The Park Thanksgiving Menu
Thanksgiving has easily become my favorite holiday over the years. With 30 relatives and friends expected to ring our doorbell over the next 24 hours, we’ve been thinking about our menu for the past two months. Of course, the best part of the holiday is hanging out with my ridiculously fun and ever-expanding family (babies… toddlers!). But with a chef in the kitchen, it’s always great to expect some delicious gourmet eats to accompany our rambunctious activities.
So I thought I’d share our Thanksgiving menu. Perhaps, it will give you some ideas… or throw some our way!
Meats
- Superbly succulent Turkey!
- Maple glazed Ham
Sides
- Mmmike’s amazing specialty Mac ‘n’ Cheese
- Stuffing with herbs, chestnut, sausage, onions, celery, & carrots
- Old fashioned Mashed Potatoes
- Whipped Sweet Potato Casserole with Sage (don’t forget the Marshmallows)
- Brussel Sprouts and Broccoli sauteed with Bacon
- Cranberry Sauce
- Parsnip, Leek, Cauliflower Bread Pudding
- Corn Kernels
- Wild Rice Pilaf with almonds and berries
- Butternut Squash soup
And for Dessert…
I guess that will be a surprise, but I’ll probably make a sweet potato pie with ice cream, since Mike is handling all of the above.
Birthday wishes!
It’s Thanksgiving this week! And Mike has an amazing feast planned for the family. I will post the menu once I get the details from the chef.
In the meanwhile, here are some photos from a birthday party over the weekend for our nephew Aidan!
And the birthday cake!
Happy Halloween!
Have a safe and fun Halloween day everyone!
It’s a busy day for the baker + family today, so this is just a quickie post on the cakes Mmmike did for Nancy’s Spooktacular Halloween party last night. Sorry they came out a tad fuzzy. I took them quickly on my iPhone.
Scary story about the cake: on the way to Nancy’s place, we were really afraid that the delicate chocolate cookie house would break or get damaged somewhere. Things were going ok, and then I heard something fall inside the cake box. The house broke in half! We mourned the death of the house for a few minutes, and thought of how Nancy would feel once we got there. Miracles do happen, though! Mike was able to repair the house with some added support (i.e. a chopstick) & bring it back to life…
Here’s a spookier version of the Haunted House cake:
Mike also did mummy and RIP gravestone cupcakes. (All ideas inspired by Martha Stewart Living magazine)
Better photos to be posted soon on our Flickr page!
Wedding reception in Montauk
There was a wedding reception last weekend in Montauk, Long Island. I had the pleasure of making a few cupcakes for this special occasion. The cakes were ordered by our dear friend Nancy Hsu on behalf of the bride and groom, Dee and Alihan Polat, quite the handsome couple.
Vanilla cake w/ buttercream hydrangeas.
Sister Jenny did me a favor and quickly took these photos before we had box them up for delivery.
Also made a few dozen mini cupcakes for the reception.
Live consumption 
Congrats to Dee and Alihan!
By the way, I’ll be cake catering Nancy’s Halloween Party. We’re going to get spooky with it so stay tuned.
Coookies
My darling wife wanted chocolate chip cookies this past weekend so I wanted to experiment in creating an awesome recipe to satiate her craving. This recipe was inspired by Scharffen Berger’s ‘Best Chocolate Chip Cookie’. In addition to Callebaut dark chocolate, I also added oats and lots of love. While we love thick and chewy cookies, I wanted to try something different and create a thinner cookie that had the same properties. It turned out exactly how I wanted. Although it came out thin, it was nice and crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside bursting with dark chocolate and the oats added a nice texture in the flavor. My wife absolutely loved them! Mission accomplished.
