I feel like it’s been forever since I did one of these Life of a Wallflower updates, but I thought this was the perfect time for it since I’ve been away from my blog for a few days.
I hope for those of you who celebrate Thanksgiving that you had a wonderful one filled with lots of food, family, and leftovers. And I really hope you’re enjoying the last of autumn. =)
What have I been up to? Let’s see…
Back in October, I was lucky enough to get the chance to meet Jessica Merchant, author of Seriously Delish and an amazing blogger over at How Sweet Eats, at the Ferry Building in San Francisco. If you haven’t had a chance to check out her blog, or her book, you totally should. The way she writes makes you feel like you’re talking to your friend. Very down to earth and funny.
In the last month or so, I’ve been working on my Blogging Tips series, which many of you know. =)
And I’m in love with the colors of fall, but living in San Francisco, it’s rare to see fall foliage. So I actually have to make an effort to see the gorgeous colors I’m obsessed with. Like this.
Earlier this month, I teamed up with Abby from Just a Girl and her Blog to give away a copy of her e-book, Building a Framework*. If you’re interested in buying her book, she’s having a sale this weekend until Mon, Dec 1st at 11:59 EST. You can get 20% off her ebook when you enter the code “THANKFUL” at checkout. Take advantage of it while you can. =)
And of course, there’s Thanksgiving dinner.
My photos are not the best of quality, I know. My family doesn’t understand my need to take photos of food. They wanted to eat. So there’s no time to plate or to take photos. Oh wells.
Our family Thanksgiving is not at all traditional.
We do have a few dishes that are traditional to Thanksgiving such as:
(Bacon) Mac and Cheese – For some reason, every single year, our mac and cheese never turns out perfect. It’s always dry. But this year? This year, I think we finally got it.
Turkey – We always buy the turkey rather than make it ourselves. It’s just easier for us.
Mashed Potatoes – My favorite part because how can I resist potatoes?
Chicken Pot Pie (Puff Pastries) – These were just too cute not to make.
Garlic Bread – What’s Thanksgiving dinner without garlic bread, right? Or any dinner, actually.
But some of the older members of the family prefer Asian foods. So we have both. And served dinner buffet style.
Shrimp and Lotus Rootlet Salad – you can always customize it to taste and add the vegetables and meats that you like.
Che Thai – a Vietnamese(?) dessert with cocktail fruits, lychee, grated jello, and half and half.
Banh Beo – a Vietnamese dish made of rice flour.
Hot and Sour Soup
And guess what? Afterwards, we went Black Friday shopping.
As you can probably guess, it is chaos.
But you know what? It was worth it. Because I finally got my hands on this. =)
The Canon EOS Rebel T5. An early Christmas present to myself.
The holiday bundle with the 18-55mm and 75-300mm lend is the exact one I bought for the same price, except it was from Target. 
What did you do for Thanksgiving? Did you go Black Friday shopping?
I cooked the whole shebang for myself – but forgot to buy dinner rolls to bake, pearl onions (to caramelize – my ab/fab/fav dish on turkey day!) and green beans to almondine, so I didn’t have bread or veggies (cranberry sauce doesn’t count as a veggie, right?) and left the mac & cheese for another day. Have you ever added mayo to the mac n cheese? I hear that or excessive amounts of butter and cheese is what prevents it from drying out. I bought a Pecan pie for dessert but love lychee. What’s that recipe? Enjoy the new camera. Smart to get it for yourself before Christmas so you can make friends with it and snag great pix well into the New Year. All the best!
I haven’t added mayo because I think the taste of mayo might be too strong. I used half and half and it worked well for me to keep it from drying out =)
I’m hungry after reading this post!! Have fun with that camera. I’m sure you’ll love it.
I think I will too =)
I love your early Christmas present…jelous muuch 🙂 great post
Thank you =)
Your day looks fabulous. So much food! How were you able to go shopping?!?!? I would have been asleep on the couch. Oh yeah! I WAS asleep on the couch! Belated Happy Thanksgiving.
We ate a little bit, went shopping, came home and ate some more. It’s a buffet so we always had food available. And lots of leftovers. lol
Thank you for liking “Happy Thanksgiving.” It sounds like you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and you got an early Christmas present too! Congratulations on finally getting the camera. I could not help laughing at your family’s reaction to you photographing food. To us, taking photos for our blogs is second nature, but to people who are not bloggers or photographers we must seem weird. 🙂
As for me, I cooked some food for Thanksgiving but not very much. I stayed home on Black Friday. I do not like crowds.
I had to brave the crowds. And my family, especially my grandma, doesn’t understand my need to document the food. lol
Yummy! I can see you owning a restaurant in the near future. Congrats on buying your new camera! Welcome to the DSLR world.
Thank you!
It’s wonderful that you got your new camera. Your photos are lovely and I look forward to seeing what you’ll do with the Canon.
But it’s awful (motivated by greed), that the big box stores (such as Walmart, owned by the Walton family, with a combined wealth of 145 billion dollars) prevent their employees (who often only make minumum wage, don’t have regualr hours, full-time work or benefits) from having a day off to celebrate Thanksgiving with their families.
Black Friday can wait until Friday.
I’m excited about the camera! And I wish that Black Friday stayed on Friday. It seems that more and more stores are opening earlier and earlier every year.
Please let us know how you like you’re camera! I’ve been lusting after a rebel for some time and I would like to know your opinion.
So far, the camera seems pretty straightforward. At least, the basics. Now, I just have to read the manual. lol
Glad you had a good thanksgiving!
I watched a great movie and had a great chicken pot pie that i’d purchased already made..quiet. day.
Oh yum! I love chicken pot pie! And it’s always perfect with a movie on a cold night.
Congratulations on your camera! I know you will love it!
I had never heard of grating Jello.
we grate the firmer jello/jelly for desserts =)