Room 642 Thanksgiving Dinner!

We had our Thanksgiving Dinner today, and it was not nearly the disaster I had feared it would be! (Muaha, my roommates didn't know that I had anticipated disaster)

[the whole spread: sticky rice, gravy, salad, pumpkin cheesecake and turkey]

First of all, the Turkey. So intimidating. Even though we didn't even buy a whole Turkey, there were still several unidentifiable turkey parts. For instance, what the hell are these?

[unidentifiable turkey innards]

But anyways. As unfamiliar as I am with Turkey anatomy, I was actually the most knowledgeable[1], and I knew that Turkey's ought to either be injected with butter, or brined. So Miwako and I brined the turkey in water with salt, honey, garlic, rosemary (substituted for Sage, because all of the grocery-store Sage was gone!), whole peppercorns and thyme the night before. The recipe also asked for celery leaves and allspice berries, but I couldn't find either of those, so left them out. I also starting soaking the sweet rice for the sticky rice.

[turkey breast, still on the bone, in a bag]

[brining in our fridge]

Today I fried up lap cheong, choong choi, mushrooms and ground turkey, seasoned it with salt, sugar and soy sauce, and then layered it with the pre-soaked sweet-rice in the rice-cooker.

[lap cheong]

[choong choi]

While I was wrestling with mushrooms that stubbornly did not want to reabsorb any water, Miwako and Mélissa started making the pumpkin cheesecake.

[graham crackers for the crust, ground ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg, and the pumpkin puree]

Ahahaha, we only realized belatedly that we didn't have a proper pie-plate to bake the pumpkin cheesecake in, so we made mini-pumpkin cheesecakes in a silicon muffin-tin, and used the rest of the graham cracker crust and cheesecake batter in a loaf pan.

[mini-pumpkin cheesecakes – not yet baked – Mélissa, Miwako and I were trying to be s0mewhat artistic]

[the result of Miwako being super!fancy with the loaf-pan cheesecake]

[mini-pumpkin cheesecakes – after baking]

After the mini pumpkin cheesecakes were done baking, we began struggling with getting the Turkey into the oven. No pictures for this, as I was elbow-deep in turkey juice, but by then the sticky rice had finished cooking:

[sticky rice – not as good as gung-gung's! ]

Once we had gotten the turkey into the oven, we started on the gravy. We started with a roux, then added in chicken stock. After the turkey was finished roasting, we took the drippings, skimmed away the fat, and poured the turkey drippings into the gravy and let it boil till thickened.

[thickening gravy]

Miwako made a salad while the gravy was finishing up, and approximately four and a half hours after we started cooking we started eating!

[the skin of the turkey burned, but it was weird because it didn't smell burnt…]

[another shot of the turkey]

[my dinner plate]

[1] It was actually the first time Miwako had roast Turkey! And the first time she ever had gravy!

Dad chowing down on lambchops

Made lampchops and bak choy. Kim decided to do a bit of presentation and dad decided to ham it up for the picture and michael decided the last minute "stuck" his hand on dad's face.

The Canyon Creek Chophouse in Toronto

For the first post, I'll talk about our dining experience at the Canyon Creek Chophouse on Front Street in downtown Toronto [1]! We were there on 2007-08-23 [2].

First came the appetizers - the garlic bread and bacon-wrapped scallops. The garlic bread was so good - it was soft and warm, while still being crusty on the outside, and there were 3/4 cuts all along the top of the bread. The slits were filled with a lovely, gooey, melty cheese and the whole thing was topped off with nice garlic-y bruschetta.
I don't know how good the scallops were, since I don't eat seafood - but Mom and Michael seemed to enjoy them.


We really enjoyed the entrées too. Notice I didn't manage to get a picture of our entrées before they were gobbled up. The descriptions from the menu will have to do : ) Between four of us we ordered:

i) the Double-bone Pork Chop (with side vegetables and rice pilaf)

"Lightly spiced, slow roasted and grilled to order. Served with lingonberry sauce."

ii) the Filet-mignon (with side vegetables and a baked potato), and

" Centre-cut filet wrapped in Applewood-smoked bacon, grilled to order and brushed with butter."

iii) the Broiled Lamb Chops (with rice pilaf and mashed potatoes - Michael likes his carbs)

"3 thick double-boned chops marinated in herb oil and served with fresh mint jus."

[attempt at taking picture of entrées: failed!]

I was a bit more successful with the desserts: pecan pie and cheesecake - although I only managed to snap a picture half-way through the dessert. The pecan pie was delicious - smooth, buttery and sweet, and topped with whipped cream. Gah, my mouth is watering just thinking about it. The cheesecake was just your average cheesecake [3] - it was also covered in a seasonal-berry icewine compote.

[attempt at taking picture of dessert: good effort]

All in all, a very satisfying dining experience. I think we would definitely go back.
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[1] Because I already have pictures, since I had planned to torture Kristal and Dad with the pictures...
[2] "We" being me, Mom, Kim and Michael.
[3] i.e. Kim's homemade blueberry cheesecake, and Kristal's homemade eggnog cheesecake are better...