A hearty Thanksgiving dinner

Our hearty Thanksgiving dinner

During this time of year and into Christmas, my family enjoys creating memories, honoring traditions, filling our stomach with the tastiest treats, and recognizing our blessings.

This Thanksgiving, we’re so grateful for many things, especially in these uncertain times. We pray for continued blessings and protection for our family, friends, and others, as we all navigate this new way of life.

Although this new life may not be ideal and has its challenges, there have been many benefits. One of those benefits is that I started this blog to share my Dominican recipes with you. Additionally, since our family has been house-bound for many months, we’ve adapted to relying on each other and contributing to the creation of meals, family entertainment, and, of course, chores.

My family consists of my husband, our three children, ages 8 (B), 13 (G), and 15 (B), and his elderly mother, who has Alzheimer’s. Since we moved to the Bay Area over seven years ago, we’ve become used to bonding in a smaller home from a larger space. It took us a few years, but we got used to the California lifestyle. What hasn’t changed is our passion for food, eating, and creating beautiful things.

We spent Thanksgiving day, listening to music, playing cards, and cooking. Towards the end of the day, the kids also got an opportunity to play Roblux with their cousins in Canada. While we were all enjoying the day, we made sure to have fun as we prepared Thanksgiving dinner. This year the cooking went on very smoothly as everyone knew what they were preparing and ready to roll up their sleeves and get it done, and we all participated in setting the table.

If you celebrate thanksgiving, hope you had a wonderful one.

Here’s our hearty thanksgiving dinner. It was a hybrid, some traditional and some Caribbean.

Compliments to all the chefs in our family who made it all happen.

• Turkey – prepared by me
• Cornish hen – prepared by my 8 year old son and I
• Oxtail – prepared by me
• Sweet potato – prepared by me
• Corn bread stuffing – prepared by me
• Rice and peas – prepared by me
• Shrimp – prepared by my daughter and my husband
• Macaroni and cheese – prepared by my 15 year old son
• Brussel sprouts – prepared by me
• Apple pie (not pictured) – prepared by my daughter

The table was decorated using a runner I purchased from Marshalls, (last year). Plates from Amazon, (two years ago); chargers from William Sonoma, (three years ago); cutleries are from Dominica Gourmet (our online store) ; napkins from Horchow (6 years ago); flowers from my local grocery store and pumpkin gourds, from Trader Joes.