Saturday, November 28, 2009

Thanks for Dinner

Just a long post about our meal the other night (Thanksgiving). We went to my mom's place and while she did the starters and all the side dishes, I brought the dessert and the main course.

Here's what we had:

Starters



For an appetizer, mom made this fabulous crostini with roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers and capers, splashed with a bit of salt and pepper and drizzled with olive oil...Pure Magic.



She served it with a tray of pickled peppers and olives. She made these pickled peppers from some of the miniature ones I grew in my garden this year:



These were served in the living room, and we tarried over them for quite some time, chatting and drinking wine.

Mains



I did the main course, which was a squash and bean stack with leeks and a cashew crumble crust. It was tasty, but I still have to tweak the flavors; I was a little disappointed in the squash layer being slightly bland. I'll do a separate post on how I put this together.



It did look nice though and went nicely with traditional sides, which brings me to the side dishes and overall effect:

Sides



The star of the side dishes was my mom's sweet and sour red cabbage...I could eat this stuff every day and never tire of it.



I decided to be merciful and not post individual pictures of all the sides, so here they all are: a golden beetroot and baby spinach salad with red onion, roast sweet potato (no sugary stuff), cranberry orange sauce, mashed potato, and a bread stuffing with walnuts and cranberries.

Here's the table laid out...what a spread!



Here's what it looked like moments before being devoured:



Afters are posted about here--we had vegan pie.

After all that, we looked through some old photo albums. Check out the glamor, here's my mom circa 1945:



And here are my mom and dad on their wedding day in 1945:



Taking a break from the glamor for a moment, here's a pic of my gooney brothers sometime back in the early 70's:



Finally, my maternal grandmother, circa 1912. She was a seamstress and sowed the clothes she's wearing in the photo, which has always "wowed" me.



We do have a lot to be thankful for, indeed.

4 comments:

  1. Rose,

    Dinner looked wonderful. Mom's crostini sounds amazing!

    I can't wait to read the details of how you did the veggie stacks. They look beautiful with the separate layers so distinct and colorful.

    I love sweet and sour anything, but particularly cabbage. Are you going to be posting mom's recipe?

    Your parents made such a nice looking couple on their wedding day. Your dad was very handsome, no wonder your mom fell in love with him.

    Do your brothers know you posted the photo of them? Something tells me they might not be happy about it. But I think it is adorable!

    BTW, I can't believe your grandmother sewed that outfit either. She really was extremely talented. Did you mom inherit that ability?

    talk to you later,
    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'll have to get the cabbage recipe from my mom; I make a version of it that I improvise, but it never turns out as perfect as my mom's.

    I had some fun with the photos...I don't think my brothers will care...you'd never recognize them now anyway; they're a bunch of old foagies.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Rose,

    I am still laughing at the "old foagies" comment. That was priceless! You know how to make me laugh, and that is a good thing.

    talk to you soon,
    Alicia

    ReplyDelete
  4. Well, it's true. Glad it made you laugh.

    ReplyDelete

 
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