Holiday Feasting!

We're back from spending a good part of the holiday season with family in the Maritimes. What did we do? Well, we did some cross country skiing, enjoyed each other's company, played lots of games and, of course, we ate a lot food!

Here's some of the food that we enjoyed for our Christmas dinner. The wonderful, organic turkey was done by my father-in-law. He also made the stuffing which is a recipe that came from my side of the family. My mother-in-law made the cranberry sauce. It's the best cranberry sauce I've had and I'm still trying to get her to give me the recipe! Maybe if we ask her nicely, she'll provide a guest post for us all...hint** hint**

Here's a picture of the scrumptious stuffing that I talked about earlier. The recipe will follow...

The rest of Christmas dinner involved some sweet potatoes and mashed potatoes along with some really tasty gravy. Mmmm!

And, of course, who can forget dessert?!

This wonderful yule log came from Gourmandises Avenue in Eastern Passage, Nova Scotia.

They make fantastic, professional French pastries and chocolates. They also do wedding cakes.

It was a chocolate yule log with a raspberry filling and it was absolutely delicious.

Great food, great family...that's what the holiday season is all about.

Oh, and it's not over yet...this week, we visit my family.

Now, as promised, here's the stuffing recipe:

Turkey Stuffing

INGREDIENTS

1 loaf French or Italian bread, chopped

2 cups mashed potatoes

1 package (500 grams) sausage meat (we use Maple Leaf uncooked sausage meat)

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1 large onion, diced

1 teaspoon dried thyme (if using fresh thyme, use about 1 tablespoon or the leaves of 6 sprigs)

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

STEPS

• Place all ingredients into a very large bowl and mix together with hands until well blended. Insert stuffing into the neck cavity and the chest cavity of the bird. Extra stuffing may be baked in a casserole dish while the turkey is cooking.

Fall Cooking: Apple Sauce

Apples! There's nothing like a fresh, local apple to tell you that autumn has arrived. My favourite apple is the honeycrisp which is a large apple that is crisp and juicy. It's a slightly tart apple that's perfect for eating or baking. I decided to try apple sauce.

This is the recipe that I used, taken from Allrecipes.com.

2 apples - peeled, cored and shredded

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 cup water

3 tablespoons brown sugar

1. Place the apples into a medium saucepan and sprinkle the cinnamon on top. Then pour the water over the apples and cinnamon. Cook on medium low heat until the apples are mushy (approximately 20-30 minutes).
2. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the brown sugar.

This is what the ingredients look like when they have just been added to the saucepan.

This is what the apples look like when they are cooking.

This is how the apple sauce looks when it is finished. You will get about 2 or 2 1/2 cups of apple sauce.

The apple sauce can be served with pork or as a dessert either by itself or with ice cream. It would even go nicely on a warm apple pie. Mmmmm!