Keep Calm and Carry On: The Diary of Foodie and Gourmet

Happy Belated Thanksgiving, everyone! For those who celebrated, I hope that you had a wonderful day filled with love, laughter, and delicious food! For those who did not or don't celebrate, I hope that you too had a wonderful day! I know that we are on the cusp of December, but I still wanted to share my Thanksgiving with you all. Every year, my parents host Thanksgiving and it is a rather large affair. We have anywhere from 13 ~ 20 people come, so there is a lot of food to be made and consumed. This year, our Thanksgiving consisted of 15 people and the food was amazing (if I do say so myself). My family is rather small and spread out internationally, so our Thanksgivings tend to be "Friendsgivings." I love our Thanksgivings because they have a Japanese-American twist. We tend to invite our Japanese friends to join us mainly because: (1) our American friends spend Thanksgiving with their families and (2) our Japanese friends don't really celebrate the holiday...

There are a couple "classic" dishes that people tend to associate with "Thanksgiving." Turkey, cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potato and marshmallows, etc… Growing up, I remember my grandmother used to always bring string bean casserole to Thanksgiving. I don't know why, but she always called it "string bean mush-mash." This was a really long time ago and I don't remember how the dish tasted, but I just remember that grandma always made it and I rather liked it. This year, I wanted to re-create my grandmother's "string bean mush-mash", but revamp it --- make it a bit posher. Instead of using French's fried onions, I used fried shallots. Instead of Campbell's canned mushroom soup, I made a mushroom cream from scratch. I guess this is my homage to my grandmother. My updated version of Grandman's string bean casserole turned out really delicious, however, I learned why she used the pre-made stuff.  I prefer to make...

I feel like Fall is synonymous with pumpkin flavored morsels. Pumpkin cookies, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, and even Starbuck's pumpkin spice latte! In my family, a popular fall treat and Thanksgiving staple, is spiced pumpkin cookies with orange-sugar icing. Now, even though it is technically a cookie, these are the cakey-kinds of cookie that are super moist and delicious. Something that you can really sink your teeth into. My mom has been baking these pumpkin cookies and serving them for as long as I can remember, but this year, it was my turn to bake the annual pumpkin cookies! This dessert is super easy and can be made ahead of time, both in terms of making the dough and/or baking. It's totally up to you. This recipe made about two dozen cookies, but if you spoon out smaller balls, you will be able to get more! A guaranteed party pleaser that will disappear instantly! Ingredients for Pumpkin Cookies: - 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temp - 1/2 cu...