Thanksgiving menu 2016 at the Servetuses
So, after some negotiation, dad and I are having Thanksgiving lunch with each other, and he’s having dinner at Flower’s son’s house. Poor guy, so overscheduled. We’re having:
First course: Shrimp cocktail (something dad would happily eat every day for the rest of his life and takes practically no work from me)
Main course: Baked salmon (that dad caught this summer; we have about half the fish left in the freezer) with scallions, dill and lemons; these potatoes that looked intriguing to me and I think dad will find odd; roasted brussels sprouts (for me; dad can’t have them); squash with maple syrup (dad’s request); rolls and butter.
Dessert: Banana cream pie (dad’s favorite pie and extremely easy to make).
We both agreed we didn’t want to eat the traditional turkey meal, at least not here, too many memories.
What I am most thankful for this year: to be back in Wisconsin, and for supportive friends who don’t feel they need to “fix” me.
I’m not very hopeful, at the moment, but I’m thinking of this song: “and though the wrong seems oh so strong / G-d is the ruler yet.”
There is a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will, or so Hamlet thought, anyway.
To all who are celebrating the feast, Happy Thanksgiving!
Me + Richard Armitage 
Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Enjoy your salmon. We are having traditional turkey cooked non-traditionally. Could be good, could be a disaster. 🙂
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don’t put a frozen turkey in your deep fryer!
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Have a Happy Thanksgiving. We are have Turkey or bird as the cat calls it. We are eating later as my husband has to work.
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That cat’s obviously got his priorities in order. Happy Thanksgiving to you, too!
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Happy Thanksgiving
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thanks. I hope you have a great day!
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Thank you, Servetus! Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours as well.
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Hope you had a wonderful day.
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Great menu! I’ve only ever made banana cream pie once but it took forever! Happy Thanksgiving!
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Hmmm. Well, I make a graham cracker crust, press it into the pan, bake it a moment, slice a layer of banana onto that, make a vanilla pudding (I make it from scratch but you could use a package), fill the crust halfway, put another layer of banana on top, and top it with the end of the pudding again. When I’m ready to serve I whip some heavy cream and put it on top (I think most people used a prepared whipped topping but this is Dairyland). No rolling, very little measuring, no baking, few dishes … I guess compared to other desserts dad likes to eat (lemon meringue, I hate making meringue), I think of it as not that hard.
Hope you had a great day!
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Happy Thanksgiving! I enjoyed reading about your menu and the litle notes you added to each dish. ‘Dad likes and easy to prepare for you’-what could be more desirable! Have a lovely holiday. x
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Yeah, that’s the ideal. Actually I don’t object to making more complicated things, I enjoy cooking, but dad is happier with simpler things and why not, after all. It’s annoying to make sauce Bearnaise for someone who shrugs.
Hope you had a good day, too.
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Mmmhhh.. that Banana Cream Pie sounds gooood….?? Is there a Servetus’ house recipe available????? 😉
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When I make stuff like this, I’m not cooking with a lot of precision.
For the pie, you mix about 2 cups of graham cracker crumbs with a few tablespoons of sugar and enough butter to moisten it / hold it together. Press it into a pie tin and bake in a medium oven for about 15 minutes and then let it cool a bit.
Peel a banana or two and slice thin slices of banana onto the crust (one layer). Make a vanilla pudding — I took the proportions for the recipe from my mother’s Betty Crocker cookbook but you could just buy a large package of cooked pudding (I don’t like instant) and make that. When the pudding is done, wait till it cools, then put about half of it onto the bananas. Put remaining banana slices on top of this layer, then top with the remaining pudding and refrigerate until it sets.
When you are ready to serve, top with whipped cream and more banana slices, if you’re feeling ambitious. I usually don’t put the topping on the pie before that because I’ve never really gotten good at getting whipped cream to hold its shape without sagging or losing fluid or whatever.
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Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family.
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Thank you! It was very hygge.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
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Thank you!
