Getting ready to Gobble

In four days it will be Thanksgiving...one of my favorite holidays. I generally have fond memories of Thanksgiving. Even though my family is Chinese-American, we always celebrated Thanksgiving with lots of friends and family. Who doesn't like a day dedicated to being with loved ones and eating yourself silly?

Jeffrey and I cooked our first Thanksgiving dinner together 4 years ago (2002) when we lived in Allston. It was just the two of us but we made all the fixin's. It was really an obscene amount of food, but making it together was an experience to remember. And the bacon, bleu cheese, and chive mashed potatoes were hard to forget too. Since we've been in our new house, we've had one Thanksgiving dinner, but we didn't cook it all ourselves. We bought a lot of premade stuff from Whole Foods. That was the year we had a house guest. I cannot say that Thanksgiving dinner was that memorable. That was also Riley's first year with us. He got his own 2.5 pound roasting chicken for his Thanksgiving Dinner. He finished the entire thing and his gut looked like it was about to pop. It actually had me a little concerned but he survived it just fine.

Last year, Jeffrey and I spent Thanksgiving in Las Vegas. The dinner at the hotel wasn't anything to get to excited about (it was a buffet) but the trip was quite memorable. Riley stayed with Auntie Dory. No family Thanksgiving feast last year.

This year, we had planned to go away but when Riley's knee gave out, we decided to go ahead with surgery and cancel any plans we had. We just didn't know how Riley would be and couldn't bear to leave him with anyone while he was still in the acute phase of recovery. So this year, Jeffrey and I are making Thanksgiving dinner in our home-with our family-Little Li, Mei-Mei, Riley, Ming, and Sabrina. I went to the market today to buy us a duck. That's right, a duck, to make Peking duck (or at least my closest rendition of it). I had to call my mom in Taiwan this morning to figure out how to cook this bird. She thinks I can't possibly cook a bad tasting bird. I am a bit skeptical. I also got Riley and Sabrina each their own Thanksgiving Day chickens. They are HUGE, like 4 lbs each. They were only $1.99 a pound, whereas the smaller cornish hens were over $4 a pound. I figured since we would be gorging, let them too! I still have to stop by Especially for Pets to pick up something for MeiMei and Ming. Merrick has a canned cat food flavor called Thanksgiving Day Feast. They both love it. And Little Li, I'm sure she'll love all the Peking Duck.

Along with Peking Duck, I will be making a Chinese rice stuffing with Shitake Mushrooms and shrimp. For appetizers, Chinese dumplings and smoked trout. For side dishes, traditional cornbread stuffing (Jeffery's making that), asparagus, and rolls. Then I am making my first blueberry pie. I'm cheating a little bit by buying a premade pie crust. I got it from Whole Foods today-it's whole wheat! But I'll be making the pie from fresh blueberries and all organic ingredients. This is the recipe I'm using:

Blueberry Pie

I'll post pictures of the final product whether it's good or not!