Over the weekend, David and I hosted our second annual NYC Thanksgiving party. This year, our apartment’s larger and we had it potluck style so I didn’t have to do all of the cooking. To see last year’s posts, click here. I did manage to cook a few dishes (including a turkey that we picked up from Costco) and I’ll be posting about all of them throughout the week.
This year’s party was really fun – Joe, Ariel, and Audrey brought lots of alcohol, PAMA liqueur donated lots of pomegranate liqueur, and lots of scotch was consumed (by one individual). We apparently got a little rowdy because security came by to tell us to keep it down, but we were having so much fun that we just closed the door and kept on partying. David had everyone say one thing we were grateful for (a tradition my family does every year) and we played catchphrase until 2AM. I’m grateful for a lot of things, but I’m most grateful for having an amazingly supportive and awesome brother and mom. David went to Brooklyn to pick up extra chairs so we could fit 14 people in our apartment, ran to Bed, Bath, and Beyond when I was worried that our turkey wouldn’t fit in a roasting pan (it didn’t), and helped keep the party exciting while I was putting the final touches on everything. I’m also grateful for my wonderful mom, who talked with me on skype until 2AM while I was preparing all of the dishes so I wouldn’t be lonely, helped me come up with the dinner menu, and thought of the crazy idea for us to livestream the party so other people (like my dad and my mom) could watch us enjoy the party.
Like last year, I’m going to post the recipes and step-by-step instructions on when and how to make each dish – I hope you can take some of these recipes and prepare them during your Thanksgiving with your family and friends. Today, I’ll post a few pictures from our party (we also livestreamed it so my parents could watch from Asia and North Carolina).
The other guests brought the following (I don’t have the recipes, but they were all amazing):
Blake: Green Bean Casserole
Justin: Sweet Potato Casserole
Julie: Spinach Artichoke Dip
Laura: Mexican Dip, Red Velvet Cake
Bethany: Cranberry Bread
Koyel: Mashed Potatoes
Sumon: Pumpkin Pie Lou: Cranberry Sauce
Ariel: Apple Pecan Cake
Today I’ll do a double post – pictures from our party AND the first recipe, Lou’s Cranberry Sauce.
All of our guests:
Spatchcocked turkey, cornbread dressing, and macaroni and cheese with bacon:
More food:
Justin inspecting the Vilas spring water (from Spain) that was generously donated for our party (and Faire watching him to make sure he doesn’t drop the water bottle on her slice of apple pecan cake):
Blake telling me to hurry up and take my picture so we can start eating the FIVE desserts people made/purchased:
Cantor helping Tigger clean up:
Faire, flying:
Lounging around and thinking about switching into elastic-waisted pants (I offered):
Me and Tigger:
Faire and David:
Faire and Tigger, playing together:
I hope you enjoy this week’s posts – I tried taking as many pictures as possible while I was cooking so you’d have a good idea of how to make each dish.
Thursday, November 12th, was NYC Costco Day (according to me, David, Ariel, and Kristen). You see, I didn’t grow up with Costco, Sam’s Club, or any super large shopping store; the closest I got to a large superstore was a Meijer and Wal-Mart in Champaign, Illinois. Since I’m not used to buying in bulk, going to Costco/Sam’s Club/BJ’s is a truly MAGICAL experience for me. It’s like running down the stairs on CHRISTMAS MORNING to see all of your presents…except I see all the savings! All kidding aside, I can probably count the number of times I’ve been to Costco (under 10) and each time has been really fun (I even went to one in Taiwan to pick up bagels with my aunt! Bagels!) Anyway, when I got wind that the Costco was opening in Harlem, I recruited Kristen and Ariel, fellow Costco lovers, for a field trip to East Harlem. The Costco opened at 8am, but we went after work (1. I don’t like Costco enough to skip work for it and 2. I figured the lines would be ridiculous at 8am). I told Dorren, my coworker and really awesome friend, that I was going to Costco and I told him about my plans to bring my shopping cart all the way to East Harlem to pick up groceries; he surprised me this morning by driving his car in (all the way from inner NJ) so I could drive it to Harlem and buy more groceries. Isn’t that the nicest thing ever?! Since we didn’t have to brave the subways during rush hour, David decided to join in on the fun as well. We drove up the FDR (quite a fast trip) and saw the amazing Costco on 116th:
The area up there is amazing; developers came in and built this huge structure for a Costco, Best Buy, Target, Petsmart, Old Navy, AND large parking lot (the other stores don’t open until next year). Parking is very reasonable: $4 for the first two hours and then $9 for the third (I’m not sure about pricing after 3 hours and parking was free on opening day, but I think we stayed less than two hours anyway). The tent in front of the entrance was for people to sign up for Costco cards, luckily, we already had one (another thank you to Dorren!)
The first thing we saw when we entered the store was a large selection of flatscreen televisions:
David and I were THISCLOSE to buying one, but we figured there was no space in our car (or apartment) for a new tv.
They had a TON of uggs:
They had slippers for women and boots for men (although I saw a lot of women trying on the boots anyway). We passed on the Uggs because there was nowhere to really sit down and try them on.
