Infusing my Asian roots into our Thanksgiving

We absolutely love the holidays, and Thanksgiving is the perfect one to start them off! The first few years of our relationship, we end up traveling to visit our family in the DC area, so usually ended up Thanksgiving dinner hosted by other family, but this year we decided to host dinner at our house.  David and I have been together for 3.5 years, and I'm officially becoming his "sous chef" next October, so this is going to be a fun experience since it'll be the first of many!

White David's forte is more of a gourmet southern food, I'm part Filipino, so really wanted to infuse some of my roots into the meal.  While "my chef" is preparing his cornbread stuffing, turkey, apple cranberry chutney, root veggies, mac-n-cheese, etc, I'm whipping up two of my favorite Asian dishes: Bulgogi (Korean short ribs) and Pancit (Filipino noodles).  What's really exciting is that, while each of our families have their own traditions for Thanksgiving, we get to start making our traditions! 

First up, Bulgogi.  I decided to marinate my short ribs starting Tuesday night.  The flavors of sesame oil, garlic, onion, brown sugar, and asian pear really blend together and penetrate the short ribs in as little as 4 hours, but I wanted to let them marinate even longer for a full depth of flavor.  Just short of serving time, I'll throw them on the grill for a few mins on each side and serve.  It makes a great tasting, hearty meat, without taking up the oven or a lot of time. 

Now for a family favorite, Pancit :)  It's funny...whenever I talk to someone and my Filipino roots come up, if the person I'm taking to knows anyone Filipino, they have either tried chicken adobo (I'll save that for another day) or pancit.  The noodles are called Bijon, and are very thin rice noodles.  They are mixed with onions, garlic, carrots, cabbage, and amazing chinese sausage.  These take more time to prep than cook, but can easily be made a day ahead, and taste even better the second day.  

These additions may be a one-time thing, or they may become part of our new traditions, but thought it would be really fun to share how we are blending family traditions to make our own. Also, coming up with dishes that would add a lot of work on Thanksgiving day are key to keeping the holidays focused more on family and less on the cooking!!! 

Pecan pie is a dietary need, right?

My ultimate favorite pie is pecan, and look forward to it every thanksgiving. This year, I found out that only a couple people coming like it, so David decided to do pumpkin pie. Thankfully, I had a really great recipe for pecan pie muffins, so I was still able to get my fix in a small dose, while not affecting the larger menu!

Pecan pie muffins

While catering for large groups typically means choosing a certain number of entrees and then creating enough for the number of people, you'll almost always have at least someone who has some kind of dietary need: gluten free, vegetarian, vegan, lactose free, etc.  Chef Fergy can help you decide if it's better to choose entrees based on those needs, or if it's better to use my "pecan pie muffin" method to create special options for those with dietary needs. 

Last Minute Rehearsal Dinner

One of the things we pride ourselves with is the desire to help our customers, even if it may be last minute!

Last week on Tuesday, I was talking with a friend who was getting married that weekend, and they had to change their rehearsal dinner at the last minute and didn't have a caterer.  They were going to order food from one of their favorite restaurants, but realized they needed someone to take care of setting up, bringing the food, etc.  We got her husband-to-be on the phone with us, talked through what they wanted, and had a proposed menu to them within a couple hours. They approved the menu first thing Wednesday morning, and we were there and all set up by the time they finished the rehearsal on Friday...whew!

This type of situation may not always work, but what really helped was that they were open and flexible!  Once we agreed on the type of cuisine (they ended up loving the idea of southern gourmet/soul), they allowed us to create a menu that we knew would be pleasing.  Not only did their guests love the food, we provided many vegetarian options (by request) for all of the ones that weren't eating meat.

Here are a few pictures from the dinner:

And here's the menu that we served: