It's a Wonderful Life!

Did everyone have a tryptophantastic turkey day?!

When we first arrived in Korea, we spent a lot of time discovering the glories of it's gas stations. Snack foods seemingly so familiar, yet so disappointingly surprising ('peanut butter sandwiches' where by peanut butter they meant peanut mousse, ice cream sandwiches made from beans, etc). Then, of course, there are drinks of the same nature (what I thought was delicious fruit cocktail, turned out to be a less-than-refreshing corn liquid), and then there are the oddities you feel you probably should avoid, yet are drawn to like a kid in a spicy fish-candy store (dried squid of every variety {yes, there are many varieties of dried squid}, a tube of gray matter labeled cheese sausage, canned silkworm pupa, you get the idea). In general, I think it's safest to stick with your instinct. However, while searching for a last minute dinner in those first few weeks, I discovered one of these oddities and bought it, thinking, or rather hoping, it was turkey. It was too big to be a chicken, but too small to be anything else I could think of, but I decided to give it a shot. Upon cracking it open and determining it to be edible enough, I cooked it up, and despite it's mysterious nature, turned out to be pretty tasty. So, being the closest thing to turkey I've seen since leaving it's natural habitat for the other side of the World, this little mystery meat became our T-day main course, as overseen by Chef Dunny. There aren't a ton of herbs to be had here (at all), so he stuffed it with ginger, onions and garlic, and sure enough it came out pretty darn good!




Doesn't look so appetizing, guess I should practice my 'food styling' skills. I was in charge of the cheese plate (little sticks of colby jack, also courtesy of the gas station- the only place to find cheese for some reason, walnuts, and crackers), spinach salad, (somebody's) homemade rolls, and mashed sweet taters, which I'm especially proud of.


I used this recipe for orange ginger mashed sweet potatoes, and kicked it up a notch, pretty much by putting more of everything in it, as well as fresh ginger and walnuts (and a wee bit of margarine and salt, being the good southern gal that I am. I know, margarine is blasphemous, but it's sadly our only option).

And here's the final product! Complete with D's hand and foot turkey he created with his students during Korean Thanksgiving (Chuseok) in October. You gotta love the dining chair/feather pillow combo.

Yeah, I know. Nerd alert. We have a lot of time on our hands. A little taste of home, and I'm a very proud (and thankful) gal.

Finally, following the mandatory food coma, I whipped up some apple cider! Straight from the orchard (to the press, to the bottle, to the store, to my shopping bag) and into the pot, with cinnamon, brown sugar and rum to top off the lovely night of comforts. I had plans for a no-bake apple pie (made with digestives in place of graham crackers, ha), but sadly it never came to fruition (wink).

I'm about to settle in to watch 'It's a Wonderful Life', and I can't possibly think of a better phrase to sum up my disposition.

Merry Happy!