The samples were absolutely ridiculous – there were people at practically every aisle making appetizers, entrees, and desserts for us to sample. The first sample we had was for dried mangoes and tropical fruit:
Yay I’m happy (and so is the guy behind me!):
We also tried steak (yes, they were grilling up steaks and cutting them into HUGE pieces for people to try), macaroni and cheese, chicken, lots of cheese, cream puffs, chocolates (holiday-type chocolate covered cookies also fall into the chocolate category), entire bottles of Kirkland iced tea (the only bad sample of the night – the thing was worse than drinking sugar water, which is what the iced tea basically was), cheesecake slices (seriously, they gave out slices of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory), Eli’s bread, apple strudels, coffee crumb cakes, and snack sizes of cinnamon rice pudding:
Here I am crossing of my grocery list and waiting for a sample of the cheesecake (I got a piece of Godiva chocolate cheesecake):
Their prepared foods were also really good, especially the shrimp couscous salad (in my hand here as I’m trying to find a turkey to buy):
I found a Butterball turkey ($0.99/pound) and asked if they could butterfly it for me; sadly, they can’t cut any meats whatsoever so I’ll have to sharpen my knife/scissors to cut this bird up.
The store is huge (although I’ve heard it’s not as large as other Costco’s); there are two refrigerated sections (one for Milk, Eggs, and Dairy and the other for Fresh Produce). Some of the best buys were the eggs (36 for $3.69!) Here’s David in the dairy section:
There’s also a fresh seafood section that had large crabs, crab legs (they were precooked), lobster tails ($17.99/pound and absolutely gigantic), and mussels ($1.99/pound, which is $1 cheaper than Whole Foods’):
The salmon was about $7/pound and only available in large quantities, so I decided to pass on it (originally, I was going to make a turkey and salmon for Saturday’s party).
Other great deals we found – bulk quantities of vanilla extract (Kristen picked one up):
Bananas (3 pounds for $1.32 – seriously, you cannot beat this deal!):
And my favorite buy – Frank’s hot sauce – two LARGE containers for…wait for it….$5:
We talked Kristen out of buying these Oreos (they’re in fresh packs so they wouldn’t go stale but David was worried that if Kristen bought them and brought them into the office, he’d end up eating them all). Kristen kind of regretted not buying them (can you see the tight grip she has on those cookies?):
They also sell makeup (Stila, Lancome lotions, and Borghese were the brands we saw):
While we waited in line, I took a short video asking what Kristen and Ariel liked and disliked about the new Costco:
Overall, David and I ended up spending about $200 (we also bought other things like socks, underwear, face wash, and body lotion). The lines were super short for opening day (actually, shorter than any other time I’ve been to Costco, and the employees were knowledgeable and really helpful. I think everyone is really happy to have a Costco in Manhattan (although one employee told me he prefers the Yonkers Costco to this one). I had a great time there and I’m really excited to go back, although I don’t know when I’ll ever need to go back since I bought enough food/supplies to last me 6 months! Look at how excited we are:
The ideal situation for going to Costco is having a zipcar because taking that many groceries on the subway is just not a good idea (in retrospect, I have no idea what Kristen and I were thinking when we thought it was okay to just bring a cart even though I was hauling a huge turkey back). A huge thank you to Dorren for lending us his car (and Costco card).
*David and I are hosting our 2nd annual NYC Thanksgiving party this Saturday night…and we’re going to LIVESTREAM IT! My mom suggested it while we were skyping tonight since she wants to see what I prepare (and see if our guests are having a great time) and I think it’s a great idea! I’ll post the link once we figure out the details.
Last Thanksgiving, PAMA sent over some of their delicious pomegranate liqueur for me to share with my guests at my Thanksgiving party and I’ve loved the liqueur (and their PR reps) ever since. This year, they’re throwing a contest that ends THIS WEEKEND – all you have to do is create a PAMA inspired appetizer, entree, or dessert, and submit it to their Facebook fan page. Grand prize for your original recipe: a ticket to the 2010 Food and Wine Festival in Aspen, Colorado! The official rules:
You can also go to their Facebook fan page to see the current entries – good luck!
Remember how I said there was finally enough basil from my Aerogarden to make pesto? Well, I did it last night and I have the easy instuctions on how to make your own pesto!
Ingredients:
2 cups basil leaves (I used about 1/2 cup frozen and the rest were freshly picked from the Aerogarden)
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
1/4 cup olive oil
3 garlic cloves
1/4 cup pine nuts (I used walnuts instead!)
Salt and pepper to taste
Whole wheat spaghetti (leftover from the pasta carbonara)
Combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend:
I added the cheese after blending the basil, garlic, olive oil, and walnuts:
You can also start boiling water for your spaghetti because after you blend the ingredients together, the pesto is done. I moved the pesto into a container because it was definitely too much for me to eat in one sitting:
After the pasta is ready, put some pesto on the bottom of the bowl, drop in the pasta, and then add two more spoonfuls on top of the pasta (also, if you really love parmesan cheese like me, you can add some more after the pesto and pasta have been mixed together):
Cost Breakdown
2 cups basil leaves (I used about 1/2 cup frozen and the rest were freshly picked from the Aerogarden) free
1/4 cup parmesan cheese (grated)$0.25
1/4 cup olive oil $0.25
3 garlic cloves $0.10
1/4 cup pine nuts (I used walnuts instead!) $0.25
Salt and pepper to taste free
Wheat wheat spaghetti (leftover from the pasta carbonara) $0.10
Total: $.95!!! AND I still have some leftover spaghetti AND pesto for another meal!
