A Pastel Friendsgiving with A Modern Menu

We can hardly believe it – Thanksgiving is next week! To help you prep for the celebration, we’re sharing this pastel Friendsgiving that is sure to inspire! It is fit with a menu that puts contemporary twists on your favorite traditional Thanksgiving foods, and modern decor unlike what you’ve seen before. Royale Ziegler of But First, Party! got together with her pals at Bonjour Fete and Haute Chefs LA to play their strengths and make it a Friendsgiving to remember. And boy! Did they succeed! Below, learn how they DIY-ed centerpieces and get the recipe for a vibrant beet salad that MUST make it to your holiday table.

Royale says, As an event designer, when I get together with my girlfriends and fellow mom-preneurs Rachel Huntington (Bonjour Fete) and Jennifer Coman (Haute Chefs LA), it is usually all work and no play–or play dates sans rosé! So, we decided that the next party we would collaborate on would be to celebrate ourselves and each other. We wanted to highlight each of our strengths, from party and food styling to partyware curation. We also wanted to highlight my newly remodeled kitchen, which I designed with another #momboss friend of mine, Cheney Shapiro of Resourceful Construction.

For our Friendsgiving gathering, Rachel and I wanted to pair some of her more elevated paper partyware with the glass/dinnerware I’d purchased for my new open-shelving. (Yes, those rose-tinted glasses are functional props!) When entertaining with kids, paper plates are an easy way to cut down clean-up time and protect one’s dishes from disaster.

The new Wander collection from modern party goods line Harlow & Grey was so beautiful and matched the tones of my home. It was a perfect fit for this fete. It also served as inspiration for the party‘s palette, we loved the pops of gold and looked to incorporate that elsewhere by gold-dusting pastel-toned pumpkins, and using gold flatware and candlesticks. The blush tones were also calling to me, if given the chance I would turn any holiday pink, and so, we sprayed pampas grass shades of peach and pink!

The menu was fresh, seasonal and an exciting take on Thanksgiving. We served the following items, all of which will be available, for those who live in Los Angeles, to order for Thanksgiving drop-off thanks to Haute Chefs LA: 

Roasted Organic Turkey Breast with Gravy
Whipped Maple and Brown Sugar Sweet Potato Puree
Kale & Country Bread Stuffing with Organic Turkey Sausage, Chestnuts, Cranberry & Pecans
Roasted Scarborough Farms Carrots with Toasted Caraway and Coriander Seed
Green Beans with Roasted Shallots, Delicata Squash, Sage Brown Butter
Roasted Beets with Marjoram and Lebne
Levantine Autumn Salad

Roasted Beets with Marjoram, Swiss Chard and Lebne

Ingredients:

2 lb. medium beets (we chose red, you can also mix with 1 lb candy cane beets or golden beets for additional color)
½ bunch Swiss chard, ribs and stems removed, leaves torn into large pieces
5 tablespoons olive oil, divided
Your favorite salt (we used maldon sea salt ) and freshly ground black pepper
½ bunch marjoram,
½ cup crème fraîche
½ cup plain strained kefir (lebne) or whole-milk Greek yogurt
1 teaspoon + 1 Tbsp. Sherry vinegar
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400°. Trim tops from beets; set aside half of tops (keep on the side – will use them in the recipe). Clean beets appropriately and slice to about ¼” thick. Clean swiss chard & tear leaves.

2. Place in a bowl and toss with 4 Tbsp. olive oil; season with salt and pepper.

3. Place beets and marjoram on top in as even a layer as possible (it’s OK if they are not perfect). Roast, tossing occasionally, until beets are tender, 15–20 minutes. Remove from oven and toss in beet greens that were set aside. Continue to roast until the green become slightly wilted. Let cool.

4. In a small bowl, whisk the crème fraîche, yogurt, and 1 tsp. vinegar. Finish with salt and set aside.

5. Place sesame seeds, 2 Tbsp. marjoram, and a generous pinch of salt in a mortar and pestle to combine.
Transfer to a small bowl and mix in remaining 1 Tbsp. oil and set sesame salt aside.

6. Drizzle roasted beets and greens with remaining 1 Tbsp. vinegar; season with salt and pepper. Spoon reserved crème fraîche mixture between 2 platters and arrange beets and greens on top; sprinkle with sesame salt.