my mother came by around 11am in the pouring rain so we could go to the malden super 88 market to get our thanksgiving groceries. we ended up spending $120. coming back, we stopped by wendy's to get some lunch takeout before returning to belmont. i got the spicy chicken combo, my mother a chicken caesar salad. we also got my father a sandwich, but he was sleeping and didn't wake up until it was dark. my mother wanted to fall asleep a few times but i told her to stay awake otherwise she'll never get rid of her jet lag. she did finally go to sleep soon after my father woke up. for dinner i ate a leftover wendy's hamburger. my father also cooked up some sesame paste glutinous rice balls before giving me a ride back to cambridge around 6:30pm.

i bumped into paul and steve unloading groceries out of their car. i greeted them cordially but i don't look forward to having them back. the 6 months that they were gone were the most peaceful 6 months i've ever spent. the temporary tenants were all very quiet, never stomping on the steps or slamming the basement door. here's hoping they decide to go on another long vacation and rent out their place again.

i had a lot of work to do when i got back home making the thanksgiving flan. usually i make it monday morning because the flan needs a few days for the caramel layer to melt into the flan. i had some of my old pyrex ramekins but still not all of them. piecing together different ramekins, i ended up making 18 flan.

every thanksgiving i want to try something new with my flan recipe and every thanksgiving i end up doing the same thing. at most maybe i use real vanilla beans instead of extract, but nobody really tastes the different so might as well save some money and use extract instead which is just as good. i want to try a flan where instead of regular milk i use coconut milk.

i started making the flan around 7pm but didn't actually begin baking until 9:20pm. originally i was going to make 18, but there was enough space for one more small ramekin so i ended up with 19. the flan mixture portion was perfect, not a single drop left. with that many flan, it takes 2 hours to finish baking. despite knowing that, i still went to check on the flan after an hour and then every half hour after that. because i use two trays, the one on the bottom doesn't get that nice browning that the ones on the top rack get, but they all taste the same.

when they finished baking i carefully removed the trays from the oven (being careful not to accidentally burn myself) then set out the ramekins onto the cooling racks. i was finally done by 11:30pm.

all the while i was watching monday night football on ESPN (streaming from the roku channel) between the 9-1 kansas city chiefs and the 9-1 los angeles rams. what a game between two stud quarterbacks, 2016 no.1 pick jared goff versus 2017 no.10 pick patrick mahomes. these two players are the future face of their respective franchises. the game was insane, with a final score of 54-51 with the rams winning at home. such high scores would imply zero defense on both sides, but that's not the case, as both defenses managed to strip the quarterbacks for quick pick-six interceptions. my only regret is had the patriots not lost last week, they might've been able to get the number one seed if they beat the jets next weekend. here's hoping the chiefs lose a few more games the remaining season.