A Tokyo Thanksgiving

I'm no stranger to small kitchens.  My condo back home and my old apartment both had notoriously tiny cooking spaces.  But they never stopped me from trying to make big or special meals.  I figured the same was true for our ridiculously minuscule kitchen here in Tokyo.  So as Thanksgiving approached, we began to plan our feast.  This proved to be harder than I thought.  Every recipe online was for 6 people or more.  And, the grocery stores weren't exactly overflowing with traditional Thanksgiving items, so I consulted my favorite cooking blog for help.

With my work schedule being a little rough on weekdays (I get home around 10pm Monday-Thursday), we decided to celebrate on Saturday evening.  As I suspected, the readers of The Kitchn pulled through.  We got a great scaled down recipe for mashed potatoes and some excellent suggestions for places to shop.  We bought what we needed, and we were ready to go.

The prep

And so it began.  As expected, things proved to be cramped.  We were determined to make it work- so what if we had to use the top of the washing machine as extra counter space?  The window sill made an excellent spice rack!  We prepared our little chicken as best we could for its unknown fate in the toaster oven.  We stuffed it with garlic, onion, lemon, rosemary, and thyme.  We rubbed it inside and out with EVOO, salt, and pepper.  It was ready.  Inside he went, and we turned the timer as high as it would go (this would be repeated a few times).

The chicken awaits.  As you can see, the toaster oven has no temperature control.

 While our chicken started roasting toasting, we worked on the mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, and green beans.  Most of this was fine.  Our gravy got infused with some extra things to make it yummy.  If I do say so myself, I think it looks really cute simmering away in this traditional Japanese pot.

Store bought gravy gets jazzed up

Naturally, there were a few bumps in the road.  What's that smell?  Oh great.  The top of the chicken is browning too quickly.  No problem- cover it with foil.  No foil.  Okay- cover it with another pan.  Done.  What's that other smell?  Oh no- the bottom of the stuffing is burning.  No problem.  Don't stir it too much, and we'll just eat the top part.  Okay.  Let's heat up the cream for the mashed potatoes.

Cream that is 47% something- maybe fat?

The Kitchn says you can just heat up the cream in the microwave.  That's a good thing because both burners are in use at the moment.  Pop that bad boy in.  Is it okay to have both the toaster oven and the microwave in use at the same time?  Sure, I do it all the time...

Famous last words.  Darkness ensued.  For a good 30 seconds, we just stand there in shock.  Now what?  Quick- run into and grab the flashlight.  Thank goodness those friends of ours who gave out flashlights as wedding favors were such geniuses!  Now what?  Where is the circuit breaker box?  Is it that thing above the door with the switches?  Just click one and see what happens!  I stand holding my breath, praying we don't have to spend 3500 yen on Pizza Hut. 

And then there was light.  Hallelujah!

Back to work.  The potatoes got mashed, the green beans got sauteed, and I'll be damned- that chicken was cooking!  Things were falling into place.  Let's set the table.

Our feast!

 Everything worked out.  The chicken was juicy, the mashed potatoes were fluffy, and there was enough stuffing that wasn't too burnt.  The gravy tasted wonderfully of rosemary, and the beans were crisp and just green enough so we didn't feel too guilty about everything else.  All in all, it was a beautiful meal.  It may not have been our tastiest Thanksgiving ever, but it will certainly become one of our most memorable ones.  After dinner we made bread pudding and listened to some Mariah Carey Christmas music.  What a wonderful night!