Hawaiian Thanksgiving

Disclaimer: Forgive the sporadic chronologically-challenged  layout of this post.  The photos uploaded all out of order and I'm not in the mood to fix them.  Below you will see a mixture of crap-quality screenshots from Marco Polo, and snapshots from my phone.  

We had an AWESOME Thanksgiving celebration with our Hawaiian family!  It was a beautiful day, couldn't be more perfect weather-wise! We got all the food ready and headed over for lunchtime at Uncle Joe's and Aunty Kathy's house in Ewa Beach.  Since Lani (my cuz) had to work in the evening, we decided to eat earlier in the day.

Joe's amazingly aromatic turkey.  It was brined overnight and roasted with all manner of herbs, fruits, and veggies.  Fantastic!

Joe slicing into the bird. mmmm...

Bad blurry picture.  But yay! Aunty Nani came too!

Aunty Nani brought grandma's potato-mac salad.  mmmm.  I gotta get this recipe.  I remember having it in Washington when I went there for Kainoa's wedding, and I couldn't stop eating it.  PS-It has tuna in it.

taco and tuna poke.  YES!  Thank you Uncle Joe and Aunty Kathy!

A better poke pic.

More poke. Poke is chunks of raw fish marinated.  YUM!

cucumber Kim chi

pickled garlic, surprisingly mild and nutty.

This may be my favorite fall offering.  Pumpkin roll!  I believe Missy made it.

The only pic I got of the gravy.  Great gravy, garbage picture.

Tyler made a green bean casserole.  It was cooked perfectly.

Look! It's Lani and Aunty Nani and Steve.

I made these delicious rolls (thanks Rhodes frozen dough!)

KALBI!  Uncle Joe grilled these Korean short ribs, marinated in Yoshida's.

Garlic-parm Mashed potatoes

Steve telling a story under the shade pergola Uncle Joe made.  We ate at those cute picnic tables, decorated by Uncle Joe.  There were palm leaves down the middle and plastic pumpkins for centerpieces.

Check out Steve throwing the Ax!

Say Cheese!  (L-R) Lily, Amara, Malia, and Maizie.
PS-Uncle Joe's yard was immaculate! Not even a stray leaf to be found.  His garden looks so good, too.  I love the dragon fruit cactus-like plant on the right side of the picture.

Thanksgiving morning in Manoa was a little rainy.

Thanksgiving rainbow

My salted caramel apple cheesecake pie ingredients.  I have to say it was pretty looking, but it tasted way too sweet.  Less caramel next time, like just a drizzle over the apples! And I'd add cinnamon to the cheesecake part.  Because we were in Hawaii, these ingredients were NOT CHEAP.  It ended up costing $25+! I could've bought 2 premade pies for that price. haha! But, I had to submit a pie to the Lauret Marco Polo cooking challenge, so it had to be.

Show them muscles ladies!

Half a rainbow!

Gotta love the land of the rainbows!

Hanging out.  (l-r) Joseph L. on the floor, Tyler Guting (my cuz), Steve, Malia, Amara, Lily, JJ at the door, the back of Maizie's head in the foreground.

Dessert!

butter mochi

custard pie, pumpkin pie, black bottom banana cream pie (has chocolate ganache protecting the graham cracker crust then filled with banana pudding and whip cream on top.

Confetti jello

My salted caramel apple cheesecake pie

After dinner walk to the park

Pretty flowers!  I loved how so many plants had flowers!

Maizie in her element.  She ended up bringing that huge stick all the way back to Uncle Joe's house.

Amara on the balance beam.  Aunty Kathy watching in the background on the right.

Amara made her own flower by combining 3 flowers from our walk.

Eating Thanksgiving dinner

The other table enjoying their feast

Pineapple swan

Uncle Joe has skills!  He made those pineapple swans.  Very impressed.  I'd subscribe to his YouTube channel.  Maybe that should be his next hobby.