), wild rice stuffing, yams and corn. This year, we kept the ham and wild rice as our oldies-but-goodies, and added on sweet potato and MOH's first ever pumpkin pie (gluten free crust baby!). Everything was so delicious and even without having turkey, we have fallen victim to the dreaded food coma. It's 10 PM and we're still feeling the effects. You'd think that a Thanksgiving without turkey would avoid the food coma, but even after taking a long 6 mile hike, MOH and I still couldn't escape the food coma.
I first made this wild rice dish last year after seeing it featured in the Bon apetit magazine. I cut the recipe in half since it was my first time making it and I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out. One hour later and a scorched pot fulled browned through, I had this dish that tasted so hearty and had this great depth of flavor full of fresh thyme. This year, I made some slight modifications, mostly due to me not wanting to deal with washing a burnt pot. I used a rice cooker to cook the wild rice/white rice blend in broth and sauteed garlic/onions. Then, once the rice was finished in the rice cooker, I scooped it all out and finished off the rice with a touch of lemon, thyme, and chives. This rice dish is an amazing substitute for the traditional go-to bread stuffing, especially for those who want to try a gluten-free alternative.
Normally, I like to make a coconut, sweet yam dish and mashed potatoes. You can't go wrong with delicious starches on Thanksgiving, but when there's such a great variety of squash/yam/sweet potato dishes, why not branch out? Gluten free goddess recently posted a Thanksgiving recipes post which featured this great recipe for a sweet potato black bean enchiladas that just looked amazing! It was great timing because MOH was hounding me about the numerous canned beans I had in the pantry. The enchiladas were so delicious. Using corn tortillas as a base, the enchiladas have a black bean/sweet potato lime stuffing that goes great with green enchilada sauce. Not your typical yams and marshmallow that are mostly featured during the fall, but good nonetheless. For added texture, I added onions and bell peppers and topped my serving with some tapatio sauce, yum.
I won't say too much about the honey glazed ham since this was more in MOH's realm, but MOH has been munching on his little ham pieces all night. He'll bring a piece at a time and just munch on them while we watch our TV marathon. Then, he'll saunter over to the kitchen and grab another piece - call me lazy, but I prefer to just stack my plate with a hefty helping and just gorge. I haven't tried it, but the glazed top looks amazing and it sure smells good.
And then the final touch to end our feast - pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is my favorite pie, hands down. People can attest to the apple pie, pecan, or blueberry pie, but pumpkin pie is just too special to compare. Simple in nature, the filling is so simple, but has this great spice combination. We went to Mother's Market, this awesome organic, natural foods grocery market to check out their Thanksgiving items. This store offers a wide variety of gluten-free options such as pie crusts! We bought pie crusts and dairy free chocolate chips (if you're lactose intolerant, TRY THESE, they are so delicious and melt great after baking) and MOH baked a pumpkin pie that tasted so good!
Overall, another year, another Thanksgiving of good food. Hopefully everyone's start of the holidays have gone well!
Until next time, happy holidays, and happy eating all!
No comments:
Post a Comment