autumn holidays

This holiday time of year in HK showcases some uniquely American autumn produce on supermarket shelves like these Halloween-themed black grapes.

Sugar or baking pumpkins.

Great for making pumpkin pie of course.

Also soups and stews.

And nothing is wasted with the seeds being roasted with a little olive oil and coarse salt.

This year for Thanksgiving, we were very fortunate to try 2 new types of turkey. This one's from Framani and it comes pre-brined and seasoned:

It's oven ready so there's nothing to prepare. Just unwrap and roast.

 This is a Mary's Heritage Turkey:

 Brussel sprouts sauteed with Oscar Mayer bacon:

Corn bread and oyster stuffing:

 

Baked garnet yams. Recipe courtesy of nigella.com:

And another pumpkin pie to end the meal.

quinoa and mussels

We've been experimenting with more quinoa recipes. A black quinoa salad made with red onion, pineapple, cucumbers and an olive oil and white vinegar dressing.

Makes a fruity and crunchy accompaniment to grilled salmon, baby Chinese kale and mixed short grain steamed rice.

This is a mix of black and white quinoa with fennel, mint and lemon vinaigrette.

As we head into the cooler months, US black mussels come into season. These are from the Pacific Northwest.

Steamed mussels in a white wine sauce, recipe adapted from SimplyRecipes.com.

 And this version is made with a champagne cream sauce.