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Canadian Thanksgiving


Daddy-A

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If you want plain gravy, buy some extra turkey wings and legs and roast them in a separate pan. You can then use those drippings for the gravy. Glenys has some of the best recipes for turkey and sides.

Thanks Rhea_S for the tip. I'll do that next time! I've taken a few courses from Glenys and have many great recipes from her that are now family favourites. She also did a class for Easter that included a awesome glazed ham.

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We had our Thanksgiving on Sat. with 14 members of our families. I cooked 2 turkeys, a 5.5 kg and a 3 kg one. My brother brought a baked ham so there'd be variety. :rolleyes:

With the above, we had baby carrots in maple syrup glaze, blanched then butter pan fried brussel sprouts that stayed a beautiful green, corn for my mom, creamy buttered Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, apple/walnut salad ( a must ), mixed field greens with raspberry vinegrette and pecans, slices of fresh pineapple for the ham, cranberry sauce, giblet gravy, dressing with diced apples, onions and celery with fresh herbs.

For dessert, I made pumpkin pies with real whipped cream, lemon meringue pies, and one of my neices brought a pumpkin and pecan pie. It was good, tho' I'd much rather have just pecan pie! My s-i-l brought a fresh fruit salad with pineapple and cantaloupe, topped with pomagranate seeds.

My daughter, who is 18 and enjoying the chance to purchase liquor legally, bought a bottle of The Little Penguin Shiraz, and a merlot, both Australian. Red is a wine of preference for most of the family, regardless of meat!One of the other family members brought white wine. My focus was on the food, so didn't pay attention.

I remember one feast where we had about 6 different desserts to choose from: butter tarts, pumpkin pie, lemon pie, tirifle, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin cake. Now, we need to watch our waistlines! :wink:

We had lots of leftovers for the families to take home (a tradition). I saved a breast and thigh for our younger son who returned yesterday from filming a WWII documentary in Europe. Met him at the airport in Winnipeg and immediately headed for Chinatown for dim sum. He's missed feeding the Asian part of his genes. The turkey, he will take to his work place in Red Lake, Ontario.

In the dim sum restaurant, it looked as if all the Chinese were celebrating Thanksgiving with their usual Sunday brunch. :wink: No turkey dumplings, however.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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Dejah ... happy Thanksgiving from Burnaby! And welcome to our corner of eG (loved your blog).

My daughter, who is 18 and enjoying the chance to purchase liquor legally, bought a bottle of The Little Penguin Shiraz, and a merlot, both Australian.

Impressive ... my first liquor purchase came in cans. :laugh:

A.

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Dejah ... happy Thanksgiving from Burnaby!  And welcome to our corner of eG (loved your blog).

Impressive ... my first liquor purchase came in cans. :laugh:

A.

Hey Daddy-A!

Thanks for the welcome. Being on the prairies sometimes can make a person feel displaced. But I thought, what the H! This forum did include Western Canada. :wink:

Glad you enjoyed the blog. It was a lot of fun, altho' started with trepidation.

I have a fellow eGulleteer visiting in November. Maybe I'll have some interesting stuff to post then. He's Chinese and looking forward to some traditional home style Chinese cooking.

I just remembered that we have Chinese BBQ duck from Winnipeg for another Thanksgiving supper tonight! :laugh::laugh: This reminds me of Jean Shepherd's A Xmas Story where they had to make do with Peking duck for Xmas supper.

Dejah

www.hillmanweb.com

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I've got a pork loin roast with the ribs on. I'm thinking that I'll stuff it (dried fruit, most likely). I'm going to put the pot on for some spaetzle in a few minutes; dig up the remaining fingerling potatoes and carrots from my garden; and pull a few of my shallots.

I'm thinking maybe a Riesling/mustard sauce of some sort, but I'm enjoying the opportunity to just freewheel in the kitchen for a while so I'm in no hurry to make up my mind.

I've already got a challah-style dough started with some saffron in it, I'm going to make braided rolls with that.

For dessert, I dunno...maybe a couple of pies, or if the neighbours are home I'll borrow his torch and make some creme brulees.

There's a football game this afternoon, but I don't know if I want to watch. Our Eskimos have been pretty shakey all year, and the powerhouse Alouettes will be in a surly mood after losing just their second game of the season last week.

