Thanksgiving Day 2019 has come and gone, but the fantastic food is here to stay. My family arrived early on Thanksgiving Day in the midst of my early morning cooking. The madness in the kitchen ensued shortly thereafter. After almost the entire morning and afternoon cooking and baking, Thanksgiving dinner was ready to be served by early afternoon. Mom and aunt joined me in the kitchen with peeling and prepping vegetables the moment they stepped foot into our home. Dad got his phone camera ready to capture each and every moment of Thanksgiving chaos. Kevin spent most of the afternoon cheering on Michigan basketball after picking up my family from the airport. By the time my family arrived, the apple medley pie was already baking in the oven. I had prepared three batches of my pie dough recipe the evening before in anticipation of Thanksgiving Day. Two of the pie doughs were reserved for the apple medley pie. One batch of pie dough was reserved for a pumpkin pie (mom’s favorite holiday pie). Our order of operation in the kitchen for Thanksgiving usually starts with the pies, then biscuits, followed by the turkey, sides, and ending with the cranberry sauce and pan gravy. While we were waiting on the turkey and sides to finish up, we arranged the salad, plated the rolls my classmates and I had baked ahead of time in my professional baking class, and touched up the dining table to be camera ready for dad to snap photos of the finished dishes. Thanksgiving Day truly is a big production in our family. We celebrated this year over an oven roasted turkey with pan gravy, green bean casserole, cheesy hash brown potatoes, sausage dressing, apple medley pie, pumpkin pie, cranberry sauce, salad, and assorted rolls. Everyone was starving by the time all of the food was ready to be served. We all nibbled on some biscuits and rolls as we waited for all of the dishes to finish cooking. The plates came out around 3:00 p.m. and the feast began promptly. The first 20 minutes of dinner was just pure silence, a rare occurrence in our family. You can tell the food is good when no one is speaking a word during the meal. After seven hours of chaos, it’s a welcome change to have some silence. Once the bellies were full, it was time to get to work on the turkey soup for a couple hours before heading out to do some early holiday shopping. Heading out early for shopping also forced us to squeeze in some exercise. With one meal behind us, it was time to start tomorrow’s meals. Typically, I would repurpose some of the leftovers by putting new spins on those dishes, but because we barely had leftovers actually left over, I decided to make some pizza, as a alternative, for my family to enjoy. I prepared a quadruple batch of pizza dough and left it to rise on the cold counter before heading to bed. Since we didn’t have a lot of turkey left, I browned some chicken breasts to use for two BBQ chicken pizzas, spins on my BBQ turkey pizza. I also made a pear, blue cheese, and onion BBQ pizza for the third pie, and a simple chicken with fruit and vegetable pizza for the final pie. The pizza was served with the turkey soup to complete the morning meal. With breakfast done and everyone full, we headed out for a day trip to explore Northern Kentucky.
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Sweet and Savory Ladder and Braided Rolls
The countdown to Thanksgiving Day has begun. I’ve purchased all of the ingredients I need to make the perfect Thanksgiving Day dinner. The frozen turkey is defrosting in its package on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator. The rustic Italian loaf I will be using for my double herb sausage stuffing/dressing is diced into large cubes, packed into a storage bag, and stored in the freezer. The only other preparations I will need to make before turkey day are preparing multiple batches of pie dough, removing the diced bread from the freezer, and brining the turkey in the refrigerator. In exactly three days, the madness and excitement will begin. Kevin and I will do one final cleaning on Wednesday night before my parents arrive over the holiday weekend. In the last few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving week, I’ve been baking up a variety of breads, rolls, and sweet treats in my professional baking class. The techniques I’ve learned in class coupled with the treats I’ve baked over the last few weeks have reignited my passion for developing new recipes in the kitchen. This weekend, I made a batch of the most fluffy, tasty sweet and savory rolls using my sweet roll dough recipe. My sweet roll dough recipe came about when I was testing different ratios to make the perfect cinnamon rolls. Cinnamon rolls are one of those treats where I only indulge in once in a while because I find it overly sweet. About two years ago, I finally decided to recreate a less sweet version of cinnamon rolls. My testing and tweaking helped me come up with my version of cinnamon rolls, which I’ve been serving up to friends and family ever since. The base of my cinnamon rolls is a sweet roll dough I’ve been using to make versions of rolls ever since. Growing up in Brooklyn, I always had a soft spot for the delightful rolls being baked in Chinese bakeries throughout the borough. The rolls came in many varieties, were sweet and savory, and were cheap. Each roll costs anywhere from 50 cents to a few dollars and made for the perfect breakfast, snack, or lunch treat to pick up on my way to school and sometimes even on my way home. I’ve been trying to recreate some of those flavors and textures for quite some time now. When I decided to play around with the sweet roll dough over the weekend, I ended up creating the fluffiest and tastiest sweet and savory rolls.