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Happy Thanksgiving, Servetus! The meal sounds like it will be delicious, wish I could sit in on that. 🙂
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It was good. I’m wrestling with the question of whether it feels as festive when I don’t roast a turkey, but we had a nice meal and a pleasant afternoon.
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We are celebrating at the Women’s Institute tonight ( in the UK) I believe the menu includes pumpkin and carrot cake, Turkey would be nice lol
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Pumpkin is traditional (pie), but that’s totally on my mom’s terrain — have not eaten any since she died. I saw in the cupboard the other day that her recipe is there … maybe in another year or two I’ll make of her pies.
I wish you and the Women’s Institute some turkey for next time!
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Happy Thanksgiving! Enjoy your meal. Thanks for the song/hymn. Very nice.
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Thanks. I hope you had a great day. If you like Fernando Ortega, he’s done a lot of Christian music.
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Have a great meal. I’ll be eating a more traditional menu, but I envy you your Brussel sprouts. I’m going to miss them.
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I’ve liked them, at least since I’ve been an adult, but since discovering Ina Garten’s suggestion to roast them in olive oil, I’ve been obsessed. Another one of those things that takes no effort and is so rewarding. I ate one for you.
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Hahaha… I like that ‘I ate one for you’ part !! 😉
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Maybe not just one 🙂
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I, too love Ina Garten’s roasted sprouts – but also, I’ve pan sautéed them with bacon and raisins – very good – though I like roasted better for simpler flavors. Ina Garten and others also got me hooked on roasting an assortment of root and other vegetables together with olive oil and coarse salt – especially delicious in the mix are parsnips shallots and fennel. I also add small new or Yukon Gold potatoes and carrots ( which I, myself, don’t much like when cooked, but guest usually do) Also terrific, roasted cauliflower with some sort of nut and finished with bread crumbs if you’re in the mood. Roasting in Mexico is a big deal for me because for the first time, I have to keep an eye on how much gas is in the tank. Where’s Con Ed when you need them?
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I’m not sure I have ever had roasted fennel. I like the idea of cauliflower, too.
that would be annoying.
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If you like fennel at all, then I recommend you try it. Even if you’re not crazy about it, it’s much better roasted – and a little brown on the edges. Good plain or with parmesan & black pepper. For Cauliflower, a lot of recipes have you roast it whole. It makes serving nicer, but I compromise with quarters.
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I don’t like fennel. But I’ve mainly been exposed to it raw, in salads, or baked in a dish with cheese. A real roast on parchment a la Ina Garten with brown edges might be intriguing (I just don’t especially enjoy the taste of licorice.)
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The licorice abates/mellows. I love the candy, but not crazy about Tarragon, except in Bernaise. I don’t think fennel is that anisey tasting – oddly. But, if you’ve had it baked and didn’t like the taste, I don’t know if roasting would change your mind. I love it sliced thinly and marinated. It sort of cooks in the dressing the way cabbage does. I like it roasted, but I can take or leave it raw. But if you like shallots and parsnips, they really shine when roasted. Delicious. Generous use of black pepper and salt.
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Happy Thanksgiving, lady! The salmon sounds yummy (I love salmon, and dill). No turkey for us – the one who eats it got overruled by the three of us who don’t – so we’re having ham instead.
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The pilgrims are rolling over in their graves. Just kidding. Hope you had a great meal and lots of tasty ham.
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Baked salmon 🙂 yummmm..
Happy Thanksgiving,Servetus!
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It was really tasty. I was such a glutton. Unfortunately that’s the end of it till next summer. (Well, unless I buy some, lol.)
Hope you had a wonderful day.
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I just got home and read this, now I’m starving even more…! All of it sounds very good. Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
(How do you make your shrimp coctail? And is there a recipe for the dessert?? 😀 )
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For dessert, see above.
