Thanksgiving 2020

We invited the man's parents over for Thanksgiving dinner. They don't mark Thanksgiving. I do. We hadn't had them over for a meal at all this year, so we might as well make this the one meal of 2020. Hahahah. Since nobody is all that fond of turkey, we skipped that traditional dish. It's too much effort to thaw out a frozen Butterball to brine for a day or two and make that cranberry sauce, and to have to cook three other more palatable dishes too.

Decided to do the friendliest meat of them all- chicken. Bought An Xin chicken from my current favorite Toh Thye San Farm — two bone-in thighs and four skinless breasts (outer fillet only, not the tenderloin). Marinated the meat simply with lemon, honey and garlic. Then oven-baked them on a bed of root vegetables. Easy peasy, and super healthy for the parentals. In fact, I went so low on salt that anyone desiring a heavier flavor would need to sprinkle Himalayan pink salt on it upon eating. Well, the parentals are between helpers, and they're not in a position to cook at home, so when they eat out at the restaurants, they would already have an avalanche of salt in their food. #ImpieCooks2020

There was a beautiful box of fine de claire gifted by the dear friends. The oysters arrived in the afternoon and sat in the fridge until they were shucked at dinner as yummy appetizers. The man took care of the carbs in the form of pasta. He wanted to put two chilli padi into the sauce mix. I was like, no. One would do. Even if it was de-seeded. The parents cannot do chilli or anything remotely spicy anymore. Even the mildest chilli is too spicy for them. Putting this much minced garlic into the sauce is spicy to their tastebuds. Spaghetti alla puttanesca completed the meal. The pasta was my only food. I wasn't going to eat the chicken, obviously. The stomach had only just quietened from the bout of spirulina poisoning attack, and I wasn't going to overload it this soon.

The dog got her own Thanksgiving meal too. I forgot about ordering a meatloaf of sorts for her. Hahaha. Luckily Barking Good set up a frozen cake vending machine at Group Therapy Coffee at Cross Street Exchange. It's cleverly placed outside the cafe and made available 24 hours. Picked a frozen beef cake. I'm mindful of too-rich food for her. She can't have the whole cake in one or two meals. I split it into quarters. She could have a quarter over two meals. So her Thanksgiving meal included the cake, raw slices of tenderloin topped with tiny sprinkles of shaved Parmesan, and one oyster.