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Blueberry Streusel Muffins
Thanksgiving is only a week away. I have my game plan ready for picking up groceries, cleaning our home, and making preparations for our family meal next week. This year’s Thanksgiving is especially exciting since my parents will be visiting Kevin and I in Ohio. I haven’t seen them since July (when they traveled to Ohio for a family trip). My parents have been asking for me to cook a full meal for them since I started capturing all of my recipes and photos on my blog. When I went home for Christmas last year, I did cook and bake quite a bit, so they have had exposure to some of my delicious creations. They, however, insisted on having the full Thanksgiving experience, which led them to book their travels to Ohio for Thanksgiving this year. Thanksgiving is the perfect holiday to cook up a full meal for my parents. In preparation for their visit, Kevin and I have been aggressively cleaning our home. I’ve also been cooking and baking in bulk. The last few weeks have been tough with the extended work days, final projects in my leadership certificate program, and upcoming assignments in my professional baking class. In between all of the priorities, I’ve been trying to meal prep as much as possible to keep me from ordering takeout. Last week, I made a very large batch of chicken tortilla soup, divided up the soup into multiple portions, and brought the individual portions of soup to work all week long. This week, I had an intense craving for blueberry streusel muffins, and made a dozen for Kevin and I to bring for breakfast to work throughout the week. I’ve been making a ton of streusel in my professional baking lab classes, which is probably why I have been craving blueberry streusel muffins. Blueberry streusel muffins were one of my mom’s favorite breakfast items. Growing up, she would take my brothers and I to school and then treat herself to a blueberry streusel muffin on her way to work. She would even purchase blueberry streusel muffins whenever she had the chance (such as on our infrequent trips to Costco). I must have developed my love for blueberry streusel muffins from my mom after watching her eat them over the course of my childhood. Blueberry streusel muffins are a type of quick bread you can whip together in under an hour. Room temperature ingredients work best for baking up the tasty treats. Muffins are one of my favorite go-to breakfast items when I’m short on time and just want something where I can grab and run out the door in the morning.
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Thanksgiving Menu Planning and Rainbow Tomatoes Pizza
Yesterday, I completed my final presentation for my leadership certificate program. In a few weeks, I will attend graduation and have an official certificate in hand. I had started on my certificate program in January of this year and still can’t believe I’m reaching the end of the program. It has been an absolute joy working with some of the most dedicated professionals in the public and nonprofit sector. Shortly after completing my final presentation, I was already back to planning my menu for the upcoming holidays. This time of the year is my absolute favorite because of the back to back holiday celebrations. Thanksgiving is coming up in a couple weeks, Christmas is shortly thereafter, and then lunar new year is around the corner. I’ve scribbled down some ideas for each of the holidays, but my favorite holiday to plan a menu for is definitely Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is a time of joining together with close family and friends and connecting over great food. A few years ago, I started using the alphabet trick to help me with menu planning. I’ve stuck with this menu planning method ever since. The alphabet method is where I list down all of the dishes I plan to make on Thanksgiving Day starting with the letter A and ending with whichever letter equals out the number of dishes I plan to make. For example, if I want to make a total of nine dishes, I would list out the dishes from A to I, which is what I did for this year. The alphabet method worked best for me because it helped me keep track of all of the dishes in my head to ensure I did not miss a dish. For this year, I already planned on making nine dishes in total (including desserts and drinks). A is for an apple medley pie with a lattice top. B is for biscuits with mushroom gravy, a recent vegan favorite in our household. C is for cheesy hash brown potatoes, a dish I learned in college from celebrating thanksgiving with my college roommate, Annie’s family. D is for double herb sausage stuffing, a classic dish served by most midwestern families. E is for my easy roast turkey (with or without rosemary butter). F is for fresh orange cranberry sauce. G is for green bean casserole, a classic thanksgiving household favorite. H is for a harvest apple and pear salad with a simple vinaigrette. I is for an iced lemon honey brewed tea. There you have it, my quick short list of some of my favorite thanksgiving dishes. I’ve already started shopping for the ingredients I will need on Thanksgiving Day. The only items I truly prep ahead of time are the turkey and pie crust dough. A few days before thanksgiving, I move the turkey from the freezer down to the refrigerator to begin defrosting. The evening before, I brine the turkey in a very simple vegetable stock filled with some aromatics. I clear off the bottom shelf of my refrigerator to make room for the turkey and brine. Once the turkey is enclosed in a brine and placed in a container on the bottom shelf of my refrigerator, I prepare 2-3 pie dough crusts for my apple medley pie. The next morning, I wake up early, turn on the television, flip to the channel showing the annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, and start cooking up dishes for the next several hours. The entire process from prepping to cooking and serving takes anywhere from six to eight hours, but I absolutely love each minute of the process. The best part about Thanksgiving this year is my parents will actually be joining both Kevin and I for dinner. This means I will finally have some help in the kitchen if I need it. During the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, I tend to eat lighter in anticipation of the feasting I will do on Thanksgiving Day. Homemade pizza is one of those simple, lighter dishes where I can easily pull together a meal in almost no time. Making the pizza at home from scratch also allows me to control the amount of cheese and toppings. During my holiday brainstorming session, I made a very simple rainbow tomato pizza to serve alongside a warming cup of tea.
