Happy Turkey day everyone. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday and thankful for wherever they currently are in life. I know I am. I’m thankful for my family and friends, my health, and my job in Japan. This time last year I was a lot more homesick, missing family and friends and craving Turkey. This year I did something about that.
I planned a Kuma-gun Thanksgiving.
Wednesday was Labor thanksgiving day in Japan and thus we had the day off from work. So I ordered a turkey (and some other food for myself) from foreign buyers club and organized a potluck dinner. Everyone volunteered to bring something delicious and we planned to have a FEAST! Melissa’s husband Ian threw together a smoker out of terra cotta pots, and smoked the turkey for a good 10 hours. It was absolutely fantastic and we demolished the turkey. But we had the works! Steamed veggies, biscuits, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, fruit salad, stuffing, pumpkin pie, chocolate walnut pie, and 2 cakes! It was fantastic having everyone gathered. Definitely filled my house up which was a change since most people don’t make the drive all the way out to where I live.
I’m also attending another feast on Saturday with friends in Amakusa (we’re spending the night) and going on a hike Sunday morning. So I had to decide what I would bring for this dinner. I’ve been messing around with various recipes and ingredients and after making some Almond milk the other week (and having left over almond meal) I thought I might try making some almond flour muffins.
My first attempt last night, while delicious, did not rise as much as I wanted it to. I think I need to dry out the almond meal a little bit more and maybe use less egg. I’m a little nervous to give it another shot when I’ll be forcing other people to try it, but at the same time I think it would be delicious if it worked out (and so wonderfully low carb). So this time I’m going to try just grinding up some almonds into fresh almond flour (instead of using the meal from the almond milk since I don’t have enough anyway), and give it another whirl.
I’ll try to get some pictures up soon too (whenever I get them off my camera, which should happen at least after this weekend).
