Non Traditional Thanksgiving

Without a big family to feed this year, or very many guests to entertain, I decided it would be a good opportunity to make a Thanksgiving Day dinner that wouldn't be found just anywhere. It could contain a few traditional holiday elements, but also be a little unorthodox. I don't know of too many fish-based Thanksgiving dinners, so that's what I set out to do. I went to my friendly neighborhood Buford Farmer's Market and bought everything for just under $50 on Wednesday afternoon. I was expecting the store to be packed with last minute shoppers, but it was actually very easy to get around.

Thursday morning I made a little quesadilla of crumbled queso and Honey-Baked Ham (the one must have on my wife's dinner list) and we enjoyed that with some picante sauce and back-to-back "Fringe" episodes on Netflix. I made my way into the kitchen in the afternoon and put together our meal, just the two of us.

First up I made an escolar ceviche salad with wakami seaweed, pineapple and samsutra oranges. That was really awesome and cleansed out palates for the next course.

I whipped up a very simple but very delicious butternut squash soup with two spice-crusted seared scallops. I used turmeric in the spice and I don't think I will do that again because it gave the scallops a yellow coloring I didn't care for. But they tasted great.

Next course was coriander and ginger seared tuna, sliced and served with an heirloom tomato and heart of palm salad with a little crumble of Bulgarian feta. Really nice but I overcooked the tuna a little bit.

For the entree, I kept it simple and made it a crowd-pleaser (that is, what S. likes best). Smoked salmon filet, green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. The potatoes were some fingerlings I was just trying to use up, and they were good, but not fluffy. I played around with the idea of a sauce, but opted to just go with the salmon as is.

We finished up with pumpkin pie (store-bought) and some fresh whipped cream (homemade). And later, more ham. Not your everyday Thanksgiving, but we were thankful, anyway.