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Chicken Tortilla Soup
Here’s a confession. I’ve recently been obsessed with chicken tortilla soup. It began a few weeks ago on a rainy Thursday afternoon when I got the wrong lunch order. I had a craving for chicken noodle soup for lunch and ended up making a detour to pick up some soup at Zoup. The moment I stepped foot into Zoup, I could see an insanely long line serving customers during lunch rush hour. By the time it was my turn to order, I asked for a cup of chicken noodle soup and stepped aside. The person taking my order must have thought I said chicken tortilla soup and placed an order for chicken tortilla soup instead. I didn’t catch the error until I returned back to the office and unpacked my soup. I knew something was off when I smelled a strong scent of cumin and saw strips of tortilla chips sprinkled on top of my soup. The aromatic scent of spices was intoxicating. All it took was one scoop to fall in love. The soup immediately warmed me up. It was just what I needed after trekking outside in the cold rain. The chicken tortilla soup featured a blend of southwest spices, crispy tortilla chips, diced vegetables, and hearty chicken. The soup was so comforting, I went back the very next week and ordered a large bowl of chicken tortilla soup again for lunch. After my second tasting of the soup, I set out to create my own version inspired by the version I had. Over the weekend, I made a very large batch of chicken tortilla soup featuring my own blend of southwest spices, diced onion, peppers, corn, black beans, and diced chicken. I browned the chicken first before moving onto cooking down the onions and peppers until softened. I then added in some water, tomato puree, frozen corn kernels, and cooked black beans. I turned the heat down to medium low and let the soup cook on medium low heat for about another 15 minutes or so. When the soup was done, I ended up with enough soup for about six to eight servings. I ate as much as I could before packing up the rest of the soup into a few containers to bring to work throughout the upcoming week.
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Cheddar Tomato Tart
Holiday cheer is definitely in the air. Stores are stocked with seasonal decorations, colorful lights, and holiday spices. People are bundling up in thick winter coats, warm socks, and heavy-duty boots to counteract the cold weather. Sales and pre-sales are popping up everywhere. This can only mean we are heading towards the holiday stretch. November in particular is one of my favorite months for coming up with a game plan for the holidays. With the upcoming long weekend, I can spend some time planning out my Thanksgiving holiday schedule, Christmas celebrations, and holiday gift shopping plan. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been consumed by days packed with longer work days followed by baking classes shortly thereafter. Next week marks the midway point of my baking course. I’ve learned so much about the world of professional baking in just a few short weeks. In class, we call recipes formulas. Each and every ingredient is measured or weighed on a scale for accuracy. Formulas are important because they are designed for large scale production of goods. Most of all, I’ve been able to open up my taste buds to experience new flavor combinations and textures, while learning proper techniques for producing quality baked goods in a professional setting. In class, most of the baked goods we make are geared towards serving large crowds. At home, most of the baked goods I make are geared towards anywhere from two to eight people. Outside of class, I still do prefer to cook and bake on a much smaller scale. During especially cold days, I tend to opt for warming soups, hearty stews, and comforting casseroles. This week, however, I saw some Campari tomatoes on sale at the supermarket and decided to make a cheddar tomato tart instead.