“Who loves a garden, loves a greenhouse too.” - William Cowper, The Task, Book Three

 

"Not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition...The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger club.” - psychologist David Dunning

 

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It seems as if one very food related aspect of Thanksgiving has been overlooked. It's a harvest holiday no matter how you look at it. Here it's looked at on TV with 22 men running around trying to control the harvest represented by a large pointed egg traditionally made from pigskin, a metaphor for the bounty of the farm and an animal designed to be put up for the winter as hams and sausages. I realize we here in US (Alaska excused for the moment) have our cold spots and you have your hot spots, but on the average, and national holidays seem to reduce us to the lowest common denominator, your last harvest occurs well before ours. Actually we pick oranges all winter long :raz::raz::raz: but Thanksgiving is about symbolism. So while you're eating turnips and potatoes, we're still picking berries. I know, there are going to be a lot of snowballs flying south across the border when you read this, but I'm just trying to explain why you have Thanksgiving in the middle of the summer.

Robert Buxbaum

WorldTable

Recent WorldTable posts include: comments about reporting on Michelin stars in The NY Times, the NJ proposal to ban foie gras, Michael Ruhlman's comments in blogs about the NJ proposal and Bill Buford's New Yorker article on the Food Network.

My mailbox is full. You may contact me via worldtable.com.

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It seems as if one very food related aspect of Thanksgiving has been overlooked. It's a harvest holiday no matter how you look at it. Here it's looked at on TV with 22 men running around trying to control the harvest represented by a large pointed egg traditionally made from pigskin, a metaphor for the bounty of the farm and an animal designed to be put up for the winter as hams and sausages. I realize we here in US (Alaska excused for the moment) have our cold spots and you have your hot spots, but on the average, and national holidays seem to reduce us to the lowest common denominator, your last harvest occurs well before ours. Actually we pick oranges all winter long  :raz:  :raz:  :raz:  but Thanksgiving is about symbolism. So while you're eating turnips and potatoes, we're still picking berries. I know, there are going to be a lot of snowballs flying south across the border when you read this, but I'm just trying to explain why you have Thanksgiving in the middle of the summer.

You must have wandered into the wrong sub-forum, Bux, because it's Toronto and other eastern cities that suffer the frigid winter temperatures and unholy summer humidity so similar to New York City, and, for that matter, Plymouth. The wine harvest is only just beginning here, but we usually let the bananas stay up until the First Nations Summer has run it's course--usually around Christmas. We then go to our favourite suburb, Maui, for two weeks and come back for the tradional start of summer on January 15th. While I had some superb lotus roots here at Phnom Penh only last weekend, I wasn't aware that New York is a citrus-growing area (I thought that took place closer Dangling Chad, FL aka Hurrican Alley), but then again, before I ate in New York I thought you had a legitimate restaurant culture too.

And, for that matter, a baseball team.

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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CFL pigskin is older then the NFL pigskin, CFL and football and the Canadian Thanksgiving are a Can landmark, Canadian Harvest varies just as much as this huge country, In BC we have a huge Harvest this year, pumpkins so big you can Canoe in them across the Nanaimo Harbor. The Cowichan valley is a oasis this year of things Bountiful, so much great food being cooked up, so many Can multi cultural interpretations of the harvest with their own interpretations of the seasons to come, fall comes fast after Thanksgiving, Halloween stumbles out of the block very soon after our Canadian holiday, but for now the turkey is warming the kitchens of Canada, or some Pheasant, wild turkey, Grouse or even some awesome ham, pork fat rules in my books, I am watching the game, it is a tradition, I am not spending time with family at this moment but watching the game, I can remember many Alberta Thanks-Giving’s were the food was plentiful, the snow is not on the ground yet, sometimes Indian summer was blessing or homes with spectacular fall weather, family and friends celebrating the arrival of fall and the beginning of school and the work load at work just always seems to pick up in time for fall, no more summer girls and liquid lunches on the patio, it is time to get back to work and get ready for winter, a truly Canadian thing, cutting fire wood, closing the cottage, putting up the ghosts and goblins and the storm windows, winter she is coming, this year I am ready for Her, bring it on!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERY ONE

GO ESK GO!!

Cook To Live; Live To Cook
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We have been away for the last 2 weeks so had no time to prepare or plan a Thanksgiving dinner and there were only 4 of us. My elderly parents invited us to join them at the nursing home for dinner tonight - I declined, very quickly. Hope they didn't suspect anything!

