It is the weekend after Thanksgiving and I hope y’all had a wonderful Turkey Day. I certainly did!
I was not born in this country, but Thanksgiving has grown on me. Giving thanks for the harvest and expressing gratitude in general is very appealing to me. Gratefulness is what opens the heart to receiving more. All of us wish our lives were better in one way or another. Everyone wants more money, more love, more success, a better career, a nicer house, a slimmer waste line which is all great. It is these wishes that motivate us to move forward, However, just because we don’t have what we want, does not mean we should not be grateful for what we already have. Practice gratefulness, not just on Thanksgiving but every day. Be grateful for being in good health, for having food on the table and a roof above your head. Those are very basic things but if taken away we are in trouble. Be grateful for your intelligence, your talents, your family, (traditional and non-traditional) your friends and even your enemies, if you have any. All the people in your life, or who have been in your life at some point, have enriched it and helped you learn more about yourself and life. Be grateful for having all of them in your life. I could go into this more deeply but I will stop here and talk about food. This is a food blog after all.
This year was my first time hosting Thanksgiving and it very exciting. My plan was to have almost everything ready by the time my family got to my house so that I can spend time with them and enjoy the actual meal. Thankfully, I managed to achieve that. Here is what I prepared. This was a very non-traditional Thanksgiving meal as I served mainly Romanian food.
Appetizer
Celery root with chicken breast. This is just grated celery root, grated carrot, a bit of grated apple, boiled chopped chicken breast dressed up with lemon juice, yogurt or sour cream and mayonnaise. I promise I will post a recipe with exact ingredients soon.
Choux Pastry filled with smoked fish paste. For the fish paste, combine the smoked fish( I used mackerel but you can use any fish except smoked salmon) with onion, butter and lemon juice.
Salami and Cheese platter.
Soup
Romanian Meatball Soup. Although I cooked this soup for the first time ever, it turned out perfect! Beef with rice, chopped onion, and pepper made into meatballs, boiled with chopped onion, carrot, red bell pepper, and tomato sauce. The soup was served with sour cream. I will post this recipe at some point as well.
Main Course
Roasted Chicken. I marinated the chicken overnight in a mix of white wine, red wine vinegar, bay leaf, oregano, garlic powder, salt and pepper. As a side dish, I served assorted oven fries (sweet potato, potato, carrot, parsnip, pearl onions and garlic). The second side dish was grated beets with grated horseradish root and lemon juice. My cousin wanted to make gravy so we did. It was a very inspired addition to the dish.
Dessert
Apple pie with vanilla ice cream. This did not require any work on my part. The pie came from Community Servings to which I made a donation. My modest $25 donation was a way to express my gratitude for having food on the table. I warmed up the pie and served it next to vanilla ice cream.