As with that, I’m not very precise about this. Also, as I’ve learned in the last two years since I stopped eating kosher, I like shrimp cocktail a little different than dad does. In general, what you do is make a brine that you heat until it simmers and then cook the shrimp for a few minutes, just still done, then shock them in ice water, shell, and serve with a tomato/horseradish sauce. The question is what should be in the brine. When I make it for dad, I follow my mother’s recipe, so it’s lemon, onion, celery, peppercorns, thyme, and a bay leaf. I prefer it myself with beer or vinegar and Old Bay seasoning. However, since there were only two of us today, we only needed 12 shrimp, so I bought some from the grocery store that sells them cooked, and they were fine. No work at all that way except to peel 🙂
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Happy Thanksgiving, Serv!
I have some lovely memories around the holiday, both in the US and with my former American colleagues in the UK.
We had sushi for dinner. Lots of salmon, just in a different format 🙂
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A sushi Thanksgiving sounds like it would be wonderful, frankly! Dad would never eat raw salmon, though, lol.
Hope you had a good day.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
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Thank you!
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Bless you Serv. May the good fortune you deserve come to you and yours. Best always. xxx
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Thanks so much — and ditto. Thanks for your friendship.
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Happy Thanksgiving !
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Thanks!
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Big hugs and best wishes to you this Thanksgiving! Your meal sounds lovely. I do brussels sprouts the same way (Ina Garten!) with olive oil and sea salt and they are the best! I have never made a banana cream pie, but that looks quite manageable. I’ll have to give it a go sometime. Hope you have a relaxing evening now that the cooking is over.
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little squeeze of fresh lemon when they come out of the oven …
one thing about the pie — this is not like the fluffy pie you get in a diner, those have all kinds of emulsifiers and I don’t know what, in them, to make them beautiful. Similarly, the pie only lasts about 24 hours; after that the bananas get slimy enough that you don’t want to eat them.
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Serv, thanks for that song. I needed a good reminder. To all a very Happy Thanksgiving! Going to Sis’ for traditional dinner (Turkey) however, since I have a “paralyzed stomach” I get jello and cranberry sauce & top of whipped pumpkin pie lol…so I do not feel left out..May all enjoy and may someone have opened their shelters to those that have not.
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That does NOT sound good; I hope it goes away soon.
The students I used to serve dinner with in Florida are doing it again this year — so I hope that is a more general pattern. Happy Thanksgiving to you despite gastrointestinal trouble.
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Je vous félicite pour vos talents de cuisinière et vos attentions de fille dévouée. Les valeurs restent là. Je vous souhaite plein de bons moments.
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Thank you so much!
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Oh, in case anyone was wondering — I would really recommend that potato recipe. Maybe a bit overpowering against the salmon but it’s a keeper.
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I am too late now but anyway I hope you have had a wonderful day and enjoyed your festivities. Your menu sounds lovely and it is a good stimulation for me. I will proposed it to my husband, because he is the cook, I am only the good eater(“big grin”). I think he will adore the potatoes with cheese.
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Thanks for the good wishes, also belatedly. I loved those potatoes. There are some other French potato / cheese dishes as I remember. Vacherin mont d’or …
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Maybe “inspiration” is better than ” stimulation”? Sorry for my english
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well, some people have a more emotional response to potatoes with cheese than others 🙂
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Belated Happy Thanksgiving.. if it was hygge that was very good 🙂 Menu sounded delish to me, salmon and those potatoes especially! 🙂
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Everyone’s saying that things are hygge right now … but it felt very much that way.
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We’re big fans of the roasted brussels sprouts as well, though we add some flavored balsamic vinegar at the end rather than lemon. So easy and delicious. How did the potatoes turn out? I did a banana caramel cream pie this year and we were pretty happy with it- need to make 2 next year as there were no leftovers. =)
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Potatoes were excellent, and I bet balsamic would be great on the sprouts, too. Surprised your kids will eat it, though.
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No, the kids won’t eat the sprouts. They’ve been cruelly forced to try them, but it ended in gagging. =)
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Ah, well. Some day they will understand 🙂
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