brownies and eggs.. getting creative on thanksgiving

Thanksgiving dinner was a SUCCESS! Such a success that in my opinion, Thanksgiving is allowed to be ALL my three good things for this week!

Before the toaster oven

On the Sunday afternoon after Thanksgiving Thursday, Emily and I went over to Teacher Lei's house before the other Thanksgiving guests were to arrive to bake our concoction..  I was SO excited because I LOVE to bake!!  But because of the flooding in Bangkok, the shelves at the grocery store have been very bare leaving us needing to be very creative this Thanksgiving. I had done all sorts of research for amazing brownie bars.. oatmeal brownie bars, peanut butter brownies, turtle pecan caramel brownies, pumpkin cheesecake brownies, and I was devastated to find no peanut butter, no oatmeal, no pecans, no caramel, no pumpkin gunk.. I had to search and search multiple stores just to find brownie mix!  One thing we could find was peanut butter oreos and butter scotch ice cream topping.  After mixing the chunks of oreos in the batter and pouring it into the 8X8 pan with a layer of butterscotch in the middle, we realized we completely forgot to spray the pan! AHHH I usually NEVER make such a ridiculous mistake on such a simple task but I haven't baked in a year.  Besides the fact that the brownies should have been baked in a 13X9 (our pan we had was way too small for our batch) and we had to resort to baking them in a toaster oven, brownie mission was success!! I don't remember the last time I had homemade brownies so at least my tummy was very happy!

Last minute we decided to whip up some deviled eggs. Again, no normal mustard so we had to splurge on some expensive french balsamic mustard which turned out to be AMAZING. The eggs were DELICIOUS and a huge hit, the first dish to be completely devoured off the thanksgiving table! Hope I did mama proud.

We had the staple items, 2 turkeys, stuffing, three mac and cheeses, 2 mashed potatoes, pasta salad, carrots, broccoli casserole, cranberry sauce, gravy, apple pie, cookies.. the works! And three small tables seating all 18 people (teachers and some Thai family members) and being nearly the youngest in the group I naturally I sat myself at the "kids" table.  Most of us haven't had any food like this since last years Thanksgiving feast so everyone was in the Thanksgiving spirit.  Everything was so tasty and I was full for days.  Nothing beats mama's cooking but this Thai version of Thanksgiving definitely comes in second.

I have SO much to be thankful for and being away for not one but TWO Thanksgiving has helped me to truly appreciate the holiday season back home.  I already have plans to be home for Easter and I'm SO excited!

Other highlights from the week:  

• I must have blown everyone away with my awesome MC performance at Loi Krathong because I was asked to be MC for Father's Day activities at school!  The performance/games were this morning in celebration for the Kings birthday.. it wasn't nearly as exciting as MCing for Loi Krathong but yes, T. Chelsea was on the mic.

• Oh yeah, did I mention Thanksgiving dinner?!  

And wait a second.. its December?! 

Table one

Table two

Dessert table

My plate

Thanksgiving peeps

The only let down of the evening was how HORRIBLE this mangosteen wine was that Emily and I decided to experiment with.. learned our lesson, best wines are made from grapes. NOT mangosteen.