The joys of winter...

What fun it is!

We cooked up our tourtierre filling last night. It went really well, though next year, I'm going to have to invest in a large stock pot or something similar. The 12 pounds of meat just fit in my roaster, making it pretty difficult to stir, not to mention work with on one element.

I had plenty of help, as well. Eldest had met up with a friend downtown, but it was so cold, they ended up coming here. I was on the way out to do the last big grocery shopping before Christmas, so I picked them up at the train station so they wouldn't have to walk or bus the rest of the way. I intended to just drop them off at home, fill the gas tank, then go shopping when I jokingly asked if they wanted to come along. They decided to come with me! That worked our rather well.

Oh, it was quite nice to fill that tank from about 1/8th to full for only $31. The last time I had to fill that tank when it was that empty, it cost me almost $60.

The girls were a great help at the grocery store, and carried most of the bags in for me, too. Then, when it came time to actually cook the tourtierre filling, and had 3 extra sets of hands to make short work of thing. I got Youngest peeling garlic cloves for me - in the living room, since there was no space in the kitchen. Eldest's friend measured out the salt and spices for me while Eldest prepped the food processor and started peeling onions. Meanwhile, I was unwrapping packages of meat and mixing them up in the roaster. That grossed everyone out. LOL

Youngest chopped up the garlic cloves for me, too. We've got a handy little chopper for that. By the time Eldest finished peeling the onions, she was weeping from the fumes, so we kicked her out of the kitchen to deal with that while her friend quartered them for me and I pulsed the pieces in the processor. I love kitchen appliences! Can you imagine having to finely chop a bag of onions manually?

When the cooking was done and the meat was cooled down a bit, I covered it with a layer of foil, popped the lid on the roaster and we set it out onto the balcony for the night.

Problems started this morning, when my husband couldn't open the inside sliding door. Water had pooled in the tracks and frozen overnight. We ended up having to use a hair drier - and a towel to sop all the water up - to be able to open the door. It took something like half an hour before we could get the meat back inside! Unfortunately, it's going to happen again. Things get pretty humid in here, and the baseboard heaters are under all the windows. There's going to be constant melt and freeze all winter. Last year, we only had to thaw things about a couple of times. We'll see how it turns out this year.



The frosty meat is a bit of a chuckle. It isn't actually frozen solid, though the outer edges are pretty close. We'll start making the pastry in the afternoon. It should be workable by then.

We're really looking forward to trying our first tourtierre tonight. We've never had boar meat before. I wonder how much it'll change the flavour?

I love my kids

Things have been pretty busy lately - what else is new? - as we slowly get ourselves ready for Christmas on top of everything else. Today was one of those days were I really appreciated having older kids. We ended up meeting my husband for lunch today, then after a brief stop at home, I left the girls to themselves while I ran out to do some errands. I had only one thing I needed them to do while I was gone. Cruel parent that I am, I told them this was a good time to watch the library videos, since they have to be returned soon. Eldest found a list of the top 50 distopian movies of all time, and she's wanting to see as many of them as she can. She found quite a few in the library and put them on hold, ending up with 5 of them at once - with 3 more waiting to be picked up tomorrow. The problem is, we don't watch tv much at all, even with the girls having a working dvd player of their own again, so the movies have been just sitting around.

I ended up being gone long enough that Dh and I met up after he finished work so I could give him a ride home. It's been another foul weather day, so I don't mind saving him a ride on the bus if I can. As we were on the way home, we decided to pick the girls up and got for a fast food supper, since my being out all day meant no supper ready. I did think that the girls might have made something, but figured they wouldn't mind eating out even if they did.

Which means the girls had several hours on their own to watch the library movies and do whatever else they wanted. So what did they do?

They cleaned the apartment.

I walked into a living room that was all tidied up - library books organized into piles instead of spread out all over the place (which reminds me - I haven't posted the library list. We didn't take out anything new last week, except for Eldest's movies; we just renewed everything we could). Youngest even vacuumed up the little bits of carpet tufts the cats have been working loose from their scratching post. They even made the table all pretty with Christmas candles and decorations. Then there's the kitchen. Wow, did they do a good job there! Everything looks so great. They even prepped the recycling, so all we need to do is take it downstairs.

Ah, those irresponsible teens and tweens. Can't depend on them for anything. LOL

I love my kids!

So it's been a pretty productive day all around, though it had it's odd spots (I'll be writing that story here, after I'm finished with this post). Among my errands, I found a butcher I could order our tourtierre meat from. The game portion is going to be wild boar! We're pretty excited to try that. I have to admit, I was *really* tempted to try Musk Ox. Just because it was there. I mean, how often do you see Musk Ox? They also had ostrich, elk, venison and some uncommon cuts of more common meats. I'm going to like this place! Our order will be ready Saturday morning, and we'll be cooking the meats that afternoon so that we can make the tourtierre themselves on Sunday. There's just a few spices and stuff that I'll need to pick up before then.

