Thanksgiving Day Cooks

感謝祭の料理人々

今度日記は英語だけで書きました。That's our Thanksgiving Turkey, before cooking, but after Martin applied the "rub" that he concocted out of various interesting kitchen herbs and spices.  Usually I roast the turkey in the oven, but this year Martin decided he wanted to try to make it on the grill for the first time.  Actually, correct that... this being a four day holiday from school for the kids, usually we take the opportunity to travel somewhere, taking advantage of living in an interesting place which is close to other interesting places, so we haven't had a Thanksgiving at home for a few years.  But this year we decided to stay home, do a turkey and enjoy the leftovers. Besides, there were some other neat things going on later in the weekend, which I'll get to in a bit. 

A week before the big day, I went to my favorite international grocery store, Nissen, and ordered the turkey, which would cost over 5000 yen.  That's around 50 US dollars.  Expensive, true, but everything's expensive here, and as you will see, we made good use of that 50 bucks.  Wednesday night, picked up the thawed turkey, along with lots of other items that aren't readily available in a Japanese grocery store, like evaporated milk, shortning and canned pumpkin for the pies, poultry seasoning for the stuffing and cranberry jelly.  Jonah's main request was for mashed potatoes and lots of savory turkey gravy, while Monica was looking forward to the stuffing, which I made in the crockpot because it wouldn't have worked on the grill.

Monica made a lemon meringue pie with only a teensy bit of help from me.  It's a very complicated pie, and it turned out beautifully.  Jonah mixed up the pumpkin pie, and together they made the lattice crust for the apple pie while I was busy with something else.  Since we were going on a hike to visit a cave the next day with several friends, we decided to try to make some little bite-size pumpkin pies to take along to share, and that was a good idea.  I'm really happy that we can give the kids some experiences of our own culture.  A day of baking pies, cooking and hanging out together at home with just the family, it's something to treasure, I think, and very unusual for us these days with people coming and going all the time.  And while we're on the subject of tradition, I'll skip ahead and mention that on Thanksgiving Day, as on some other special days, we always hold hands around the table and share with each other what we're thankful for.  We have many blessings.  Now, back to the menu. 

I started the crockpot stuffing the night before, and we all enjoyed sampling it throughout the day.  "We could have this more often, you know." Martin said.  Yes, it's really good, but full of butter and carbs along with celery, mushrooms and fresh parsley.  Once a year is enough, I think.  Now we get to the Turkey.  Martin did his research, and I won't give away any secrets here, but even though it was the first time he's grilled a turkey on the Weber, the result was far from amateur.  He brined it the night before, applied a rub before cooking it, and also used wooden smoking chips on the grill.  Plus, if you look at the picture, you'll see a big beer can centrally located.  As a result, the meat was moist and flavorful.  Thanksgiving Day Pictures. 

Besides the Grilled Turkey with all the fixins' on Thanksgiving, we had turkey sandwiches on our hike on Friday, plates of turkey and leftovers throughout the busy weekend, and on Sunday I made my version of Turkey Tetrazzini (which is a really yummy baked pasta casserole) and on Monday night I made turkey noodle soup from rich and flavorful broth I'd prepared Thanksgiving night after cleaning everything else up.  In the large pot, I had boiled the turkey frame (carcass) for a couple of hours and that broth, together with the last of the turkey meat and a few vegetables and my Mom's recipe for homemade egg noodles made a wonderful homestyle soup. 

The day after Thanksgiving was a national holiday, and 13 of us traveled to the countryside for a hiking adventure that included exploring a very interesting limestone cave.  Here are the Cave Hike pictures.

Saturday, Martin and I participated in Papa-san's Saturday Night Skate from Tokyo to Odaiba.  My endurance is up, as I did much better with the 18 km this time.  I think the yoga is helping.  And Sunday, all four participated in City Run.    I'm thankful for being blessed with a four-day weekend full of pleasant family interaction and good times with friends.