Hongnadian Thanksgiving! With a Few Recipes to Boot!

Ok so first of all, I have to write down this disclaimer on the pictures from Beijing, you know, the ones from the Forbidden City and 798 art district.  What was I wearing?  Let me tell you.  So it all starts like this.  My stomach had been feeling off, and I mean shooting pain cramps, and it lasted for about 4 days, waking me up in the night, and it was worse if I ate lunch, breakfast was a must though b/c I always felt nauseous in the morning.  So even though I didn't have "explosive diarrhea" (the Dr.'s prereq for taking antibiotics) I decided to take the antibiotics that I had gotten for just in case.  I only took one round, but after the first day I felt better, so I took it for a week and I am magically better! Yay!  Now what does this have to do w/ my outfit?  After we went to the great wall of China we showed up at our hotel in Beijing and the lady at reception said she thought I was from Ireland... I was so not impressed.  This olive skin is NOT from Ireland and what the heck?  Lockey thought it was hilarious.  So low and behold we get to the room and I was like holy hannah, my face was red.... and we had no SPF b/c it was too much liquid to take in carry on and we didn't check our bags.... But I don't burn (often)... and not in Autumn sunshine when I have a tan already... So I figured it out, which I should have figured it out sooner w/ my bit of medical background, but it says right on my bottle of drugs to AVOID DIRECT SUNLIGHT.... Thus my outfit for the next day... I was definitely covered.... 

And another random anecdote.  So we came into our apartment one night and I saw a geckomelian lizard thing on our wall just above our wardrobe... I tried to grab the camera, but the little guy was too quick, he made it behind the wardrobe and we've never seen hime since.... but he doesn't like to eat from our pantry, so we don't so much mind, but we don't have bugs in here either, so now I think we have a dead lizard behind our wardrobe.... Hopefully I'm wrong.

Another random story that I have been meaning to write down, because it was something that makes me laugh, was when we were in Bali we asked one of our taxi drivers if he ate a lot of rice.  He pondered the question for a moment and then said very seriously, "No, only for breakfast, lunch and dinner."

So we got an invite to go to a  Canadian Thanksgiving celebration here in Hong Kong.  We took 5 different subway lines to get there and had to make sure to leave by 11:00 so we didn't miss the last trains home, but it was a lot of fun, so we were glad we made the trek.  We met some new people, and got to chat w/ Jon and Melissa the wonderful hosts (granny and gramps sitting in the front there) who go to school w/ Lockey in Calgary but are at a different university in HK.  We had lots of laughs and we got to go around the table and everyone said something they were thankful for.  Family was common, friends that they have made in HK was common (there were people from France, Germany, Singapore, Netherlands, HK, Canada, USA, and Taiwan there).  I said that I was thankful for my job, that let me have 5 months off and made it possible to go on this amazing adventure w/ my best friend, and then I still get to go back to my job.  In addition to that I am so thankful for my wonderful husband, who always puts up w/ me, and motivates me to be better, and goes on adventures w/ me and sits and home and plays boggle w/ me.  He's my best friend.  I'm thankful for my family, for my parents and my inlaws who are always there to love and support us, we love you a lot!  Lockey said that he is thankful for my job too (I went first)  and that he's thankful for Canada, (he's taking an into to Chinese law course and it's disturbing how some of their laws/legal system operates).  He's also thankful for FaceTime b/c we can keep in touch w/ all of our families and not only chat but be able to see each other too.  It's especially great b/c we can interact w/ Prycen too. 

Thanksgiving dinner at the clubhouse of Jon and Melissa's hoity toity place... it's almost as nice as ours... 

So in Hong Kong we don't have an oven... or turkeys, or room for baking supplies... And the regular grocery store doesn't even have canned pumpkin!  But don't worry, I found me some pumpkin at the teeny scary little American store!  And Lockey and I have been obsessed, we made Pumpkin oatmeal, pumpkin rice pudding, hot pumpkin spice milk, pumpkin desserts etc.  So I needed to figure something out to take for a bunch of people to share.... So I came up w/ a pumpkin dip tasting somewhat like pumpkin pie filling, and dipping gingersnaps in it... If I had a stove I think my snickerdoodles would have tasted awesome w/ it!   (As well as homemade gingersnaps instead of store bought, but hey, who cares when the dip tastes as good as it did?) .... Ok, so if you like someone to tell you exact measurements, you won't like this recipe as we clearly don't have any measuring cups or spoons in our teeny place.  But I don't think you could really screw it up... too badly.   So here's the "recipe".

