thanksgiving cooking

Thanksgiving has never really been a big deal to me. I think it's because it's an American holiday, so it wasn't something I grew up with. This wasn't something we celebrated when I was little and living in the Philippines. And, once here in the US, I often lived away from home, and it made no sense--time-wise and money-wise--to go home for Thanksgiving when I was going to go home a couple of weeks later for an extended Christmas vacation anyway. (Plus, the Thanksgiving break has always been a good time to catch up on school and/or work.)

This year, I'm actually living close to family, and I still didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. My mom went off with her sisters to vegas, while my sister and her family went to her sister-in-law's. Though my sister invited me, I preferred having the house to myself instead.

I did try to get into Thanksgiving mode by doing some cooking. On Thanksgiving evening, I made bourbon pumpkin cheesecake (again with the pumpkin. lol). Actually, I used Jack Daniel's instead of bourbon, so maybe it should be just be called whiskey pumpkin cheesecake (hmm... that doesn't quite have the same ring to it.) Everything was made from scratch, including the crust.

I didn't realize how long it takes to make a cheesecake. I first had to make the crust (by grinding graham crackers and pecans and mixing these with brown sugar and butter). After forming the crust, I had to chill it for an hour before I can pour in the cheesecake mixture. I then had to bake it for about an hour.

I then had to take it out of the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes, while I made the sour cream topping. After putting the topping and more pecans, it was back in the oven for another 5 minutes.

Then, it had to be cooled for 3 hours. By that time it was 11pm, and it still had to be chilled for at least 4 hours. So I couldn't even eat my creation on Thanksgiving. It wasn't until after lunch the next day that we got to eat the final product.

This was really good. My nephew, who loves cheesecake--but only the plain kind, loved it. He even said that he'd give me $5 to make it again. Everyone else liked it, too. We finished this in 2 days.

That friday, I also decided to make mushroomkopita (like spanakopita, but with mushrooms instead of spinach). I've made this before, but with intervals of years in between. (I probably last made it over 10 years ago.) Each time I make it, I remember why: working with phyllo dough can be difficult and is a lot of work--what with the buttering of each layer and all. Here's how they looked before baked them:

Here are the finished products. They were crunchy and tasty. Even the kids liked it. They're probably not that good for you, though, with all that butter. Good thing I only make them every few years.

more pumpkin

On November 12, I continued with my pumpkin theme and made pumpkin swirl brownies. I'm not so sure about this recipe. It turned out good, but not great. There definitely wasn't enough brownie to it. My sister and my niece were only eating the sides, which had more of the brownie part, and I was left to eat the more pumpkin-y middle.

I'm not sure if this would be better if baked in a smaller container, so that the brownie part would be thicker. but then again, that would also make the pumpkin thicker. I think the recipe just calls for too much pumpkin in it. Maybe if i double the brownie part. Hmm...

pumpkin fever

Ever since I baked pumpkin chocolate chip cookies from Sharon's recipe, I've really been in the baking mood. And, since it's fall, I've especially been in the pumpkin-baking mood.

It was easy to decide to bake the aforementioned cookies, since the name alone sounded good, and all I had to do was ask for the recipe. It's been a lot harder trying to find other recipes on my own. Pumpkin pie is out since I'm actually not a big fan. I really should have already made pumpkin cheesecake but I haven't.

Today, I finally baked something with pumpkin. I made pumpkin swirl bars. I found the recipe a couple of weeks ago, but never got around to making it. But I finally found the time today.

I asked my niece to see if we had all the ingredients on hand, and she said we did. When I finally started baking, I found out that we did not have the right amount of cream cheese. So, I had to go to the store to get some since I already started mixing some of the stuff. (It gave me an excuse to do a couple of my other errands, too.)

I messed up when I was doing this because I didn't soften the cream cheese before mixing it. I eventually had to microwave it a little.

The recipe said that it should be baked in a jelly roll pan. I don't know about that. I think it would have been better if it was in a larger cookie sheet, as that would have made for thinner bars and perhaps, the swirls would have turned out better.

The recipe didn't call for chocolate chips, but I added some on top anyway. (Gotta have the chocolate.) I think it turned out good. The pumpkin part was certainly good, and the chocolate chips were good additions. I'm not so sure about the cream cheese part, though. I think if it had been spread out more (as it would be if baked on a cookie sheet), then there wouldn't be the cream cheese chunks. I would definitely have to remember that next time...

yes, we did!

Tuesday, November 4th, was election day. I had already sent in my absentee ballot the previous Friday, so there wasn't much for me to do. Beginning in the afternoon, I began to monitor the internet news, but there really wasn't much going on yet.

It wasn't until I got home that the results were really beginning to come in. It was exciting. When they called Pennsylvania and Ohio, i knew it was pretty much over. We did it! Obama won! I was so excited, I began to do a victory dance.

