Philly Day 1

We started a tradition a few years ago of going out of town for Thanksgiving. We have gone to Toronto, Deep Creek MD, Sylva NC, Front Royal  VA, and Chesapeake City MD in the past. This year our trip is to Philadelphia.  It is close enough to drive to with the dogs, though River still got car sick 5 minutes from our destination, but far enough away to be a unique experience.  The above photo is the dining area of the loft we are staying.  We are in a very Asian area with eating places representing Japan, China, Thailand, Korea and India. 

Kitchen

We used Airbnb to find a place.  I want a place that I can make a Thanksgiving meal.  This one has a nice kitchen, but had almost nothing to cook with.  I brought a quiche pan, tart pan, roasting pan, immersion blender, thermometer, pastry blender and potato masher.  But we get here and there is a skillet and a soup pan, 2 plates, 2 bowls, 4 mugs and some silverware  and cooking utensils.  There is a cool Asian market a block away, and I had to buy a sauce pan, a disposable roasting pan, and a dutch oven.  The rite aid had some plastic serving pieces and glasses.  The pieces you see in the pitcher I brought or bought.

Living room area

River is making herself at home in the living area.  The kitchen, dining and living area are one big room.  We have internet and tv so we can watch the ravens tomorrow night.  

bedroom

Jack is making himself at home on the bed.  We did bring their doggie beds.  A couple of dogs will not be happy about that.

Endamame dip

This is an endamame dip I made at home before we left home.  It is made with endamame, roasted garlic, olive oil, parsley, lime juice and pepper.  I used radishes, carrots, celery, and cucumber to dip in it.  The loft has a case of pita chips of top of the refrigerator, so we used some of them as well.

Chestnut soup

For our dinner, we had the dip, a salad and soup with a little bit  of dessert.  The salad was leftovers from home that would go bad if we didn't use them.  It was a basic salad of lettuce, spinach, carrot, tomato, avocado and mung beans.  The dressing was balsamic vinegar and olive oil. The soup was amazing.  The base was chestnuts, carrot, leek, celery and onion that was cooked until soft. The mixture was blended till smooth and I added soy sauce, sherry, parsley and sage.  The soup was topped with sage croutons that I made at home.  A half loaf of seeded bread and chestnuts were roasted in olive oil with sage, salt and pepper.  The croutons were added to the top of the soup.  This was incredible.

cranberry sauce

For dessert I had the Persimmon Cranberry Sauce.  Cranberries, red wine, anise and sugar was heated until the cranberries were soft and mushy.  I mashed the cranberries with a spoon and added diced persimmons.  Tommy had some chocolate for dessert that I found at Asian market.  The milk chocolate with cornflakes was interesting.  Tommy said it bets the Hershey Crunch bar.