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Yep another Thanksgiving celebration again here in the Philippines, American style. What I mean by that, we usually celebrate our Thanksgiving just like the way Bob’s family celebrated when he’s growing up. Then when I came to America I observed them and I liked it. So Bob and I decided to celebrate the thanksgiving the way his family did, and we can continue on the tradition. Hopefully our kids will follow and continue the Martin tradition. Woo, I’m just hoping that our to be daughter-in-laws likes to cook just like our daughter Jean. Jean can cook most of the food that we prepare during Thanksgiving.
We cook a lot of our food from scratch. From the stuffing mix (croutons & sausage), sweet potato, mashed potato, pies and other stuff. As you know a few years ago, it is hard to get the most of the ingredients here in the Philippines, especially we’re outside of Manila. Thank God for the sprouting malls now, lots of them carries the imported ingredients. But to be honest I hardly use the imported ingredients anymore, ever since using the local substitute it works for us and it just tasted the same as the real one. Bob and I decided that we’re not going to buy the imported and expensive ingredients since we can make a good one just a fraction of the price. LOL.
Thanksgiving Turkey
In the past years of living here we do our Thanksgiving 2 days after the Thanksgiving in America. Since Thursday kids have school here. It’s not a holiday here for that. So we do ours during Saturday so that the kids can help out and enjoy the whole day with the family. We did our Thanksgiving celebration a bit early this year. It was actually celebrated yesterday. Bob has some commitments to go to on the weekend after the Thanksgiving in the USA. So we decided to do it this weekend. The kids will be home and help us cook the turkey and other dishes. I usually decorate Christmas a week before we celebrate Thanksgiving. Thank God I’m done with decorating with the help of my kids, my nieces and helper. So everyday this week it’s going to be a busy day for us.
Starting with making our homemade squash for the pies and pumpkin roll, pumpkin pudding low-fat. We are also making chocolate chess pie, some of my kids would not eat the pumpkin pie. I’m thinking of making the yam (sweet potato early). Mix the rest of the ingredients and bake on the day of the party. Have to make the croutons ahead of time too. It seems that the sourdough bread taste much better than the ciabatta bread, but it really all depends if I can find some sourdough bread near us. Sometimes the bread shop at SM carries them. Oh well, french bread and ciabatta works good as well anyway. So not a problem there.
So here’s our food for our thanksgiving here in the house: Turkey, Mashed Potato, Stuffing, Rice, Beans, Yams, Pumpkin Pie, Chocolate Chess Pie, Pumpkin Roll, Pumpkin Pudding and ham (we have ham this year). Good for sandwich later and turkey soup too. 🙂
So what about you guys? What are you preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday? To those expats here in the Philippines, do you had a hard time getting the ingredients? Do you celebrate just the way you do back home? Some restaurant here in Davao do some Thanksgiving lunch and dinner. I’m sure some restaurant in your area too.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL AMERICANS ALL OVER THE WORLD!!!
I know that I can make an overnight trip to buy a frozen turkey in Davao. I’ve given up on raising native turkeys. Someday “sprouting malls” which offer reasonable groceries may ‘sprout’ in the provincial capital where we reside. Not this year. *Then* I’ll prepare a proper roast turkey dinner. Hope I live that long. I tried last year but eventually gave up with only half the ingredients. The turkeys in our back yard just weren’t what was needed, never mind the rest missing. Restaurant in our provincial capital offering roast turkey dinner? Dream on !!!!!!!! They can’t even spell… Read more »
Hi Ed – We did had native turkey during our first thanksgiving here coming back here to live. The native turkey, the meat is a bit tough but it was okay since no butterball turkey yet in the mall in GenSan at that time. Honestly chicken works okay too. With the pumpkin pie, try using the squash, the rest of the ingredients you can find it on your local grocery stores. Really easy to make. With the stuffing, use the bread in your local bakery and the rest of the ingredients you can find it again on your local grocery… Read more »
Hi Fayma. Menu looks good, but Thanksgiving is all about where you live and what is available just like in the Pilgrim times. It is more about giving thanks that you have loved ones around you to share whatever food there is. In those days the Native Indians shared the food that THEY knew with the white Settlers so a Thanksgiving in the Philippines could also consist of native foods to the Philippines. I know that the Turkey, Yam, Pumpkin is an American tradition, but so could be Lechon, Yams, Beans, Rice and other native foods there. As I said,… Read more »
Hi Heinz – Yep, definitely the Thanksgiving celebration is give THANKS. I want to celebrate ours the tradition that Bob was growing up with, and with that in mind Bob and I want to pass that tradition to our kids. I want the way it is. Our kids were so looking forward every year the way we celebrate the Thanksgiving. It’s really so special to them, and they are thanking God that they’re brought up both culture with them. Honestly, we do celebrate some feast in our household Filipino style a lot of times in fact. Whenever we do that… Read more »
We will celebrate Thanksgiving with the wife’s family on Saturday. We do not yet have an oven to bake a turkey, so we will have native lechon manok instead. I will also make up a big batch of mashed potatoes, but I expect most of the family will eat rice or corn grits. Not sure what else we will have, but the food for me is secondary to being with family and watching them enjoy a BIG meal.
We have an oven, but we don’t cook turkey in the oven. We cook the turkey lechon style over coals! 🙂
I had not thought of that! Share the details please. How hot, how high above the coals, how long to cook, do you marinade, etc.
We just play it by ear, Mike. I guess it is maybe 12″ above the coals, it generally cooks for about 4 hours. Have a look:
Hi Mike – The turkey doesn’t need to be in the oven. Some people nowadays in the States they deep fry their turkey. We cook our turkey the lechon way (rotisserie style). We had a nice bbq grill outside. It works out good for us.
Have a good Thanksgiving celebration!
Mrs Feyma,
Menu sounds great for your Thanksgiving Dinner. Wish your whole family a blessed Thanksgiving Holiday!
Hi PapaDuck – Thank you so much PapaDuck.
Wishing you and Ann too a Happy Thanksgiving Day in advance.
Happy Holidays!!!
Feyma….. here’s a tip for your stuffing…I buy those hard buttered bread sticks in the Market..(Bisuto??) Spelled something like that)…..I break them up into stuffing size and add my ingrediants…Really comes out good !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hi Lenny – Sounds good. I’ll keep that in mind next time I’m making stuffing.
Advance Happy Thanksgiving Day to you and your family.
Happy Holidays!
Ed did you try raising Kabir? they are also called Israeli chickens, grow as big as turkeys, and are well adapted to the climate…and Feyma, your article was good enough that i tried to share it with my FB friends. thank you!
Hi William – Thank you for the great tip. I will ask about that Kabir. I’m interested to know about it. I will have my sister in the farm raise it for me.
I’m glad you like my post. Thank you too for sharing to your friends.
Advance Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!
Happy Thanksgiving Feyma, Bob and family.
Hi Feyma, Yes, indeed Happy Thanksgiving to you and Bob and family!!! We’re having a ham this year (first time ever with a ham because we usually cook turkey every year for Thanksgiving), and that ham is in fact still roasting right now as I’m writing this in the oven, it’s a pre-cooked ham, and it’s supposed to be done about 5pm, over here in the neighborhood in Southern California where I live. The reason we’re having a ham this year is that because that ham is free, was given to me by my employer. Every year since I worked… Read more »