Thanksgiving at Palmer's Market

Run, Tom Turkey! Sorry for the turkey joke, but it was timely. We were on our way to Palmer's Market in Darien, for their annual Thanksgiving at Palmer's meal. Every year, they put out samples of their Thanksgiving offerings from their catering department. I always look forward to this pre-Thanksgiving feast. While we were driving to Palmer's, we saw these turkeys by the side of the road in New Canaan. I sure hope they know to stay in hiding for another week or so...


Palmer's invites their customers to come back into their store kitchen to sample their tasting menu for Thanksgiving. Last year, it seemed like a much smaller event. We couldn't figure out if fewer people came, or if we were there later, but either way there were more people this year. We had to wait in a line to get into the kitchen! The Palmer's employees were so kind (and smart) and started passing some hors d'oeuvres to all the people waiting in line. We were offered salmon roulades on toast, ahi tuna tartare and gruyere puffs. My favorite was a tie between the gruyere puffs and the ahi tuna tartare. Because I couldn't decide which I liked best, I had to sample several of each!



When we got into the kitchen, one staff member was serving a warm butternut squash puree.


Then we went around the corner, where they were offering 3 types of stuffing - cornbread, chestnut, and traditional. All were delicious!


Here's my plate - on it, you'll see turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, whole cranberry relish, portobello mushrooms with artichokes, 3 types of stuffing, roasted fingerling potato, haricots verts almondine, grilled asparagus, bourbon whipped sweet potatoes, oven-roasted root vegetables, creamed spinach and cranberry orange relish. Yes, I'm pretty much writing now from a food coma.


This is a closeup of the pumpkin sage risotto, which I loved. It was one of my favorite samples tonight. Even cooler is that if you order it from the Palmer's catering department, they serve it in a sugar pumpkin! I can't even imagine how cute that is!


After eating that entire plate of food, I managed to roll myself over to the bakery department, where the talented Megan Palmer Dean was handing out plates of dessert samples. We got a plate with chocolate cheesecake, maple pecan pie, pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, and pear almond tart. As I walked over to the bakery, I was thinking that I couldn't possibly eat another bite. I considered passing on the dessert course this year. Then I got there and saw the plate! I ate all of the dessert too.


All in all, it was a delicious meal and I'm glad we went! What a nice way to get myself into a holiday mood. Now I need to practice my post-turkey dinner nap!