Crush The Cook

This year I seized the opportunity to cook Thanksgiving dinner, as my parents are in the process of selling their house, and this year we purchased a home of our own, enabling us to properly host the event.  For years I’ve watched, helped and generally learned many tips and tricks that go into making a large Turkey dinner.  My goal with this meal is to apply everything I’ve learned over the years into one super fantastic meal.  I’m going for the traditional Thanksgiving meal with my own spin on things.

I intend on sharing my recipes and process in a series of blog posts that will follow.  Obviously my blog has been long neglected, so I’m looking at this as a means to get me back into the swing of food blogging again.  Hope you all enjoy.

Homemade Chinese Food

Last year my wife Corina and I started a tradition of making Chinese food on Christmas Eve.  In previous years we bought Chinese take-out and decided we’d have a go at making our favourites at home.

Our meal consisted of sweet and sour chicken balls, soo guy almond chicken, honey sesame chicken, fried rice and an egg roll.  Everything except the egg roll and sweet and sour sauce was homemade.  Maybe we’ll tackle that next year.

Soo Guy Almond Chicken Recipe
I just doubled up the batter ingredients for the Soo Guy to use with the chicken balls.  That recipe calls for baking powder, but I amped it up a bit with some baking soda so the batter would inflate more.  I think my second time around I got better quality batter just by doing that.

Honey Sesame Chicken
This was the first time I tried this recipe.  It turned out well, but it wasn’t quite what I was looking for.  There is a place near my work that has fantastic sesame chicken, which prompted me to want to create this homemade version in the first place.  It was quite the good recipe though.

I just freelanced on the fried rice, making it with basmatti rice, chicken soup base and peas, corn and carrots.

One busy deep fryer

A full stovetop

1. My mom’s turkey gravy
2. Kitchen’s Mom’s Pumpkin Pie
3. Hot maple syrup poured onto snow, then rolled onto a popsicle stick
4. Beaver Tails on the Rideau Canal
5. My nuts and bots recipe
6. Freshly squeezed lemonade
7. My mashed potato recipe
8. Breakfast from Vienna Restaurant
9. Homemade Rhubarb Pie
10. Homemade potato bacon perogies
11. Tart lemon meringue pie
12. Crockpot meatloaf
13. Burnt marshmallow s’mores from the campfire
14. Greasy pan pizza from Pizza Hut, I had this on my wedding day for lunch
15. Birthday tacos
16. Cheese straws
17. Homemade Chinese food on Christmas Eve
18. Toronto street meat with loads of condiments
19. My sisters Apple Pie made with macintosh apples
20. slow-cooked BBQ ribs
21. Rhawb and my moose steak BBQ
22. Christmas morning tea biscuits
23. Fresh baked bread
24. Homemade apple butter BBQ sauce
25. Potato cakes
26. Homemade iced tea (the only kind I like)
27. Homemade thin crust pizza
28. Corina’s Mom’s Sloppy Joe
29. Sheppard’s Pie
30. Fried Chicken
31. Hot dog and popcorn at an Ottawa Lynx game
32. A good rare steak
33. Yorkshire pudding
34. Homemade hamburgers on good fresh buns
35. Foil wrapped baked potatoes done in a firepit
36. Asian salad with sesame dressing and crispy noodles
37. Corn on the cob slathered with warm butter
38. Corn dogs with ketchup
39. Moose Winooski’s chicken wings
40. Crepes with strawberry and whipped cream
41. Southern style biscuits and gravy
42. bacon, not too crispy
43. Homemade sausages
44. Beer battered fish and fresh cut fries
45. A fresh baked chocolate dip donut from Tim Horton’s at 3am
46. Teriyaki chicken
47. Cinnamon roll, with no raisins
48. Uncle Alvis’ Spice
49. Garlic
50. Sour Patch Kids, got a sour tooth

Feel free to add any of your favourites in the comments that would make your personal list.

The event last year was awesome. For $20 you get a whole rack of ribs and a side. There were 9 different trailers setup serving their spin on rib delicious-ness. Everyone has a different preferrence. There is even a trailer from Paris called Camp 31. They make badass ribs. But given I can get Camp 31 goodness any day of the week, I didn’t bother with them. I think I got either Billy Bones or Bibbs BBQ ribs last year. I also got some potato side and corn on the cob. We bumped into a group of friends who unbeknownst to us were also checking out the ribliciousness. Corina’s sister had the kids with them, so they packed it in early and we hung out with our friends the rest of the night. We ended up having some drinks and all eating Elephant ears loaded up with ice cream, whip cream and chocolate sauce. It was truly an evening of gorging to remember. This last weekend we went to a party and mentioned how we were going to Ribfest again to the friends who had attended last year and instantly anything that might have been planned for Friday was put on the backburner. Ribfest obviously takes precedence. I definitely like the idea of this being an annual occurance, because Ribfest is just that damn good.

I think my anticipation of Ribfest is almost bordering on the excitement I have in the leadup to Thanksgiving. And I love turkey. Not quite as excited, but up there. But that does remind me that turkey time is rapidly approaching. I think I want to see if I can manage 3 turkey dinners this time around. That would be ace. Gosh darn I’m hungry right now.