Friday, November 25, 2011

Quiet serene holiday

Smart Guy took this picture of our Thanksgiving dinner, showing some of our favorite things behind me in our apartment. The triangle box contains the flag that was given to me at Chris' burial; the Chinese wall hanging with the two galloping horses; our printer on the bookcase behind me covered with a silk scarf; and salmon, salad, and a fabulous delicata squash dish spread before me. The squash turned out to be the star of the day this year. Usually I simply cut them in half and bake in a glass dish, but this year I wanted to "dress up" the vegetable for the holiday.
Without being sure how it would turn out, I sauteed several cloves of garlic that I ran through a garlic press with an entire yellow onion in a bit of olive oil. Once the onions began to get transparent, I added the sliced delicata squash, a dash of salt, and a little water. Covered the pan and turned it to simmer until the squash was done. Oh! What a great dish this was! It was so sweet that it could easily have been a dessert (which we didn't have).

The salmon, a gift from a fisherman friend, was caught this summer and flash frozen. He told me that salmon should never have a smell; if it does, it's not totally fresh. This salmon was sublime; I'll have the rest of it for dinner tonight. We also had some 100% rye bread that we could spread with a fresh basil dip. (I just made that dip up, too, with leftover fresh basil from an earlier dinner. It wasn't as wonderful as the squash, but it was pretty good.)

In traditional fashion, we left the dinner table filled to the brim, but without any wheat or dessert, we did NOT fall into the expected coma. It was a wonderful meal and we have tons of leftovers, which is also traditional in my experience. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving, too!
:-)

30 comments:

  1. ha. sounds like a wonderful meal...not huge on squash, but would def give that a try...smiles. glad you had a good holiday djan

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  2. Fabulous meal DJan! I wasn't into squash as a kid, but have started to eat it now that my own picky kids have moved out. I like it with a little brown sugar (just a little), or a bit of maple syrup. Have you noticed any further changes without the wheat? I'm following your progress!

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  3. Mmmm...another delicata squash recipe to try. Looks like a wonderful thanksgiving!

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  4. Love squash but it's not grown much here. I always think locally grown stuff is much better.
    Thanks for sharing your Thanksgiving meal with us.

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  5. I really should cook more veggies for myself. I don't eat enough of them, and they are so nutritious. You are also to be admired for avoiding wheat and dessert, something I am having a hard time doing. Wheat bloats me, so I should stay away from that stuff. Glad you had a great feast on that special day, DJan. Aloha!

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  6. Not even a little piece of pumpkin pie? You are soooo virtuous!
    It looks like you had a lovely little dinner party with your guy.

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  7. I've never tried delicata squash; must look for that. We're eating more squash this year because Abby and her hubby got tons of it through their CSA.

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  8. It sounds and looks delicious. I love squash.

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  9. Yummo.
    I am so glad that you had a lovely day and ate what my father used to call 'an elegant sufficiency'.

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  10. What a wonderful Thanksgiving meal! Ours was small and nontraditional this year, too, and if you ask me it was a much better time!

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  11. The squash looks delicious. I make a similar recipe with summer squash and sweet onions. I never thought about adding garlic however, I'll give it a try.

    I'm glad you and Smart Guy had a nice Thanksgiving DJan. We kept our day simple too and it was great.

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  12. Baked salmon, squash and wild rice is my most favorite meal, DJann! We had cubed squash on our Thanksgiving menu too! Love the tablecloth!

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  13. I've never heard of delicata squash. Tons of acorn and butternut up here, though--which I do like, but seldom make. Hummm...now I'll have to consider ordering me some squash n December! ;)

    What a lovely Thanksgiving dinner. You are doing so well on the no wheat and added sugars. You should be dang proud of yourselves!!

    Have a beautiful weekend, my friend!! :)

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  14. Canadian Maple Syrup n Brown Sugar compliment my squash, however, I am going to try your recipe for Christmas as we usually have 2 kinds of squash, so it'll be buttercup Cdn and buttercup DJan's :)
    Loved the table setting, and we always make way too much - gotta love those leftovers DJan.
    Thankyou for sharing your Thanksgiving with us - love this blog.
    Cheers

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  15. Love squash of any sort so I'll look for this kind. A very Italian way to cook it BTW. And salmon is my favorite fish in any country! Since my Honey was in London on business (Europe doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving) I too had baked salmon and local squash out of our neighbor's field. I was happy!

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  16. You have a lot of self-discipline. The squash sounds really tasty. I'm always on the prowl for good veggie creations. Yummy on the salmon.

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  17. That meal is right up my alley. But maybe not for Thanksgiving...sigh...I can't seem to get over my traditional midwestern roots when it comes to holidays...no matter how much information I have. lol

    I adore fresh salmon. in my past life I had a friend who was a fisherman out of Bodega Bay, and he would always bring me big pieces of salmon when he came to town.

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  18. The squash would my favorite dish. Good for you to prepare it a different way and find another way you like to eat squash. I fix squash various ways and all varieties of squash. Yum. Nice picture of you in your apartment at your Thanksgiving Day dinner table. Hugs to you, DJan.

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  19. I read your description to my husband, who will be cooking our Delicata squash tonight.

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  20. That looks like so much fun--and so peaceful too :0) I LOVE squash.

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  21. Your meal sounds delicious and healthy. I'm glad you enjoyed it and that you enjoyed sharing it together.

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  22. Now I see why you look so great and can do so much. You eat very healthy and delicious. This looks wonderful!!!

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  23. "Without any wheat or dessert"... Sounds good to me. I take it, that you can not eat gluten. Me too. :-)

    But I have not given up sugar, itself. Just that most desserts have other things in them, which I can no longer eat.

    But such is life! :-)))))))

    Gentle hugs,
    "Something about an old-fashioned Christmas is hard to forget."
    ~Hugh Downs

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  24. Sounds like a perfect Thanksgiving. The squash sounds wonderful - actually the whole meal makes my mouth water. It was cool to see a bit of your home, too.

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  25. Sounds (and looks!) like you guys enjoyed a delicious meal! I'm glad you guys had a good holiday DJan! :o)

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  26. Wow. Our last bit of turkey and some carrots and some peas were made into a pie that was excellent and similar to those hot pot pies you can get at KFC. I think this one Patty made was even better.

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  27. I lobbyed for salmon (so good and so healthy. No luck tradition must be adhered to....

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  28. It looks like a lovely dinner.

    I'm a big delicata squash fan and will try this recipe. It looks like you left the skin on too, right?

    For Thanksgiving, I was definitely in a turkey coma but was with my family back home in Ohio and loved every minute of it :-)

    xo jj

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  29. Thanks for sharing your delicious holiday. I documented the squash ravioli we had Wednesday night for a future recipe post. Thank goodness I can still comment on your post DJan!

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