I love cooking.  I love making Thanksgiving dinner.  I’d say that partly why I like doing this is because though my family did a more “traditional” meal when I was in elementary school (but with Chinese influences, such as soy sauce turkey and sticky rice and taro stuffing.  Leftovers meant turkey fried rice, or more likely, turkey congee), we were more likely to go to a Chinese restaurant for multi-course meals by the time I reached high school.  I did not like that, so I noted that as an adult, I’d always celebrate Thanksgiving at home.   Anyway, I thought I’d share photos from my four-person meal this year!

Maple sugar glazed butternut squash with thyme

Beet salad with goat cheese

“Mediterrasian” quinoa “dressing” (because it wasn’t stuffed into the turkey, it isn’t “stuffing”) made with sun dried tomatoes, onions and green onions, tossed with a bit of the turkey drippings, minced garlic and minced ginger

Beans with shallots (ordered from Whole Foods) and the hummus spread (for the bread), seen on the top left

Pumpkin bread (left) and white bread (right, in case people weren’t fans of the pumpkin bread).  The pumpkin bread was also from Whole Foods

Homemade maple sugar cranberry sauce

Mushroom and onion gravy (thickened with chickpea flour!)

Mustard crusted turkey breast

Slow cooked apples, cranberries, blueberries and raspberries (which was served with ice cream)

The dinner, plated (in case you didn’t see it on Instagram)

Dessert time!

I hope everyone else in Canada had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  Were your meals more “traditional” or “alternative?”