Tis the season for holiday table inspiration! Thanksgiving is about three things: sustenance, mindful gratitude, and family. It’s stories and flavors and all the ways in which they overlap. When Anthropologie invited me to share my take on a Thanksgiving table and menu that was equal parts nostalgia and novelty, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had a fridge full of amazing mushrooms & the pinkest Mountain Rose Apples, so I knew they’d feature prominently. And I knew that instead of turkey, I wanted to roast a beautiful spice brined duck. Read on for our menu & to see more of the table I put together in my favorite tones of copper & grey, my favorite tableware from Anthro, and the best version of an ikebana inspired centerpiece I could manage. A professional florist, I am not. But most of us hostesses aren’t. Duct tape goes a long way. Just sayin…
Food memories are more inextricably intertwined with this holiday than any other. Emotional attachments that defy culinary justification persist, like a love of canned cranberry sauce (or in my case my mom’s off the back of a can pumpkin pie in a pre-made crust…it’s my favorite!) It’s about remembering, about making the dishes of people who have passed on and making the dishes that the people still with us love. Not dishes we love because of any finesse or genius, but because we love the memory. Food’s relationship to emotion and memory is integral; to divorce it from that ephemera is to do it violence, and that’s why I created this menu to be equal parts novelty and nostalgia, complete with a bird, greens, and a vegetable that’s so rich it defeats the point of being a vegetable:
You can find, along with the Apple Rose Tart recipe, sources for the items we used to lay our table on Anthropologie’s blog along with an interview where I talk everything from favorite Thanksgiving traditions, to planning, to color palette. And pro (haha) tip: to do the floral arrangement in the gorgeous copper & wood bowl we filled it with water and taped off a grid on one side. It would have been much easier with a flower frog or foam on hand. : )
I almost can’t tear my eyes away from that Rose Apple Tart to notice, but I’m fairly sure that everything on this table is equally gorgeous. A feast in every sense of the word!
LOVE the color palette, and I’ve been searching for rose apples, can’t find them anywhere!
Beth this is beyond gorgeous! The duck and the tart look amazing! I”m glad you decided on duck instead of turkey. We’re probably doing the same for our Thanksgiving. Are rose apples the same as pink pearl apples? Totally wishing we have those apples in San Diego!
That´s breathtaking, dear Beth!
Jade
This thanksgiving table looks absolutely lush! So impressed with how not only you are able to create delicious food but always create such wonderful dreamy settings for the food as well! These photos are just breathtaking!
Rae of Love from Berlin
Merci de vos pensées pour la France ….
J’adore venir rêver sur les magnifiques photos de votre blog, même si je ne comprends pas tout !
THat rose apple tart looks very beautiful indeed, we cannot find that kind of apples here, but they look amazing! Being portuguese, Thanksgiving is a bit off for me, as we do not celebrate it. Still, I am always ready to incorporate other countries’ traditions and holidays into my everyday life – I celebrate Bonfire Night, which is british, instead of St. Martin’s which is portuguese – and even though I don’t get a family get together ready for some sort of thanksgiving, I find that I usually have some sort of a thanksgiving table most weekends, when we have more time in our hands to go about life slowly and really evaluate how things have been going for us, and all we have to be thankful for. And I’m sure a duck would not go amiss at such table, I do love duck!!
http://bloglairdutemps.blogspot.pt/
Beautiful table…food…oh!, but that floor! Gorgeous new grey floor finishes the room beautifully – I love painted floors and am newly inspired by your neutral color palette…and it all goes with my gradually silver/greying hair! Perfect. And I’m eager to try that brussels dish – yum!
Just found your blog and I fell in love! Gorgeous photo styling and I want to reach through my screen and eat the beautiful food!
This is all so beautiful. I love the calm colour theme on the table, it’s beautiful and it lets food to really stand out. Especially that apple pie. I have never had a chance to hold a rose apple in my hand, I only recently found out about them, but I really want to get them once.
Hi Beth- Are you going to be posting the other recipes from this meal as well?
everything you touch becomes magic
How gorgeous. I love the tart and that you chose duck over turkey. The holidays are a time steeped in nostalgia, when we’re transported back to the comforts of our youth. It’s really magical that food can do this.
The beautiful apple tart caught my eye, but then I scrolled down to the lovely Thanksgiving setting. Love everything about it, it’s how I’d do the holiday.
As always I am obsessed with your photography. And would also like to know if you have a recipe for Gluten Free pie crust that you like? I keep testing them, and they are all so hard to work with, especially when attempting latticing.
Cute outfit! Love how that coloured scarf finishes it 🙂
I love here! these photos are beautiful
absolutely beautiful
absolutely beautiful!
Can you publish these recipes?
Perhaps in a book one day… : )
So totally elegant and thoughtfully put together – the beautiful photography adds an extra dimension that takes your site to a whole new dimension. Well done!
Wow! Beautiful photos! All of the food looks amazing, but especially the rose tart! How gorgeous!
Ah, your pictures just make me want to jump into my screen and appear at your table! Every detail so so beautifully perfect! From the food to the table setting! And I never even knew rose apples exist! Do you mind sharing where the tablecloth is from? I love the natural linen and that you could slightly see through it. I’d greatly appreciate it!
It’s form Anthropologie : )