So far, my menu was chiogga beet carpaccio with baby greens, parmesan curls, and sauce; followed by essence of carrot and essence of tomato in shot glasses (I was still figuring what to serve with them… something crunchy and something melty); then a slice of millet pie with tourtière seasonings, a wild mushroom Bourguignon stew cooked in a large winter squash… roast garlic mashed potatoes, and that olive cranberry tapenade I saw on their site… and a fennel slaw for crunch and tartness. That fennel caragheenan jelly looked fun, but I could not work it in. I had a brunoise of caramelized beet on one of the dishes I enjoyed at 5e Péché on Friday and that too was probably going to get worked in somehow to replace the traditional pickled beets.

Their carrot caramel was inspiring and I was thinking of devising something around it, probably maple-flavoured to stay on the traditional theme.

And do while working on my ideas for dessert, I realized several things: 1) it was going to be a lot of work, which is fine, but 2) my parents would never appreciate what I’d put into this and 3) they would not enjoy it because they are not adventurous and my father cannot imagine a meal without meat, esp. a Holiday one… and my mother’s sense of taste seems to have gone stale.

:sigh:

So looks like turkey will be on the menu after all. The chiogga beet carpaccio might yet make it, though. And the olive-cranberry tapenade.

Turkey wasn’t traditional in my family. For Christmas it was seafood on the Eve and any luxurious piece of meat for the Day. Crown roasts, fillet, hams, etc all made their appearances.

Maybe a small roast so I don’t get stuck with tons of leftover meat I won’t want to eat.

PS the 5 chars code thing is really getting up my nose! Sometimes the characters are too hard to read even after generating new ones.