Thanksgiving Meals 2014

This is the time of the year you get to break out all sorts of gadgets and try out recipes that you've never tried before to impress your guests. At least, that's how I see Thanksgiving gatherings. Feeding my guests and making sure they don't leave empty stomached is definitely my priority when having people over. My problem is that my house is not big enough to have all my lovely friends over for a sit down, classy, enjoyable Thanksgiving meal. This year, I got aggressive and decided to have three different meals. Now I'm all tapped out in cooking till next year.

With that said, I can't wait to show post these Thanksgiving dinner pictures.

I decided to make my own duck confit with a sous vide machine that I received for my birthday this year. It made it a lot less daunting then it really sounds. I cured the duck legs for 24 hours, vacuumed sealed the bags with some duck fat, and sous vided for 8 hours. Seared it off on the pan when I was ready to eat it. The product was pretty similar to what I've had from the European canned product! I would totally make it again!

Duck Confit on Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Kale Salad

The first meal was Thanksgiving day. It was dinner for four with the following menu

Creamy Leek and Potato Soup
Duck Confit over Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Kale Salad, Marcona Almonds
Seared Duck Breast over Parsnip Puree with Port Wine Reduction
Creamy Snow Crab Oyster Mushrooms Campanelle
Bourbon Pumpkin Pie with Pecan Streusel

Second meal was the big Friends-giving dinner with a menu based mostly by the French Inspired Thanksgiving menu on Epicurious.com. This was a dinner for 8.

Crudites Vegetables with Remoulade Sauce
Charcuterie Board
Duck Confit over Shaved Brussels Sprouts and Kale Salad, Marcona Almonds
Chestnut Soup with Creme Fraiche
Black Truffle Butter Turkey with Cognac Gravy
Chestnut Cornbread Stuffing
Pumpkin Souffle with Cognac Maple Sauce

Finally, the girls night dinner... which I attempted making fresh pasta for the first time. It was a ton of fun and am so glad I decided to buy the pasta attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer. I've made raviolis, Pappardelle, and Chinese noodles so far!

Menu for 6

Honey Roasted Acorn Squash Salad with Burrata and Balsamic Glaze
Lamb, Roasted Eggplant and Hummus Dip (by Diane)
Baked Smokey Salmon with Horseradish Chive Creme Fraiche
Homemade Pumpkin Ravioli with Walnut and Sage Brown Butter
Lemon Souffle with Blueberry/Cranberry Compote

This was definitely a fun 2 week process. Glad to have all the people that came over and definitely can't wait to host my next dinner party in 2015.

Lastly.. these are mini pumpkin doughnuts that I whooped up for one of those days off for breakfast!

Homemad Wild Mushroom Gnocchi

It has been a long while since I posted anything.. again. It's not that I've stopped cooking or traveling or have anything fun to share, but facebook/instagram are just so quick and convenient. With the amazing photo editing tools on cell phones,  I've deserted my DSLR for quite some time now. Lately, I do feel the spark in re-starting all of this. Mostly because I was going through some old photos from past trips and realized that the quality of the shots are still unbeatable. I want to take better pictures and I want to spend more time doing the things I love.

My boyfriend and I have been together for quite some time now. He's a busy man and works a lot of hours. Most of the time when he's home, he's glued to the computer. As an effort to spend some more quality time together, I decided we should cook together more often. It's been about a month since we got back from Italy and I was missing those pillowy gnocchi that we had in Florence. I decided to attempt homemade gnocchi. This is not my first time, but I definitely do not remember how they turned out last time I made it since that was back in college days.

I used Andrew Carmellini's recipe. The result was not terrible, but definitely some room for improvement. I was so concerned of over working the dough that I don't think I worked in quite enough flour, therefore the dough was softer than I wanted it. I would have to do a little bit more research on the potato and flour ratio. Definitely a reason to re-make. Plus, with the luscious wild mushroom cream sauce which I added dry vermouth, dried porcini and it's broth to, it can't be that bad!! Buon appetito!

Mini Donuts! Candy Bar Fun!

Wow it's been a long while since I updated this blog! Life.. is what happened. I've been so busy after the move, settling the house, dating ;), weddings of friends and family that I've completely deserted baking, cooking and of course... updating this blog! Nevertheless, I still love making food, I still love taking pictures, and of course eating!

My most recent project that I worked on was a candy bar for a friend's wedding. I don't have pictures from the actual end result.. waiting on the fantastic Ethan Yang to finish working on those wedding photos. But here are some pictures of the work in progress shots!

Lacey Candy Signs

Personalized Candy Bags

Bling! 

Of course, just putting candies in those beautiful apothecary jars wasn't going to be enough for a candy bar that I had to sign off with my name on it! I decided to dress it up with some cute dessert displays. Mini cupcakes, cakepops and mini donuts! It was the first time making the mini cake donuts but I must say  that it was fun, super cute and surprisingly they were still tasty after 1 whole day of sitting out in room temp! Impressed and definitely will have more to come! I'm thinking bacon maple mini donuts! Savoy + Sweet combo! 

Purple Mini test runs! Just for the Ravens! 

Strawberry Glazed Baked Cake Donuts

Anyway... happy that I'm back after a long while. Admittedly, I'm writing this post during the weather game delay during the Ravens Bears game! Go Ravens!! Until the next post~ tata!

Center Cut Lamb Loin Chop

After trying the center cut lamb loin chops at Seasons 52 twice, I decided to make my own version. It was the first time eating that cut of lamb, and I was blown away. Not only was it not so gamy, the tenderness of the meat left me craving for more. After all, those were tiny little cuts... D would know since we had to split three chops last time (I'm on this god awful diet..)!

Made this for a post Valentine dinner. I seasoned the chops generously with salt and pepper and seared it high heat then moved it to the oven. I made a balsamic, wine with shallot reduction to go with the chops. The vinegar helped cut down the slight gaminess from the lamb. It was truly scrumptious and easy for a date night meal. A nice change from your usual beef tenderloin.

Happy Year of the Dragon!

It was a very good new years eve being able to spend it with friends and family! And, once again.. I felt honored to be bustin' my ass all day for a good new years eve meal with the people I love! One of the new dishes that I tried out was Drunken Chicken. I had a lot of fun de-boning the chicken drum/thigh and rolling it into these circular tubes! They are soooo cute! =] I will definitely be making these again.. and possibly using some stronger liquor for the marinade! The other dishes that I made..

Dried Scallop & Chicken Soup

Cantonese Cured Meats w/ Rice in Clay Pot

Creamy Baked Cabbage w/ Dried Scallop

Abalone w/ Taiwanese Squash

Mom's Cooking

It's really good to have mom here! All the eating, and none of the cooking! These are just some of the things that I've had in the last couple of days! Had to force myself to go to spin class today to burn off the calories! Thanks mom for being so awesome and hosting some of my friends! NOM!

Happy Turkey Day!

Happy Thanksgiving! Thankfully all the food turned out great! The turkey skin was crispy and the meat super juicy! The truffle butter smelled sooo good and made some great tasting pan juice for the gravy! I also made roasted brussels sprouts, pumpkin risotto and stuffed mushrooms as sides and sweet potato souffle to finish!

Truffle Butter Turkey

Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Sausage Stuffed Mushroom

My Thanksgiving Meal

Sweet Potato Souffle

Finally, just wanted to say that I'm so thankful to have my family here with me this year!! Also, I'm super thankful to have such great friends! Without y'all, my life would be so boring and miserable! Love y'all!