Lunch: We had a lot of leftover rice from the previous night's dinner (we had so much food that I don't think anyone had any of the four cups of rice we made - about 8-10 cups of cooked rice) so my parents converted some of it into congee and served it with a variety of leftovers and a couple new dishes that served very well as small plates.

Dinner: Tina and my parents converted more of the rice into BBQ pork fried rice (with egg, green beans, onions, and carrots). This was served with leftover duck, chicken, peanuts, soybeans, green beans, and freshly prepared cabbage.

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What I Ate: November 30, 2009

Lunch: After church, I took my parents to Fortune Chinese Seafood Restaurant (10901 N Lamar Blvd # D, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 835-8889‎) for Cantonese dim sum. We had a variety of dishes ranging from shaomai (steamed pork and mushroom dumplings) to chicken feet to congee. Overall, Tina and I felt that the dim sum was significantly better than what we had at Shanghai Chinese Restaurant on Middle Fiskville Rd. The tofu skin wrapped meat and vegetable rolls really missed the mark while the pork ribs were underseasoned (a bare hint of black bean sauce was detectable), but the rest of the dishes were quite decent. At this point, if I want dim sum while I'm in Austin, this is the place I'm going to go to fulfill that desire.

Dinner: We had another family gathering for dinner tonight (my parents, Tina's parents, Tina, and myself) at our new house. We had picked up some roasted and barbecued (Chinese-style) meats from First Chinese Barbecue Restaurant (10901 N Lamar Blvd # D, Austin, TX‎ - (512) 835-8889‎) earlier in the day - half a roast duck, half a soy sauce chicken, and a pound of Chinese barbecue pork. The duck and the chicken were quite good, but the pork was a little low in flavor (the seasoning hadn't penetrated deeply enough into the tender loin). I cooked a dish of turnip greens, Tina made a tomato and egg soup as well as a vinegared potato and celery dish, and Tina's parents brought over some shrimp cooked in Chinese BBQ sauce, potatoes and green beans, & cooked soybeans, and my parents provided the cong you bing (scallion pancakes) and cooked peanuts. It really was a family meal with everyone contributing a little.

Lunch: I whipped up some crepes to wrap around the remaining chicken (which I shredded and reheated in a pan with some extra lime juice, paprika, and garlic powder), the last of the fresh spinach (sauteed with bacon and onions), and fresh avocado. We also served chicken soup and cornbread with the crepes.

Dinner: I pan seared a rack of lamb after rubbing a paste of olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, and rosemary all over them. I served it with sauteed summer squash and collard greens. My mom had made cong you bing (scallion pancakes) and frozen them before coming to visit, so we toasted those in the toaster oven to reheat them.

The day after Thanksgiving is the US's traditional leftovers eating day, so that's what we did. For lunch we had the remaining tuna salad, corn bread, and bowls of chicken soup.

Dinner was most of the leftover chicken with rice, sauteed spinach and some peanuts my mom had soaked in salt and baking soda and boiled until soft (and tasty) with rice.

Dinner: In the afternoon, my father and I assembled my new grill which took a little bit longer than I expected which delayed dinner by a couple hours. I prepared lime marinated grilled chicken (but had to cut the marination time a bit short which really affected the flavor - it was a bit mild) as the main course instead of the traditional turkey because moving into our new house the same week as Thanksgiving just didn't give us enough time to prepare anything more elaborate. We only just received delivery of our refrigerator on Tuesday night, so it just didn't seem like we would be able to handle a turkey this year. Instead, I chopped up two whole organic chickens used the bones and trimmings for a chicken soup and the rest for the lime marinated grilled chicken.

Tina's parents brought over some sweet potatoes, so I tossed them on the grill.

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What I Ate: November 26, 2009 (First Thanksgiving in our new home)

Lunch: We all (my parents, Tina and I) went over to Tina's parent's home for a delicious dumpling lunch (both steamed and pan-fried).

Dinner: I cooked our very first meal in the new house this evening - pasta (troffiette and orecchiette) with prosciutto and wilted spinach. To speed things up, I tried to cook the pasta at the same time (starting the orecchiette a bit early since it usually takes a tad longer to cook) but I started the orecchiette a little too early and it was done by the time the troffiette was approaching al dente. Overall, it wasn't too bad.

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What I Ate: November 25, 2009

Dinner: After our refrigerator was delivered in the evening, we went to Central Market to stock up on some vegetables and groceries. We'll head over to the house in Kyle to transfer the refrigerator and freezer contents tomorrow. Since we were at Central Market, we decided to just eat in their Cafe. I had their Pot Roast (with mashed potatoes and vegetables). The pot roast was a pretty decent example of a pot roast.

Lunch: We ordered Domino's Pizza delivery for lunch - a large Cali Chicken Bacon Ranch and a large ExtravaganZZa Feast with a garden salad.

Lunch: After moving from our Kyle house to our Austin house, Tina and I had to go to Costco to get some supplies for the new home, so we ate lunch there. I had my customary Polish Sausage and she had her slice of combination pizza.

Dinner: We picked up my parents from the airport and they felt like eating noodle soup, so we went to Pho Thaison and all had pho. We get our new refrigerator delivered tomorrow evening, so hopefully that will give me enough time to prepare a simple Thanksgiving dinner (can't be too complicated this year as there hasn't been any time to prep due to finishing up the build followed by the move).

Tomorrow is the day our movers come and move our stuff from Kyle to Austin, so we spent most of the day preparing the new home and packing up the old. We managed to find time to eat one (big) meal at Los Vega Restaurante (721 N Old Highway 81, Kyle, TX‎ - (512) 268-8570‎) in Kyle. Tina and I shared a whole bunch of food:

Tamale Plate

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What I Ate: November 22, 2009 (Los Vega Restaurante)

Dinner: We went to Mama Fu's on the way to the house in Kyle to pack some more stuff. Previously, we had avoided Mama Fu's because we had heard it was horrible. But, the food we had wasn't all that bad - in fact, we've been to plenty of restaurants WAY worse since we've moved to the Austin area. Mama Fu's is a casual Americanized Asian restuarant that reminded us of Yan Can (Martin Yan's restaurant that basically mixes and matches proteins, sauces, and carbs - think combinatorics - to form people's meals… I've never liked it). The food we had was tender and had a decent amount of flavor, but much of it was a little too greasy.

Vietnamese Crunchy Noodles (Chicken) with Pork Roll

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What I Ate: November 21, 2009 (Natural Planet Grill, Mama Fu's)