Monday, October 18, 2004

Turkey Dinner

Looking for Thanksgiving Day ideas? How about this turkey dinner we just had? Turkey Dinner is definitely an acquired tradition and taste for my family. Not a popular occasion for Filipinos to trade their marvelous foods for. For one thing, the stuffing is something foreign to us. On the other, we find the turkey a little bland compared to chicken which we're used to.

I believe in the saying that “When you’re in Rome, do what the Romans do”. I can experience Filipino dinners anywhere, anytime of the year but not the excitement of celebrating Thanksgiving Day with a Turkey once a year. There are only 8 countries celebrating Thanksgiving Day according to the history book I read and I happen to be in one of them. I'd like to have something to share when my officemates talk about what they had and who they were with on Thanksgiving Day. Their stories are the same over and over, year after year but it must be just the spirit of Thanksgiving that they get so excited about it. I love to celebrate it with the thought of bountiful blessings we've had over the years. Lastly, I would like to make sure my kids are not ignoramus about this when they spend dinners with other people in the future.

I Filipinized my turkey dinner as usual. I modified my stuffing from the usual bread crumbs with sage, rosemary and thyme to rice with sausage. I got the idea from my officemate when we were deciding what to do on our boss’ 50th birthday. A suggestion was stuffing the turkey with rice and sausage. I offered myself to look after it. I first fried the sausage(fresh chorizo preferably), with onions, and garlic and then the rice. I seasoned it with Club House Garlic Plus Seasoning and a tablespoon of herb de provence and lots and lots of dried parsley. Oh, it was heavenly. My officemate was quite surprised that my stuffing turned out to be so good. When she suggested rice with sausages, she meant the raw sausage and cooked rice mixed together and stuffed in without cooking it first. (You can add ham, smokies and other sausages you can think of if you want)

We skipped the Brussel sprouts part. For the life of me, no matter how I will try to change the process of cooking these cabbage looking thingys, (no offense meant to JMom) it’s not going to work out with my not-so-fuzzy family members. I myself hardly like it, I tried. I substituted it of course with canned corn, carrots and spring mix salad.

We had a bit of cheese nibblers and some pickles and boiled sausages for appetizers but when the bird is served right in front of you, would think of having the appetizers?

Our big bird, between 5 and 6 lbs was baked for 3 hours or a bit longer and basted with its own juice once in a while. Others put bacon on top. I think we only had about 1/4 or 1/3 of it and kept the leftovers in the freezer. I make the leftovers into Sotanghon Soup (have you ever thought about that before?) and Barley Soup. The turkey serving was topped with cranberry sauce. Sounds funny alright because of the cranberries' sweet taste but hey, I tried it with gravy and it wasn't as good. There must be a reason why cranberry was chosen to go with Turkey. My son will make turkey sandwich out of the leftovers for sure.


After our big dinner, we had pumpkin pie with a dollop of whipped cream and English tea. The pie was not homemade. For the amount of work you have to do to make one, I went for the commercialized one. BTW, the pie in the picture is my son's. It was not just a dollop of whipped cream. He actually put tons and tons of it.

11 comments:

JMom said...

Oh, my, we really are on the same cosmic wave. I went by the grocery store after work today to pick up milk, and I ended up buying a turkey! It is still frozen, of course, so I will have to wait for this weekend to cook it. My husband has been hinting he wanted turkey for a while, and I was going to make him wait until Thanksgiving, but since it was on sale anyway, I thought I'd let him have a preview :)

ting-aling said...

Ha, JMom, I was wondering what was going on with my blog while I was editing it only to find out that you have commented already.

Definitely a good vibe. My son has been waiting for this all year long. We all know we're not having turkey this Christmas..(oo, may plano na) and we don't get that many turkeys here kung wala sa season. Enjoy yours this weekend.

Manang said...

Last weekend my in-laws were here (celebrating my stepdaughter's bday) and we talked about dividing the holidays between us (we are 4 families and we were deciding where to spend a certain holiday of the year). Since last year we were spared because our house is not yet done and we almost had no equipment/furniture, I thought it's time we had one celebration here soon. I almost punished myself for volunteering to have the Thanksgiving, for I did not have a good idea of what to prepare save for my memories of the last year's celebration. Good thing we changed the plan. We'll celebrate Christmas here instead. But I liked that idea of yours in using fried rice with sausage in the turkey! I never have tried cooking turkey, and I never really liked the stuffing we use in the chicken. I think that's an excellent idea: fried rice as stuffing for me and my sons, poultry stuffing cooked on stovetop for the rest of the family.

obachan said...

Wow! That’s a nice, big turkey you had! I had never had turkey until I went to America. At my first Thanksgiving dinner in PA , I tasted turkey, bread-crumb stuffing, cranberry sauce and hedge apple pie for the first time in my life. Actually, I wasn’t too crazy about the Turkey and liked the stuffing better. Oh I wish I could have such a thanksgiving dinner again!

ting-aling said...

Manang, Christmas is a good one. You must have picked the right occasion. Sleep over ba or just for dinner kinda thing? I was going to suggest that you stack up on hot chocolate. Hot choco drink warms your soul when winter gets into your system. I will suggest also a not so expensive appetizer pero yummy talaga and I should do it very soon. 'got it from my boss' wife (kanino pa)

ting-aling said...

Obachan. thanks for the visit. I know Turkey does not really appeal to most Asians but you know what? I guess it's how you cook it that makes it tasty. Japan is one of the 8 countries that celebrate Thanksgiving, am I right?

ting-aling said...

Ay Manang, I forgot. The rice will not taste good if you don't actually stuff it in the bird's cavity. Why don't you let your in-laws try it instead? My caucasian colleagues loved it. If not, you can wrap the stuffing in tin foil and baked it with the bird inside the roasting pan.

Dr. Emer said...

Pahingi naman!

Turkey is better than chicken. It is healthy, too. Paano na ang thanksgiving, Ting-Aling? Magluluto ka ulet ng turkey? =)

obachan said...

I, too, heard that Turkey is a healthier meat.
We do have a national holiday called “Labor Thanksgiving Day” in November, but I don’t think we have any specific food to celebrate that day. I heard it started as the day to thank God for the harvest of rice. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Japanese adopt Turkey-eating custom for thanksgiving day in the future, though. The food industry here is always looking for a chance to sell event- or celebration-related foods, you know.

ting-aling said...

Doc, everyday is Thanksgiving Day for my family. Tapos na ang Thanksgiving namin. Next year ulit unless magsale ang turkey sometime in the next 6 months..pero healthier nga ang turkey

ting-aling said...

Thanks for the info Obachan. I have yet to see a Japanese restaurant serving turkey here.