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Cabbage and Pork Steamed Buns
November has finally arrived. The weather has taken a turn for the cold. In just a few short weeks, Thanksgiving will be here. I’m especially excited for Thanksgiving this year since my parents will be visiting Kevin and I in Ohio. I’ve been testing a ton of recipes in anticipation for their visit. Thanksgiving is the one time during the year where my family celebrates with a traditional (western) Thanksgiving. My family started the tradition roughly fifteen years ago and we’ve continued the tradition each year thereafter. Thanksgiving in the Pan household usually involves a roasted turkey, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, mom’s barbecue spare ribs and chicken wings, and a simple salad with ranch dressing. All of these dishes were what I had known throughout my teenage years. It wasn’t until I got to college and met my college roommate, Annie, that I became exposed to a whole new world of traditional Thanksgiving foods. Her family served up pigs in a blanket, cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, herb stuffed turkey, and used the turkey carcass to make the best turkey noodle soup I’ve ever had. Ever since I spent Thanksgiving at Annie’s mom’s home back in my college years, I fell in love with many of the traditional Midwestern American dishes served by her family. I started incorporating cheesy potatoes, green bean casserole, and even turkey noodle soup (using the leftover turkey carcass) into my thanksgiving menu every year shortly after college. When Kevin and I moved to Ohio, we started celebrating Thanksgiving each year with a traditional (western) menu. I’ve already planned my Thanksgiving menu for this year (so stay tuned). The following month, we served a mostly Chinese or eastern inspired menu for Christmas. One of the dishes I’ve been working on perfecting for my Chinese Christmas menu is steamed buns. I loved eating steamed buns growing up in New York City. In fact, my family and I spent countless get togethers connecting over our favorite dim sum dishes. Cabbage and pork steamed buns is actually one of my dad’s favorite dishes to order during dim sum. He loves the vegetable and meat combination in steamed buns and has even purchased frozen versions to store in the freezer for when his cravings kick in. Over the weekend, I made the most amazing cabbage and pork steamed buns. The filling for my steamed buns is very similar to the filling I use for my pork and cabbage dumplings. The dough for the buns did take me a few tries to get the texture right. The first two times I made steamed buns, I used only all-purpose flour to make the dough. When the buns were steamed, they had a tougher texture. Over the weekend, I used a blend of cake flour and all-purpose flour along with active dry yeast, salt, sugar, and some lukewarm water to make a more tender dough. When steamed this time around, the buns had a much fluffier texture similar to the ones I remember eating growing up. In under twenty minutes of steaming, I had a basket of the most delightful steamed buns ever. Kevin and I both devoured the steam buns as we watched the Michigan game at noon on Saturday.
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Southwest Fried Rice
There is chill in the air, rain on the streets, ghoulish treats on display, pumpkin spice on everything, and the wildest dressed people roaming the streets. All of these signs can only point to one holiday – Halloween. Growing up, Halloween was one of my top three favorite holidays (closely behind Christmas and Thanksgiving). I would anxiously count the days leading up to Halloween starting in September. I knew once school started, the shelves in stores would slowly switch from stocking school supplies to being filled with Halloween decorations. I loved browsing through stores throughout the months of September and October to see what kinds of cool decorations were out there for the year. I also used the time as an opportunity to scout out which candy treats I should start stocking up on, and which character I should become for Halloween that year. On the day of Halloween, I usually met up with some close friends and went trick or treating around my neighborhood in Brooklyn collecting as many treats as I could along the way. I continued this tradition year after year until I got to college. When I got to college, Halloween became meeting up with friends to go dancing instead of collecting treats. I transformed into a fairy using a pair of fairy wings I purchased at a local Rite Aid store in Brooklyn, a simple white shift dress, and some creative makeup. I would then meet up with some close college friends to go dancing at Halloween parties across Michigan campus. I saved the fairy wings for Halloween each year thereafter until after I graduated from college. Then, I traded my wings for food. Halloween post college was no longer an evening of going dancing. Instead, it became a night of gathering with friends and connecting over spooky, delicious foods. Meatballs and spaghetti became eyeballs and spaghetti. Smoked ribs got a new spooky name (usually in the form of a person’s name). Chicken wings turned into bat wings. Any food you can think of is transformed into a new creation with a spooky name. This year, Kevin and I celebrated Halloween early over the weekend with some ribs, wings, and sweet treats. Of course, with just the two of us, there were tons of food leftover. Even Kevin (an absolute meat lover) couldn’t finish all of the ribs. I ended up repurposing some leftover ribs from the evening before and using them to create my Southwest inspired fried rice. I named the fried rice southwest fried rice because of the ingredients incorporated into the rice. The fried rice was filled with corn, diced red pepper, diced onion, sliced scallions, minced garlic, homemade barbecue sauce, and of course, my spiced bbq spare ribs. The ribs added smoky, spicy, and savory notes to the fried rice. The corn, red pepper, and onion added a distinctive sweetness. Altogether, the fried rice became a medley of southwestern flavors. I couldn’t believe I didn’t think of this style of fried rice earlier.
