Tomorrow night, Drew is headed to China to spend a year doing his dissertation research. Though we'll miss each other (I plan to visit in September and December), it is an exciting time for the both of us. This is a great opportunity for Drew- I mean, how many people can say they've spent a significant time in another country? And as for me, it will be a busy time as I finish my dissertation, do my own dissertation fieldwork, and apply for jobs.
Living in China for a year means that Drew is missing out on some important holidays...like my birthday.
Wait, what's that you say? That's not a national holiday?
Okay, but aside from my birthday, Drew is missing out on some other holidays. For the most part, I don't think he's bothered by this, but it bothers me that he'll be missing out on Thanksgiving. I recognize that Thanksgiving is not without controversy. I actually attempted to read an academic book on its history, but it was boring and I stopped after 10 pages. Plus, in the introduction, the author basically said that we don't know what the first Thanksgiving was like, so, satisfied that I was not inadvertently celebrating the murder of American Indians, it made it easier to stop reading (um, to be clear, I know that happened, but if an academic can't find evidence that Thanksgiving is rooted in this, then it may not exist).
Anyhow, what really matters to me is the Thanksgiving food. I'm not much of a turkey girl, but I can practically eat my weight in stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, and pumpkin pie. So last night, Drew and I had our own Thanksgiving. We made a seitan roast, stuffed with leeks and shitakes.
It was easy to make (we made it up a few days beforehand) and I think this will become our new Thanksgiving staple. We also made stuffing:
And green bean casserole, but I had to fight for this one. You see, green bean casserole is usually made with canned green beans, cream of mushroom soup, and french fried onions. I'm a big fan, though I make it with fresh green beans and not canned, but Drew is not. But I assured him that he'd like a homemade green bean casserole, and I was right. I used Alton Brown's recipe, which I watched him make on an episode of his show Good Eats years ago. At first, this dish seems high maintenance, but it's really not. You mix up sliced onions with panko and flour and bake them until crispy for about a half an hour. While that's baking, you blanch green beans and make the mushroom soup. It will all take longer than opening up a bunch of cans and mixing up their contents, but it's completely worth it.
Of course, we had to have mashed potatoes. These are really simple, just butter and sour cream.
Here's what the full plate looks like:
Even though I don't think it's really Thanksgiving unless I eat pumpkin pie, I conceded and made a chocolate cream pie instead. Drew does not share my enthusiasm for pumpkins, and this was his request. I was happy to comply; after all, I did get green bean casserole on the menu, and I'll get to bake with pumpkins all I want this fall.
The recipe is from Ashley English's A Year of Pies. I like this cookbook, and I suspect I'll use it more often this fall, which I consider to be pie season (despite it being called A Year of Pies).
Our Thanksgiving was successful, and we were satisfied. We decided that if we ever host Thanksgiving, we're totally going to rock at it. We also realized that there is a reason people grill for summer holidays-it gets too hot in the kitchen!
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