The girls are helping me work out a menu for our Wigilia on Christmas Eve. Eldest wants to make a salad. She's been doing that quite a bit lately, but she wants to experiment and make something more substantial - and protein filled. She's thinking seafood. Youngest is thinking deserts. She's suggesting something cheese cakey. If that's what we go with, I'm cheating and buying one, since I don't have my supplies for that and am not willing to buy another spring form pan right now. That and we'll have enough to do with the rest of the meal. :-D Dh wants me to make something with lentils; the Herbed Barley with Pancetta might fit the bill, though I'll make something else the girls, too. Eldest doesn't like barley or lentils, and Youngest likes barely, but not lentils. :-/ Meal decisions can be pretty difficult sometimes. *L*

Well, time to go do a bit more writing before I head to bed. Tomorrow is another day of running around.

Hot Spiced Apple and Cranberry Juice

Since we were having a more special supper tonight, thinking it was the Feast of St. Catherine, Eldest made her spiced apple drink. It's really excellent, so I thought I'd share the recipe.

Hot Spiced Apple and Cranberry Juice

2 L apple juice
2 L cranberry juice
cinnamon sticks
whole cloves
nutmeg
1 apple, optional
whole ginger, optional

In a large pot, combine juices. Add spices. Experiment with the quantities of spices for your own tastes. Eldest likes to use about 6 cinnamon sticks, enough whole cloves to fill the bottom of a tea ball and about a tablespoon or so of ground nutmeg in a little baggie. I think she used a coffee filter to make the baggie. The tea ball and baggie aren't needed, but they do make clean up easier, and you don't get dregs of spices in your glass later on.

If using an apple, wash thoroughly, cut into slices and add it to the juices and spices. If using the ginger, peel and slice a piece about half an inch long. The ginger can be a bit strong, so start with less before determining how much you like to use.

Heat over low until the juices are hot and the flavours are combined, which may take as long as an hour.

Serve hot. Any juice left over can be strained and refrigerated.

First Day of Christmas

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends in the US. I hope you all had a wonderful day of it. :-)

It turns out I got my dates mixed up. I thought today, the 27th, was the Feast of St. Catherine, which we mark as the first day of our Christmas season. Some Acadian families traditionally make their Tire (pull toffee) on this day. Except, as I started to write this post and went looking back at older posts, I discovered St. Catherine's Day is actually on the 25th.

Oh, well. We celebrated it today. Not with making Tire, which no one felt up to making, but with a slightly fancier supper with candles and such.

We also put up our tree today. We didn't decorate it. It's just up. With our new kitten (who's almost old enough to be called a cat), we wanted a bit of time to train her NOT to go into the tree, using the spray bottle method. Not something we want to do with strings of lights on the tree!

So far, so good. She started investigating the tree once and got sprayed. When she started to look like she was heading for it again later, Youngest picked up the spray bottle, and that was enough for the kitten to run away. Several hours later, she seemed overly interested in it again but ran off when Dh picked up the spray bottle. He ended up leaving the spray bottle under the tree - and the kitten hasn't shown an interest in it since! LOL

We'll give it a couple more days, then decorate.

Slow Cooker Pea Soup with Lentils

I whipped together this variation of my usual pea soup (I don't usually have spare lentils hanging around) in the slow cooker before heading out for the afternoon. It turned out really well, so I figured I'd share it.

Note: I made this using a 6 quart crock pot and it was filled quite handily. If you have a smaller pot, adjust quantities as needed. This also makes a very hearty soup that does better as a meal than a starter.


Slow Cooker Pea Soup with Lentils

1 pkg (900g) split yellow peas
about 1 cup lentils
1 meaty ham bone*
1 small onion, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2-3 carrots, chopped small
about 10 - 12 cups broth or water

if using water, use salt and pepper to taste, as well as any other herbs or spices you like.

*Whenever you have a big, bone-in ham, leave a fair amount of meat on the bone and freeze it for future soups. I try to have 1 or 2 in the freezer at all times.

Pick over the peas and lentils, then rinse until the water runs clear. Add the peas and lentils to the crock pot liner. Spread them evenly.

Place the ham bone in the middle of the pot, pushing it into the peas and lentils a bit.

Add the chopped veggies around the ham bone.

Pour the liquid into the pot. If you're using broth (I like to use chicken, but vegetable works fine, too. I haven't tried beef broth), you shouldn't need to add anything else for seasonings, unless you'd like to throw in a bay leaf or something. If you're using water, add salt and pepper to taste. Just be careful not to use too much salt, as the ham bone will add its own salty flavour.

You'll need at least 10 cups of liquid for a really thick soup. Remember that the cooked soup will continue to thicken as it cools, so feel free to add more (I used 11, cups but I like a rather thick pea soup). If you later find you haven't added enough, use freshly boiled water to thin.

Cover the stock pot and set it to high for 6 hours.

Near the end of the 6 hours, you can take the ham bone out and leave it on a cutting board to cool for a bit. Give the soup a bit of a stir before putting the lid back on.

Once the ham bone is cool enough to handle, remove the meat. Chop the meat and add it back to the pot. Stir well. Toss away the bone and whatever gristly bits remain. If you've used a bay leave, remove it and toss it away at this point, too.

Adjust seasonings to taste, if needed.

Serve with a heavy, solid bread, like Black Russian Rye, and a green salad. Pea soup is also great served in bread bowls.

Left over soup can be refrigerated, or put individual servings into Ziplock bags and freeze.

Enjoy!!