Mama's House

We will be live broadcasting the show on the internets tonight @ 8pm!

Here are some of my photos posted on Lindsey's flickr account. It was difficult this time around with the crappy lighting.

Well other than the untimeliness of some - it's ok, we're all filipinos - this year's Thanksgiving went really well. Nothing that made it on to this year's Thanksgiving table was offensive. In fact, it wouldn't be hyperbole to say that all the food was pretty damn good. Mike's candied yams were nice and sweet. Melanie's cheesy mac and EJ's mashed potatoes were gobbled - pun intended - up quickly. Mehran's enchilada casserole were good enough to have been ordered up again by my mom. Oliver's guacamole recipe was asked for. There's no more of Sara's fruit salad. Jason's Fayes's ham was moist and full of flavor. Annette's pansit didn't disappoint the filipinos. Vanessa's and Lindsey's pies tasted better than what anyone else in this family could bake. And lastly, I didn't burn the house down when cooking the turkey. It all made for a very successful Thanksgiving.

Thank you all for cooking! And again, happy Thanksgiving!

Joni: Balut
Tita Elma: Egg rolls

Along with Mehran's chicken enchiladas and Annette's pancit I would hardly consider this year's Thanksgiving to be a "white" Thanksgiving as Vanessa put it.

And can someone tell me exactly when and why Thanksgivings started being classified by race? Is that like some new affirmative action program I haven't heard of? If that's so, should I be considering (i.e. leaning towards) a more minority oriented Thanksgiving?

In case any of you are worried about how the turkey will end up, and you would be right to, I thought I'd make the occasional progress report to keep you all informed about what's happening with the big bird. By the way, if it sounds like anywhere in my preparations for the turkey that I'm in danger of giving anyone food poisoning or, as Faye puts it, mud butt, l strongly encourage you to give me a call.

Well I've been reading everywhere that it takes 24 hours for every 4-5 pounds of turkey to defrost it in the refrigerator. I've also read that it will keep in the fridge, after it has been defrosted, anywhere from 1 to 4 days. I bought about a 16 pound turkey and decided to be on the safer side of the 1 to 4 days. Given that I want to brine the turkey I started defrosting the turkey yesterday late afternoon. Now after over 12 hours of defrosting the turkey is still hard as a rock.

If all does not go so well in the refrigerator I suppose I could finish the defrosting process in the sink before I start to brine it. That's the backup plan anyway.