Art so good you can eat it!

Beijing-based artist Ju Duoqi uses vegetables to recreate famous pieces of art. See more of her work here.

Dorito’s alternative?

image taken from seriouseats.com

I’m not a huge fan of pork rinds for snacks but for those of you that are, there are these: Howard’s Crispy Fried Chicken Skins. What you see above actually came out of the bag….a whole chicken wing fried to a crisp.

Thanksgiving 2008 with the Hungry Korean

I make Thanksgiving dinner every year and this year was no exception.

Last year I brined the turkey for the first time and the bird came out so moist and flavorful I decided to stick with what works and did it again this year. Brine the turkey breast in 9 cups of water, 3/4 cups of brown sugar and 3/4 cups of kosher salt. Dissolve by heating the mixture up. One may infuse the brine with herbs and garlic as I did for added flavor. Brine for a minimum of 12 hours but no more than 24. Couple hours later, the bird came out perfectly moist and delicious.

I also made a four mushroom and spinach sautee with garlic, soy sauce and chopped shallots. My dad really liked this dish.

Instead of traditional mashed potatoes, I opted to make a potato gratin. Sliced potatoes are layered with chopped crispy bacon, sauteed cabbage and lots of Parmesan and heavy cream. Garnish with chopped chives and serve hot. It’s creamy and quite delicious. My family liked this mashed potatoes alternative.

Herbed stuffing was livened up with spicy sausage and finely diced carrots, celery and onions that had been tossed around in butter. My brother’s favorite every year is my stuffing.

Since my mom loves blue cheese, I made a salad with endive, roasted walnuts, blue cheese and asian pear tossed in a honey mustard vinaigrette. She loved it and even added more blue cheese to her share .

We had a side of buttered corn with some added sugar for sweetness.

And finally, believe it or not, but I also attempted homemade dessert as well. I made a custard cinnamon Italian bread pudding with a cinnamon cream syrup. It actually came out beautifully. You could taste the custard and cinnamon in each bite.

HAHA and just in case my dessert didn’t come out well, we had pumpkin pie (store bought) as well. So yes, i had two desserts this year with dinner. oink oink.

I cooked all day long but the results were great. My family said it was the best Thanksgiving meal yet and my mom has requested I make Christmas dinner this year as well. So all in all, it was a success and I am quite proud of the results.