I was talking to my friend in the Philippines about it, and I turned on my videocam so she could watch what I was watching on tv. She got to see my victory dance. lol. I stayed up to watch MCcain's concession speech and Obama's victory speech. It was amazing to see all those people in grant park. I wanted to remember the moment, so i took some pics of my tv. lol.

I went to bed happy with the knowledge that my candidate won. (I don't think I was a citizen yet when we were having elections for Clinton's second term, so I've pretty much been on the losing end in the elections in which I've participated.)

The following morning, though, I found out that Proposition 8 still hadn't been called, but it looked like it was going to pass. I couldn't really savor Obama's victory with the knowledge that Prop. 8 was going to pass. California voters voted to give rights to their food (Prop. 2), but voted to take away the rights of friends and neighbors. The results were very bittersweet.

We can't do much about the results right now, but opponents of Prop. 8 are going to fight on. And we can take some comfort in the change that's about to take place on the national level.

Si, se puede! Yes, we can!

desserts

After eating some Chinese food on November 1, we decided to stop by the nearby bakery, Grandma's Bakery. We always eat at this Chinese restaurant and we've always seen the bakery, but we've never stopped by. I don't know what made by sister decide to stop by, but I was more than happy to oblige.

Their pastries looked quite good, so we all decided to get one each. My sister ordered the cappuccino cup, which is supposed to be made of chocolate cake & icing & cappuccino. But she was given something else--something with white cake and caramel drizzle (found out when we got home). She was quite disappointed to get the wrong cake.

My nephew got the oreo cookie mousse cake. It just tasted like it was all whipped cream. My nephew had to put it in the freezer to see if it would taste better (make it more of an ice cream cake). I think it was better frozen, but it still tasted like whipped cream.

My niece got the chocolate mousse. It was quite good. She especially liked the fact that it was made of all kinds of chocolates, even the plaid-looking wrapper.

I ordered the tiramisu. I was debating between two things (can't remember what the other one was now), and we asked the salesperson what she liked best. Since she said tiramisu, I went ahead and got that. Out of everything we got, mine was the best.

I'm not sure that we'll ever go there again, but it was fun being able to pick our own little desserts.

halloween

i'm not really into halloween. i guess that's because i think of it as an american tradition (in the philippines, we have completely different traditions for this time of the year.) and, by the time i came here, i was already a teenager so dressing up was not something i wanted to do (and i'm not such a big fan of candy anway).

this year, since i'm living with my sister's family, i knew i'd be involved in halloween festivities somehow. when my niece went to buy her costume, i went with her and my sister. my niece ended up buying a feather mask for her costume. we thought it would be fun if all three of us wore various feather masks, so my sister and i bought ones for ourselves, too. (pics below.)

since i'm working in a university, i figured that there'd be some people in costumes and such so i brought my camera. i happened to be in the student union mailing my ballot, and i chanced upon these amazing carved pumpkins. i believe this was for a competition.





later in the morning, after my vietnamese class, i found waldo.

i saw a few people in costumes in the library, but i didn't take any more pictures (too busy working).

when i got home, they were just waiting for me. so i hurriedly ate dinner. we had our little photo op outside the house. here are the girls:

we headed over to redondo beach, where my nephew's boy scout troop had a halloween maze/ fundraiser.

we went in the maze first before heading out trick or treating around the neighborhood. we found my nephew:

after the maze, we went trick-or-treating--6 kids and 4 adults. there were a lot of people out. and a lot of the houses were decorated. i was surprised. i've never really seen so many trick-or-treaters. and my niece told me they have more people in their neighborhood!

that neighborhood has some nice houses. i tried to take pictures, but they didn't come out too well. i was able to take pictures of this house with the crazy yard. one passerby said that the owner does this for every occasion!

i didn't really take pictures of the trick-or-treaters. (that would just be weird.) but i did take this one.

after a lot of walking (over an hour, for sure), we went back to the maze. my nephew was taking a break from working the maze. he apparently changed from being in the dot room to the kitchen.

we were supposed to go to another maze at my nephew's dojo, but he was having too much fun working the maze. so we left him there, and we went home. that was an experience.

thriller

This month, I found out that they were holding lessons all over Los Angeles for people to learn the "Thriller" dance. This was all part of Thrill the World 2008, an attempt to set a world record of the most people around the world simultaneously performing the dance (which they did).

My 12-year-old nephew is very into the song, so I thought he'd actually want to learn the steps. They had lessons in the area, but he actually didn't want to do it. Maybe it's that age. I would probably have done if the family was doing it. lol.

Fortunately, they had a couple of lessons on the UCLA campus, and last Tuesday (October 21), I was able to catch a little bit of it.

(I actually have a couple of video bits, but it's taking too long to upload, so you'll have to settle for the pics.)