This was the first Thanksgiving that I didn't have turkey because there doesn't seem to be any turkey in China. Although I missed the traditional spread from home and being with my family, it was fun making some Thanksgiving dishes with the challenge of only a hot plate and toaster oven. It was really cool eating a big dinner with the other foreign teachers, Teddy (our waiban), Steve and his family, Zhen zhen (Ken's girlfriend) and Qin Chen. It was especially funny watching them experience the strangeness that is American food as I completely understood what they were going through having been trying new foods almost daily for the past 3 months.

Sean and I decided to try to make green bean casserole, deviled eggs, stuffed mushrooms, apple crisp and chocolate cup cakes for the dinner. Some ingredients that were missing were the following: cream of mushroom soup, french fried onions, paprika, and nutmeg. We had to go to a bigger, international store to get Cinnamon, canned green beans, mustard, miracle whip, frosting, cup cake mix, Parmesan cheese and bacon. It was fun trying to make everything by hand but it was also a lot of work. We spent about two days cooking everything mainly because the toaster oven is small and we had to time all of the different rounds of baking to be ready for Thursday night.

One of my tutors came to help with the apple crisp but unfortunately she didn't really like it. She said the Cinnamon smelled terrible. One of Sean's tutors came over to sample a chocolate cupcake and upon consumption he said "cool!" Overall, the dishes turned out fine. The green bean casserole required the most work as we had to make and thicken the cream of mushroom soup and then french fry a million little onions. It turned out a little blander than hoped but it was still a taste of home. The cup cakes and apple crisp were a big hit and turned out great. I think the favorites were the deviled eggs (topped with olives instead of paprika) and the stuffed mushrooms which were delicious. The other teachers brought stuffing, baked apples, mashed potatoes and fruit. We ordered in KFC and that also tasted great.


We all left Ken's overly full and very satisfied. The good thing is we have some apple crisp and green bean casserole leftovers to enjoy tomorrow. All the food will be good fuel for the 1/2 marathon that Ken, Sean and I are running on Sunday. We are leaving early Saturday morning and coming back Sunday afternoon. It should be a fun (but tiring) trip!

2 comments

1. Chen on November 27, 2009 at 1:02 AM

   Thanks for your yummy food. I admire both of your excellent cooking skills.

    
2. Mama Hawk on November 28, 2009 at 12:20 PM

   Happy Thanksgiving! I applaud your inventiveness and drive to eat classic Thanksgiving treats :)