A Holiday Meal

So, I've been saving up this post since October when we here in Canada celebrated "real Thanksgiving"(no insult intended my American friends..I jest, I jest) and I think now, with my neighbours to the south celebrating their turkey day and with Christmas right around the corner, it's the perfect time to share it.

I haven't had many opportunities to cook a whole Thanksgiving dinner. I've attended many gatherings of family and friends where I gladly contribute my one holiday dish, but I had never hunkered down and done a full-on Thanksgiving cook-a-thon. Until this year that is.

We hadn't even invited anyone and I was already convinced I was going to do this thing. I didn't care if we had to live off turkey and apple pie for weeks afterwards (would that have been so bad?), I was going to make traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.

It's not even like I'm sentimental about the holiday. I just wanted to cook. I'm often looking for excuses to make big meals and go to a lot of effort. Those chances are scarce when there is only two of you!

Like I said, I went fairly traditional, so you wont find any truffle infused whipped potatoes with cranberry paté in this post. But, I did attempt to throw in the occasional creative twist.

The great thing about our North American traditions is that they have so much food overlap. In reality, this is probably what leads to wide-spread and unnecessarily negative feeling towards turkey.  But hey, if you aren't afflicted by same-old-turkey-and-potatoes-blues and like me, you like the tradition of it all, try some of these on for the holidays.

The Menu

roast turkey

apple and bacon stuffing

baked broccoli and cauliflower with blue cheese and candied walnuts

roasted carrot and parsnip

garlic mashed potatoes

cranberry sauce

plum chutney

apple blackberry pie

I have already rambled enough in this post and will not subject you to a ridiculously long list of ingredients and instructions for all of these dishes, but here are some of my favourites from the meal.

Apple Bacon Stuffing

Ingredients

1/2 lb (8 slices or so) bacon

Depending on the size of your turkey, 1/2 - 1 loaf of bread (or the "stuffing" bread bits they sell at the store)

1-2 apples

1 onion

2-3 stalks fresh rosemary

2-3 stalks fresh tarragon     

2-3 stalks fresh sage

1 small bunch fresh parsley

2-3 stalks celery

salt and pepper

If you've bought fresh bread, cut it into small chunks, spread on a cookie sheet and bake 250 degrees (F) for about 10-15 minutes, or until it feels dry (not toasted). If this seems like too much effort, I recomend going with the bag of stale bread bits, which is much easier, but doesn't sound nearly as nice.

While your bread is drying, cook your bacon on medium heat until crisp. Remove bacon from pan, but conserve the fat (fat is flavour, ya know!) Coarsely chop bacon and set aside.

Next, core apples and chop into small chunks. No need to peel if you don't want to. Do the same with onion (peel that one though). Dice the celery and herbs, removing the leafs from the stalks before doing so.

Combine all ingredients, including bacon grease in a bowl and mix well. Then grab that turkey and let'em have it. Make sure the turkey's cavity is empty, then stuff that stuffing like you've never stuffed before.

Candied Walnuts

Ingredients

two cups walnuts (in large pieces)

1/4 cp brown sugar (plus a little more)

1/4 cp water

1/2 ts salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

To make walnuts: Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F).Bring water to a simmer on medium heat in a pan. Add sugar. Simmer gently stirring regularly until mixture becomes thick (about 7 minutes). Once sugar mixture is thick, add walnuts and stir until covered. Toss walnuts with salt, spices and a handful more brown sugar.

Spread on baking sheet and bake for 5-10 minutes or until coating is firm and shiny. 

Once cooled, break apart, set aside and try not to eat them all before dinner!