Thanksgiving in Hong Kong

For Thanksgiving, Matt and I went over to Kelly's house for dinner. It felt really good to eat with them, especially since I hadn't seen them for a while and it felt sort of like we were eating with family. Matt and I had got there at about 5 pm, and Kelly was starting the mashed potatoes. None of us had ever cooked a full Thanksgiving meal before, so we hit a few snags along the way...Neither Kelly nor I had ever made mashed potatoes before. I don't like them, and I think Kelly's mom usually did it at their house. Kelly got a recipe out of Food and Wine magazine, and it didn't mention anything about boiling the potatoes, it just said to simmer them in cream, butter and garlic. So, we did that for a long time, and of course, the potatoes stayed hard as a rock for a long, long time! Meanwhile, the turkey was in the oven, but we didn't know how long it should stay for. It was 16 pounds, and the recipe that she had from Food and Wine magazine was for a 12 pound turkey. The recipe said to peel the skin off and then reattach it, so Kelly did that before we got there. Kelly and I hadn't seen eachother for a while, so were chatting and did not notice how nothing was getting done...Matt was in the living room watching the wedding crashers and drinking wine. So, Raul came home after work and freaked out because nothing was done. I guess he wanted the food all out on the table? The potatoes were still hard and the cream was congealing slightly, and the skin on the turkey had shriveled into a disgusting looking mass because Kelly had peeled it back. There was a minor -- ok, major -- blow out about how Thanksgiving was ruined by a lack of cooking skills. Ayayay! Lucky Matt, blissfully watching a movie in the living room! Anyway, everything turned out fine in the end. The smoke alarm only went off 4 times, the mashed potatoes were mostly smooth, the turkey was moist and delicious aside from the uncooked portions, and we were sitting down to eat at a very respectable 9 pm! Haha! Making Thanksgiving dinner and timing everything correctly is much harder than it seems! Oh well, you live and you learn. We had a nice relaxing dinner, with 4 drunk people, and a very exhausted and completely sober Kelly and I.

(I probably shouldn't have admitted all of our cooking fiascos...But, hey, I don't claim to be an experienced cook! I haven't cooked since I lived in San Diego, and that was quite a while ago!)

Despite all of the fiascos, it was great to be back in Hong Kong with close friends. We are going to do it all again on Saturday...Raul's coworkers invited us to their house for another Thanksgiving dinner this weekend. This should run more smoothly though...we now how to make mashed potatoes properly and aside from the that we are just supposed to bring a fruit and cheese platter. Thursday night was just a practice run.


One Big Happy, Slightly Disfunctional Family 


Kelly Mashing potatoes 


Chopping Onions is Really Funny 


A Sumptuous Thanksgiving Feast