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Meatball Pizza
I can’t believe we are nearing the end of October. Halloween is in just a few days and then November will be here. Growing up in New York, Halloween was always one of my favorite holidays. I loved the excitement of shopping for costumes a few weeks before Halloween, preparing ghoulish treats on the days leading up to Halloween, and stocking up on tons of candy for fellow trick or treaters who may happen to ring our doorbell on the day of Halloween. The anticipation leading up to Halloween was always my favorite part of the holiday. As a child, I would beg my parents to take me trick or treating around our neighborhood right after school. My parents usually would take my brothers and I up and down the block we grew up on in Brooklyn whenever they had some time on the day of Halloween. When I got older, I would meet up with some friends to go trick or treating the evening of Halloween. We would weave our way through my neighborhood in Brooklyn collecting treats along the way. If there was a house with Halloween decorations, we would make our way up the steps, ring the doorbell, and wait to see what treats we would get. Trick or treating became an annual tradition. Some years I went with friends. Other years I went with my brothers. When I got to college, Halloween became evenings of dressing up and going out dancing around town in Ann Arbor. I dressed up as a fairy almost every year throughout college since it was the easiest costume to pull together. I kept the same fairy wings I bought at a local Rite Aid back in high school throughout college just to use for Halloween. After college, I realized I was too old to go trick or treating around town. Plus, I became much more aware of the chilly weather and can’t seem to step foot outdoor unless I had on at least three layers. Instead of going out, Halloween became celebrating with friends indoors over good food and festivities whenever we had the chance to gather together. One of the easiest dishes to make for a Halloween gathering is pizza. You can decorate the pizza however you like with any toppings of your choice. The toppings can be anywhere from simple to ghoulish. I made a simple meatball pizza as a way to use up leftover meatballs from my spaghetti and meatballs. The lean, meaty Italian inspired meatballs are halved and topped on a margherita style pizza pie (my absolute favorite pizza pie of all times). If you are feeling festive, you can also turn my meatball pizza into eyeball pizza by adding some mozzarella balls stuffed with olives to look like eyeballs.
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Spaghetti and Meatballs
This week was my first official week attending professional baking classes. I’m only a couple classes in and have already experienced a whirlwind of emotions. There were moments on my first day of class where I felt as if I was a contestant in a cooking competition. All of my classmates knew where to retrieve all of the tools and ingredients to get started on their baking assignment, I, on the other hand, can’t even count how many times I ran around the kitchen asking my classmates if they knew where the rye flour, yeast, scales, or mixing bowls were. Unlike baking at home, we were required to measure everything using a scale. The classes have consumed most of my time outside of work, I haven’t even had much time to do anything else other than eat and sleep on weekdays. Whenever I have insanely packed weekdays, I like to prepare large servings of food the weekend before. Cooking ahead means I will be less tempted to order takeout or eat out. One of Kevin’s favorite dishes is meatballs. He loves all kinds of meatballs especially Italian style and my Hoisin glazed meatballs (packed with Asian flavors). If I’m preparing Italian style meatballs, I like to pair them with spaghetti tossed in a simple tomato puree. My spaghetti and meatballs are a homage to the spaghetti and meatballs I frequently ate growing up in New York City. There was always an abundance of local Italian restaurants throughout New York City serving home cooked Italian meatballs and spaghetti. I loved being able to explore all of the different local restaurants to experience different takes on traditional spaghetti and meatballs. Many of the traditional Italian style meatballs I’ve had featured ground beef (sometimes with other grounded meat mixed in), diced onion, tons of garlic, fresh parsley, Parmigiano Reggiano, breadcrumbs, salt, and pepper. I typically stick to the traditional style, but sometimes I swap in panko breadcrumbs for an airier crisp. This time around, I omitted the breadcrumbs altogether for leaner, meatier meatballs. I did keep the rest of the components of the meatballs in line with the traditional versions I ate growing up. I always brown the meatballs first before baking them with a simple tomato puree for optimal flavor. While the meatballs are baking in the oven, I prepare a box of thick spaghetti to toss into the simple tomato puree used to bake the meatballs. The end result is an intensely flavorful spaghetti and meatballs dish.
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