Happy Thanksgiving Day Everybody

We had a wonderful food-loaded Thansgiving Day! We had so much left-over that all of us won't have to cook anything until tomorrow... lol

As expected, I had to prepare my desserts ahead of time. DH started preparing his Apple Crisp around 9PM last night. I didn't able to conquer the kitchen till about 11PM, then started baking at midnight. Aside from desserts, I decided to bake the appetizers too and just re-heat them in the morning. I slept at almost 3AM and woke-up around 7PM. DH woke-up around 5AM, and greeted me with a "sneaky grin" when I woke-up... lol Why? He said there was a BIG RAT in the kitchen that ate almost half of the bacon-wrapped lil smokies & lil pig in a blanket... lol To-cut the story short, he was the BIG RAT who couldn't resist the appetizers. On the other hand, I didn't had to prepare any breakfast for him. lol Anyways, here's the food preparation sequence in our household:

DH couldn't take off his mind Apple Crisp starting a couple days ago, so I told him he gotta prepare it as my hands will be full already. He made his own version and it turned out sooooo yummy!

DH Version of APPLE CRISP

Ingredients: apples, brown sugar, oatmeal, flour, baking butter, ground cinnamon, and ground nutmeg

I first baked the bacon-wrapped lil smokies, followed by pastry-wrapped lil smokies or as what my in-laws called them earlier, lil pig in a blanket. lol Due to the BIG RAT's behavior, I had to bake another batch of bacon-wrapped lil smokies this morning, but this batch has "sweet chilli sauce" at the bottom of the pan. I served them in a humongous platter as you can see in the photo below. These appetizers are really finger leakin' good and everybody loves them. We already finalized our Christmas party details and we'll gonna have an "Appetizer Buffet" on Deceember 25th at around 3PM... These smokies are of course requested! BTW, while DH was baking his crisp, I prepared the lil smokies.

A Platter of Appetizers

BACON WRAPPED LIL SMOKIES

Ingredients: lil smokies, bacon strips cut into thirds, brown sugar plus toothpicks to secure bacon ... Optional: sweet chilli sauce

LIL PIG IN A BLANKET

Ingredients: lil smokies, strawberry jam (or jam of your choice), dijon mustard, and pastry dough (homemade or store-bought)

While lil smokies are in the oven, I started preparing the leche flan (Philippine custard). I asked my family back home to send me flan molds years back as I prefer to use them on my "steaming" process. I can fit layers of these molds perfectly in my steamer. I still prefer steaming flan over baking. The picture doesn't show justice how yummy this dessert is! But take note, they're not for somebody who's on a diet. When you eat flan, remember that it should be a guilt-free eating time!

LECHE FLAN (Philippine Custard)

Ingredients: egg yolks, condensed milk, evaporated milk... Optional: lemon zest, lime zest, or vanilla (I used vanilla for the above), caramelized brown sugar

Flan was so fast to prepare, and since it's a stove-top cooking, I had to make sure I'm done preparing my cheesecakes before my lil smokies gets out from the oven. I was sure glad DH didn't mind the noise of my "mixer" while smoothing the cheesecake main ingredients. It was the first time I made cheesecake and I couldn't believe it's that simple. I used store-bought graham crust though at first I planned to used home-made... glad I changed my mind!:) I can see myself making more cheesecake in the near future. Flan and cheesecake were done almost at the same time. I let the cheesecake chill in the fridge till morning before putting the cherrie on top.

CHERRY-TOPPED CHEESECAKE

Ingredients: cream cheese, sour cream, granulated sugar, eggs, graham crust, pure vanilla extract, butter, & cherries

Finally, the last thing I had to prepare, broccoli-rice-cheese casserole... another first for me, both on cooking & eating part! I like it very much though... so tasty.

BROCCOLI-RICE-CHEESE CASSEROLE

Ingredients: broccoli, rice, velveeta cheese, cream of mushroom, cream of chicken, mushroom, chopped onion, & chopped celery

And now for the fun part... the winner of GIVE THANKS contest is ANNE-MARIE of France. Congratulations Anne-Marie. Thanks to everybody who participated!:) Watch out for upcoming contest to be posted next month.

I have more stories to tell but I better save some for the next post. I hope everybody's having a great THANKSGIVING NIGHT!