The Acre Substack Thanksgiving
A special edition of the Acre Dinner Party for November.
I am loving settling into this community on Substack. There are so many brilliant creators, and I am being inspired everyday to create, cook or learn something new.
Each month I will pull together my curation of what I am loving into a themed dinner party, with tableware and additional ideas to round it out. This is going to be so fun to see how these evolve over the year. Pour yourself a glass of wine and join me at The Acre Substack Dinner Party.
I start thinking about Thanksgiving in June. This is in large part due to the fact that I am a food photo Art Director, and planning for Thanksgiving begins in June. Mashed potatoes and gravy swim about in my brain while summer heat begins to set in. I love Thanksgiving so much, it doesn’t phase me at all. I love thinking through the spread, how each dish will pair with turkey and stuffing, and how the whole groaning table will display for those gathered ‘round the beautiful feast.
I get into planning my personal Thanksgiving a bit later, around mid October (still early, I know). As this is when photoshoots happen for Thanksgiving work. I watch food stylists roast and glaze beautiful birds to a rich and enticing golden hue, garnishing them richly with citrus and herbs. I cannot help but begin to dream about my own table–the turkey, the classics, and what new dishes I will add to the spread.
My garden is the greatest source of Thanksgiving inspiration as October begins to fade. Squash have moved indoors, filling windowsills with their squat bottoms, shades of dusty blue, buffed beige and flame orange. I dream of what delights I could turn them into for Thanksgiving, and find any time I am scrolling Substack for ideas, I halt in my tracks for a squash-y delight.
I am so excited in my first year of doing The Acre Substack Dinner Parties to create a Substack Thanksgiving curation. It brings me so much joy to pull together creators here into one occasion–how I would love to physically gather and eat the dishes with these creators, cookbook authors, chefs, and home cooks all together.
Setting the Table
The atmosphere for Thanksgiving is everything. It should be a space for warm conversation, slow enjoyment and long sits until the candles burn low. I came across this beautiful table by Odette Williams and find myself thinking about this image often. A cozy and inviting table, lit only by candle light. We often enjoy Thanksgiving in the afternoon as the one big meal of the day, and at a table like this you would want to linger until daylight dims.
The Aesthetic
Rich, Rustic, Inviting
Thanksgiving is family-style food and needs a table that invites this. I have chosen an overall aesthetic that feels more comfortable and casual, grounding the table with a burgundy gingham tablecloth and adding dishes that nod to vintage your grandmother would have owned, like this dotted serving platter, deep purple pie dish and ochre plates. For contrast and playfulness, I would add these citrine glasses to break up the red and umber.
I do believe a Thanksgiving table needs a full and bountiful centerpiece, preferring for the platters of food to be arranged as a kitchen island buffet. Thanksgiving is the perfect moment to style with food, harkening back to the classic cornucopia as inspiration. I would take a fresh approach to this and create a radicchio-copia–a tumbling cascade of a variety of colors, shapes and textures across the center of the table–inspired by Rivki Rabinowitz note. I would arrange these beauties around this wavy candle holder with pink candlesticks for a modern and playful touch.
Rustic comes in with how wood is incorporated into the table through wood salad bowls, and rosewood cutlery as well as through radicchio shaped plates (this may be my signature move–I cannot create a dinner party without a vegetable shaped something-or-other) to tie in the centerpiece.
The Menu
I have classic Thanksgiving dishes I must make every year–confit turkey legs, my mother-in-law’s stuffing and my grandma’s mashed potatoes. Everything else on the table is fair game, and I love to come in with things that are unexpected. The following dishes are not a make all list but a pick and choose to complete your own menu. You will see many of them revolve around squash, as I love it and am always looking for ways to feature my homegrown beauts within the Thanksgiving spread.
Kale, Delicata Squash and Persimmon Salad
How dare I start out a Thanksgiving menu with a salad! Before you throw rolls at me, hear me out–when it comes to pairing with the classics, you want a really, really good salad. Something that is hearty enough to hold its own on the plate, acidic and bright enough to contrast all the butter and cheese, and beautiful enough for the ‘ole plate phone photo. Enter the queen of salads, Hetty Lui McKinnon. I did a little digging through her recipe archives to find this gem and it is worth pulling to the front of the recipe stack for your Thanksgiving spread. A playful balance of flavors with the addition of cumin seeds and a mustard miso dressing, this salad will add a surprising bite to the plate and pair beautifully with turkey.
Whole Pumpkin stuffed with Beer & Cheese Fondue
Now we are talking. Cheesy, gooey goodness is what Thanksgiving is all about. This image is from Helen Graves book Live Fire, by photographer Robert Billington. I would love to serve this as part of the spread–a bit of cheesy squash and cranberry sauce all on a hot roll sounds like the perfect bite.
Squash & Cheese Phyllo Hand Pies
If you are looking for a show stopping side, look no further. Arielle Nir Mamiye creation is spectacular, and perfect for Thanksgiving. The sesame seeds are such a stunning touch, and the cheesy squash filling would be a delight on the table.
Meringue Bows
I love a classic pumpkin pie, but always find the top to be a bit blah. Jillian shared these stunning Meringue bows and they felt like the perfect finishing touch to a flat top pumpkin pie. One bow could be added to the center of a pie, or each slice be topped with a bow when serving.
Sticky Toffee Pumpkin Cake
A cake inside a pumpkin! I may have squealed with delight when I saw this beauty from Paris Starn. Skip the pumpkin pie all together and serve this stunner.
This was so fun to put together, I cannot wait to continue refining my menu for this year. I would love to hear what your family classics or what your thinking of trying new this year–share in the comments below. Cheers to turkey day planning.