Austin, TX

Another holiday has come and gone and now the Christmas frenzy can begin. Tomorrow is Black Friday, possibly the scariest shopping day of the year. Normally I would not venture out but my youngest brother is in town and the boy likes to shop.

My family is fairly non-traditional where Thanksgiving is concerned. We stopped doing the traditional meal a few years ago when we got sick of ham and turkey at the holidays. This year we did the traditional feast of turkey, ham and all the trimmings yesterday and today we did our non-traditional meal. We had decided on doing tapas but later decided to make it a 7-course tapas meal with different people being responsible for the various courses. These are the courses we decided on:

1. Appetizers: Bacon wrapped dates, bacon wrapped water chestnuts brushed with BBQ sauce & green bean crustini.
2. Avgolemono Soup (Greek Lemon Soup)
3. Hummus, Tomato Bruschetta
4. Ceviche
5. Palate Cleanser: Ginger lemongrass sorbet
6. Lamb burgers with aioli & feta
7. Dessert: Baklava & Mango Sorbet

My brother was insistent on trying the green crustini. We were not convinced. He cooked fresh green beans with think slices of garlic and then put a chunk of cambozola on thin crustini with two green beans and a sliver of garlic. They were quite pretty. I’m still not convinced but they weren’t bad.

The Avgolemono soup was heavier than I expected but quite tasty. The home made hummus was delicious. I’m normally not a big fan of hummus but as with most things, it’s better made fresh.

The ceviche was just fantastic as was the ginger/lemongrass sorbet. We had planned to serve the palate cleanser before the ceviche but thought better of it when the time came. That worked out well as the ceviche has a very dominant flavor. The lamb burgers made a nice main course and the baklava was divine as was the mango sorbet.

The only downside to this gastronomic feat was the incredible number of dishes we went through by making each tapas its own course. Normally when we do tapas we just put everything out let people serve themselves. This way everyone wanted/needed new dishes for each course. I think we used every dish I own.

Tomorrow is leftover day! I hope you and yours had a lovely Thanksgiving! This weekend there are lots of great things to do. My two favorites are the Empty Bowl Project and the Victorian Christmas Festival.

Thanksgiving, menu, family