Pumpkin Dip

1 large cereal bowl of marshmallows

1 Tbsp of margarine

1 cup of cream cheese

canned pumpkin to taste (make sure it's not pumpkin pie in a can)

cinnamon

ginger

nutmeg

cloves

All of the spices to taste (majority of spice will be cinnamon, careful w/ the other 3, a little goes a long way, you'll just have to keep taste testing, darn)

White chocolate chips

Pecans or Walnuts

First warm up the marshmallows and margarine in the microwave on medium heat, watching carefully and stirring after the first 45 seconds.  Let it cool, but stir it every couple of minutes so it doesn't harden... it will be Uber sticky.  Next whip the cream cheese (I just used a fork) to soften it.  when the marshmallow is cool mix it into the cream cheese and then start adding pumpkin! I added generously b/c I love pumpkin.  when that tastes about right add your spices and then add the white chocolate chips and chopped nuts, I would have liked it a little chunkier than we had it (but it did get warmed up by accident, and it actually still tasted great, so if you like a warm comfort food, or want it a little fresher you can do it both ways!)  

The next recipe is NOT mine, but another girl brought these really fabulous cookies that everyone devoured.... 

White Chocolate Chip Cranberry cookies

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter, softened (I had to convert this, so it's about 113 grams)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon (vanilla, rum, or other liquers work well)
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup white chocolate chips (i think the white contrasts very nicely with the color of the cranberries, but all i had was semi-dark so i used those ;-;)
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. or 190 C.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and brandy.

Sift the flour and baking soda; stir into the sugar mixture. Mix in the chocolate chips and cranberries.

Drop by heaping spoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheets.
Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven (but make sure not to overbake! i think they're best slightly underdone P:).

And last but not least (especially not in Lockey's eyes... he's obsessed) I made Turkey Pillows (aka chicken pillows, introduced to me by one of my closest friends, Candace in Beeville). As mentioned before we don't have an oven, nor did I have the recipe, so this is my version of chicken pillows, and as it was Thanksgiving and we came across canned Turkey at the American store (which I will refer to from here on out as Gateway) we used Turkey!

Turkey Pillows


Filling:

Cream Cheese

Canned Turkey (or turkey leftovers, or rotisserie chicken shredded)

Garlic powder
Salt
Pepper
Green onions (chopped)
Arugula chopped (the special ingredient that is completely necessary! I put heaps in)

Mix all ingredients together until the consistency is not too thick or dry, you want the cheese to be nice and melty (yes that is a word.) And as for the spices, again, taste test my friends! I actually used a pre made spice mix as it's easier to store in our "pantry".

Dough

Ok, so I don't have flour etc, so this is my Hong Kong version of dough, Candace used a pre made dinner roll type dough that was frozen, but we don't even have a functioning freezer, so feel free to use whatever type of dough you like and that works in your space!

Bisquick mix
about a Tbsp butter
a good squeeze of honey, maybe a heaping Tbsp if that was possible...

and use a fork to mix until dough is crumbly

then add milk slowly until it starts to hold together, then pick it up and start to knead it, I poured a little extra bisquick into my dough at this time and dipped my ball of dough into it and kneaded it and kept doing that until it wasn't sticky anymore.

Then separate your dough, the first time I made them thicker which would work for an oven, so made 2 balls, the next time I made them thinner so had enough for 4. the dough should be nice and stretchy, so make into circles, put the filling in the middle and then bring the corners together and pinch so you can no longer see the filling inside. Then place seam side down on a baking sheet and bake according to bisquick baking directions.... I'm not sure what those are at the moment, but clearly if you are doing this then you have the box... keep a close eye on them as you don't want them over done!

As for me I get to put them on frying pan, on the hotplate on the lowest heat to cook, with the other pot over top to keep the heat in... it actually works ok, but any time I check them I let all the heat out... and it's a trick to flip them over!!!

But it's a really great dinner, especially for the fall and winter months..... When you're already packin on the pounds anyways right?

So the remainder of this week we have been busy planning trips, we are off to Japan on Friday and I am super excited about it. We are going to see "koyo" which is the celebration of the leaves turning red. And we'll try some fresh sushi at the fish market, see some Japanese traditions, and enjoy some great weather and some mountains.... all coming up Next time on Junket Junkies! :)