I’m used to celebrating Thanksgiving with a lot of people. This year, I had the folks who mattered most to me in Topeka – inside the kitchen: Mark and Daisy. We had a lovely holiday. In the tradition of my working experience, we did a Thanksgiving lunch. Sometimes I thought having to work on the holiday was a great excuse for my family to chow down early. I’m grateful Mark and Daisy were flexible to modfiy their feasting time to my work schedule. They rock my world!
We figured a turkey would be too much…so I whipped up my parents’ chicken adobo.
On the eve of the holiday, I marinated the chicken pieces in soy sauce, vinegar, salt and pepper. After spending our honeymoon in Mexico, I fell in love with pozole in meaty stews. So, I added fluffed-up white corn kennels and mushrooms when I simmered this dish over the stove for a couple of hours. The pozole soaked up the sauce perfectly, adding a nice chewy texture to this dish. Spanish dudes rocked over Mexico and the Philippines during colonial times, so I suppose there are several complimentary cross-overs when it comes to regional dishes for both countries. I also added beef broth to the stew, to keep everything moist. Now, I could not tell you anything about what measurements of ingridents I used with this dish — I operated on instinct. However, I should make an effort to write down exactly what I used…so I could pass it on – right? A few hours on the stove was enough to make the chicken tender enough to fall off the bones. My honey and I worked on the leftovers for a week after Thanksgiving.
Mark whipped up the traditional stuffing, white rice and biscuits. I tried out a recipe for Indian potato patties from a new edition of the Joy of Cooking. I had a tough time keeping the shapes of the patties during the frying process. In any event, the spicy hash mix held its own against the chicken adobo…it blended nicely with the soy sauce/vinegar stew and at the same time popped with the garlic and cliantro mixed in.
And Mark stayed up late on the eve of the holiday to bake this amazing Pumpkin Pie. Yesterday, I had another slice of this dessert with cookie dough ice cream from the Dairy Bar at K-State. Mark also mixed up an amazing hot sauce of Hennessy and sugar. Top it with whip cream and it’s a taste of heaven!
And Daisy enjoyed tasting little bites of everything….she even enjoyed slurping up some Chardonay from my palm. Such a lush!
Not a bad Thanksgiving. I wish we could have spent it with family. But the nature of my job doesn’t let me take off week days during a sweeps period. Hail to the all mighty ratings. Maybe family would like to visit us in Kansas for Thanksgiving? Maybe? We’ll try to make Daisy behave!
This week, we survived our first snowfall in Kansas. It’s about 24 degrees now and we’re looking for a high of 37 today. Balmy! The roads are icy, but mangeable…I don’t get why places need to close because of the weather….imagine that coming from a Cali girl like me!
Only a few more weeks and I get to go home!!! I can’t wait!
what? you couldn’t have at least attempted to see if turkey adobo was possible?
Dude….I didn’t want to screw-up Thanksgiving lunch for Mark and Daisy. I knew chicken adobo worked and I didn’t have time to experiment with turkey….besides — didn’t you tell me you had problems with turkey adobo? Didn’t it taste not so adobo-y?