Out and About

During the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend we did get outside for a little bit, as well as celebrate a friend's birthday at a torta restaurant we've been wanting to try. Here's how the rest of our Thanksgiving weekend was. We're already looking forward to our mini-Christmas-vacation next month!

Thanksgiving Weekend Eats

Thanks to Mike's beautifully smoked bourbon-orange-brined turkey, we had hardly any turkey left after Thanksgiving. In previous years we've turned the leftovers into pot pies, hot browns and many sandwiches. This year we had a few turkey bite-size snacks and that was it. But that didn't mean we didn't eat decadently the rest of Thanksgiving weekend.

Mike fortuitously took home albacore tuna, scallops and crab from the sushi bar and we feasted like royalty. With the flaked crab meat Mike made a snack of crab dip that was incredibly delicious due to the copious amounts of fresh dungenous crab. You could have spread this on an old shoe and I would have eaten it up!

Dinner consisted of making use of a bag of tomatoes, also rescued from being tossed out at the restaurant, albacore tuna steaks and scallops. Mike turned this into a Mediterranean feast utilizing leftover olives from our trip to the beach back in August!

The following night, after rummaging through the fridge for 5 minutes, Mike came up with the brilliant idea of using the chunk crab meat for Vietnamese banh canh cua, reminiscent of the bowl we had in Rach Gia, Vietnam a few years back. We had everything we needed and within a few hours Mike rocked out the most delicious bowl of this Vietnamese soup. I was very impressed.

Thanksgiving Long Weekend

I think I love Thanksgiving because we get a long 4-day weekend. In previous years I'm always disappointed that the weekend flew by so quickly and I realize that's because I always lose 2 precious days: one to making the whole Thanksgiving meal and one to cleaning up after. So by Saturday I feel as if it's just another weekend. At least we had a kitchen full of delicious food and plenty to be thankful for.

This year Friday was rainy and we didn't set foot outside once, which was really nice. We casually cleaned up, lit lots of candles and watched more movies than we have in awhile. Due to a kitchen faucet that trickled out enough water to wash one chopstick at a time, we were glad to have a leisurely day to clean because we needed it.

Leftovers day 1 snack: cheddar cheese, stuffing, turkey and gravy

Leftovers day 2 snack: cream cheese, cranberry sauce, turkey and gravy

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and even better 4-days off!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every year we host Thanksgiving for our family. We smoke a turkey on the BBQ. We don't stray far from the traditional Thanksgiving meal because we eat this meal just one time a year, so we make it a good one! Hope everyone has a terrific Thanksgiving and an even better 4-days off! 

Feeling Better

Mike was sick for a solid 2 weeks! 2 weeks! That's a long time to be hauled up indoors moving from the couch to the bed. We're not sure what he had, it wasn't a cold (no coughing, stuffy head or chest issues), just aches and the chills. But he sure did have an appetite, so I played nurse-maid for two weeks and cooked. A lot. 

Before Mike got sick we had made a large pot of congee or rice porridge, which was Mike's savior the first week when he had no energy to do anything other than heat up a pot of the terrific ginger and black pepper soother. We ate lots of sandwiches, peanut butter and tuna. We cleaned out the refrigerator, starting first by turning  a pot of collard greens into pot liquor soup. Then we turned to the freezer and found some miscellaneous scraps of ground pork and beef, discovered half a box of spaghetti pasta and a jar of our home stewed tomatoes from the summer, and voila - spaghetti and meatballs to get Mike's energy up. By the second weekend Mike was feeling better and we immediately accepted a last minute invite to get some spicy seafood soup.

Even though it wasn't the funnest two weeks, we got much of the house cleaned and ate really well. Now Mike's energy is back just in time for Thanksgiving.

Settling into the Fall Season

After a glorious summer the rain came back with a vengeance.  When it did finally clear up enough for us to go for a walk, the crisp air did us a world of good, everything seem to pop with color. After a grumpy start to the season I'm glad to be getting into the swing of the season, especially since day light savings came and we actually welcomed it this year.

Deli Bar & Ode to Mike

This post originally started as a review of the new Kenny & Zuke's Deli Bar Restaurant that recently took over the Pix Patisserie space on Williams Avenue, but after going over the images I need to address something more important: how incredibly patient my husband is. He has endured painfully long waits to eat while I photograph his food. He has quickly turned into my favorite subject to photograph due to his natural photogenicness, but also his patience and humor. Thanks Love, you're the best!

This is what Mike looks like while we're waiting for our food.

This is what he looks like when I'm photographing his food.

This is what he looks like when I lift my camera to take a quick snap of him and his patience.

And this is what he looks like when we get our food!

Ok, now onto Deli Bar, the new restaurant from Kenny & Zuke's, the East Coast style deli. We love Kenny & Zuke's and we were so excited when they opened a second restaurant close to us! Pastrami Fries! We decided to split one of their brunch time sandwiches called the Meshugaletta, an ode to the Muffaletta (mmmm....we will make it New Orleans to try an authentic one, this we promise you!). Kenny & Zuke's take on the muffaletta is made with their housemade pastrami, roast beef and turkey, as well as salami. This thing was massive and I ended up taking out half the meat just so I could take a bite. Luckily we ordered bloody marys to wash it down, garnished with pickled beets, cauliflower, and a green bean, it was one of the best bloodys we've had in awhile.

A pile of meat we took home and ate with baguettes for days!