Thanksgiving marks the beginning of the month-long pigging-out fest for me. I hope everyone enjoyed their vacation and got to spend some quality time with family and friends over some yummy eats. Big kudos for those of you that braved the cold and the crowd on Black Friday!

My mom’s been roasting turkeys yearly for as long as I can remember, even when we were still living in Taiwan. Every Christmas, she roasted one big juicy turkey that is stuffed with sticky rice, along with enough food to serve 20+ people. (Do you see where I get my passion for cooking and entertaining from?) We now save the turkey for thanksgiving and do some sort of roast for Christmas instead. Her method of turkey roasting changes every time, but lately she’s been favoring the high heat method. We also prefer stuffing on the side, aka “dressing”, so she now only stuffs the bird with lemon, oranges, garlic, and herbs. While the master roaster handles the turkey and the gravy, my sister and I were in charge of making all the side dishes.

Here is our menu: (All these for 11 people!)

*Smoked Chili Scalloped Sweet Potatoes
*Cornbread Dressing with Sausage and Cranberry
*Sauteed Kale with Tahini Dressing
*Mushroom, Truffle, and Cheese  Brioche
Seared Scallops
Candied Carrots with Cranberry
Roasted Brussel Sprouts
Cauliflower Gratin
Green Bean Casserole
Roast Turkey with gravy and Cranberry-Orange Sauce
Roast Chicken Stuffed with Crawfish Dressing (brought back frozen from Texas by mom’s friend)
Pumpkin Flan
*Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Marshmallow Creme

Recipes for items with asterisks will be posted soon!