Thanksgiving in Seattle

A belated post, but, thought I would include it because of all the delicious food I ate while I was in Seattle for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Well, as always, I will start with my plane meal. Since I knew I would be going overboard with the indulgence while at home, I packed a package of blueberries that served as my breakfast, an apple, an orange, a small serving of the Trader Joe's mini cheese and some crackers. So, no Sbarro's at the Houston airport for me this time.

For Sunday brunch, Marya took me to Revel. One of the most amazing brunches I have ever had! We shared everything - donuts, BBQ pork monkey bread, the kalbi burger, and the dandan noodles. The donuts were more like fritters, and I can't say I was a huge fan of them. Everything else was droolingly delicious.

{Champagne, of course}

{BBQ Monkey Bread - ingenius!}

Later that afternoon, I met Av and Kav at Herkimer Coffee. I had a hot chocolate, and we giggled like we did when we were 13.

We decided to take a stroll in the Seattle mist, and found a beer place named Prost. I should have worn my dirndl! It took me back to Munich.

The rest of the week crossed between trying to load up on fruits and veggies and then stuffing my face, but I suppose it isn't really Thanksgiving without the latter. I made some collard green spring rolls, and while they required a bit of assembly time, they were quite tasty (recipe at the end of this post!). 

My mom is a really great chef. We had delicious dinners every night of the week. Baked salmon, chicken biriyani, vegetable lasagna were some highlights. And every dinner we had started with a freshly tossed salad with carrots, peppers, tomatoes, olives, and a little bit of goat cheese.

{Vegetable lasagna}

Every day for breakfast, I made some form of fruit juice - either carrot, ginger and apple, or some kind of green juice with kale, spinach, romaine, cucumbers, etc. I even made a sweet potato smoothie with cranberries - it was almost like pie, minus the buttery crust and heavy cream. I still haven't found a way to consume as many veggies as possible in one sitting other than salad or juice/smoothies. Any other ideas?

{For carrot, beet, and orange juice}

{Apples, grapes, and romaine juice}

{Sweet potato smoothie...sounds weird

but actually yummy!}

Then came Thanksgiving. We had our usual fare of turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts, and of course, pie. And then I had pie for breakfast for 3 days straight. 

{Preparing the sausage stuffing}

{Sauteeing brussels sprouts}

{Cornbread!}

{Chocolate pie!}

{Our spread}

{Cooper gets his own Thanksgiving

plate too!}

Post Thanksgiving, Marya and I met again and this time decided to stay in and make some mac and cheese and have chocolate fondue. We used the mac and cheese recipe my sister used from the Williamsburg restaurant DuMac. I then found a chocolate fondue recipe and picked up various dipping goodies at Trader Joe's (pound cake, madelines, cookie pieces, and fruits). I cut the one quart recipe in half and even then we couldn't finish it. I guess I was a bit ambitious.

And, the Victoria Secret fashion show airs tonight! Maybe you can eat these spring rolls while watching Giselle strut down the runway donned in feathers and glitter.

Collard Green Spring Rolls, recipe adapted from here

Ingredients

For the Spring Rolls

• 1 english cucumber
• 1 bunch collard greens
• 2 large carrots
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 10 crimini mushrooms
• soy sauce
• 1 avocado 

For the Sauce

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 3 tbsp. rice vinegar 
• 1 1/2" piece of raw ginger, peeled
• soy sauce
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/3 cup agave nectar 

Prepare the sauce

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. It should have a peanut-sauce like consistency when it is done. Pour into a bowl for serving. 

Prepare the spring rolls

Julienne the carrots and cucumbers, slice the avocado lengthwise, and chop the cilantro, and set aside as you prepare the rest of the vegetables. Wash and dry the collard greens. Rip the leaves from the stem gently (so each collard green leaf is a "spring roll wrapper").  Slice the mushrooms and coat lightly with soy sauce.

Lay the collard green down on a cutting board/flat surface. Arrange each of the veggies towards the end of one side of the collard leaf, and then roll it up.  Place the spring rolls seam side down on a plate, and serve with the sauce. 

You could use your left over collard green leaves for a lettuce cup (remember PF Changs lettuce cups?) - I haven't tried it yet but I bet it would be yum!