I did have time to butterfly and roast a chicken at 500F. I pushed a roasted garlic butter mixture under the skin and filled the bottom of the broiler pan with thinly sliced Yukoon gold potatoes. I had time to brine the bird for about 1 hour. Served it with standard vegetables - again, no time to really do too much. The bird was moist and delicious and only took about 40 min to cook. The potatoes are somewhat like scalloped potatoes and get nice and crispy and tasty. All in all an easy dinner but lots of flavour. Oh - can't forget - paired it with a 2000 Pinot Noir from Quail's Gate.

Cheers,

Karole

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Foodie! Welcome back. Hope you had a great vacation!

J & I went out for Pho' tonight with my cousin & his wife. Pho' Hoa isn't my favorite, but they're in Coquitlam so there's not much choice.

Our Thanksgiving dinner last night was the culmination of a day's shopping at Granville Island: Futtucine with Lemon & Scallops, Sesame Encrusted Ahi, Duck with Cranberries ... paired with a 2003 McWilliams Cabernet Sauvignon. Desert was Sauted Bananas and ice cream.

It was an unorthodox Thanksgiving. :biggrin:

A.

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I've decided I want to be Canadian, in particular, I want to be a Vancouverite. It's not so much because I want to "perform the sexual act in the style of the hound" as per jamiemaw's suggestion for marital stability. Nor is it because I have any problem with 2 holidays smashed together in a short period of time.

Mainly, I figure the Chinese shops will be open on Canadian Thanksgiving, but nobody will be going there. Therefore, I will have the dim sum houses all to myself. Vancouver dim sum is legendary, needless to say. I can't wait to get back to the one in President Plaza or Kirin on Cambie, or even Sun Sui Wah. With all those pesky locals out of the way, I can finally hit 2 or 3 places in a row and still have time to make a matinee movie.

I love cold Dinty Moore beef stew. It is like dog food! And I am like a dog.

--NeroW

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Driving down 3Rd in Richmond at god knows what time in the morning, but you do know you're stinking hungry. Pass by the usual fast food suspects then driving by Lansdowne you see a large concentration of cars in front of the #9 (cars in the Lansdowne parking lot when there is no snow to play in? odd.) You stroll in to the boisterous room and find out there is a ten minute wait for a table.

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QUOTE(Keith Talent @ Oct 13 2004, 01:22 PM}

Hate to spoil yor fantasy, but in a word, no. Chinese places are busy 365. You could probably get Denny's to yourself though.

from the desk of:

F. Morris Chatters, Communications Director, Chatters Restaurants 2004 Ltd.,

"Where Exciting Urban Professionals Come to Meet, and then leave."

Mr. Talents, you will no doubt be thrilled to know that I am back on the burners since Sven, our chef for some 27 years, has caviled with my wife, Eunice, and taken her back to his native Lithuania. I was, almost needless to say, shocked if not surprised.

Although I fully realize that you have referred to Richmond as 'charm-challenged', 'IKEA-Ville', 'Steve's Town', or even just plain 'D-ick', I wanted to alert you to this: There are many superior dining (and value-laden) opportunities to be had here beyond Korean sandwiches.

To wit: Our very own Chatters' Combo Platters. Although Sven's rapid departure has necessitated some abbreviation, we can now proudly announce that our autumnal Turning Leaf Platter ($19.99) combines Breaded Scallops with Mild Ladner Blueberries; Skewered Giant Thai Prawns with Kiwi Surprise Salsa; Breaded Salmon Steaks with salmon jus; and 'Sven's Famous' Rice Pilaf with Special Lithuanian Spicing (testosterone). Melange of vegetables is just $4.95 additional (we recommend sharing) and water, as you know, is complimentary. Wine pairings of Turning Leaf, currently available in both of the major colours, are just $5.95 per three-and-a-half ounce pour.

Mr. Talents, I can assure you that although Chinese restaurants may be 'busy 365', we here at Chatters are not and are happy if not quite overjoyed to see you and the lesser Talents for whatever your dining requirements may actually turn out to be and then some. From time to time that can be quite a lot. All day Friday we offer our American guests complimentary flu shots which I can tell you has been a real shot in the arm for us too. On Wednesday nights we feature the belly-dancing stylings of mother and daughter team Andwar and Melinda Skavange accompanied by Lars Skavange (Sven's brother, with whom I remain on good terms) on electric zither. Happy Hour cocktails during this time period (4pm to midnight most nights unless otherwise advised) also remain on good terms with our favourable clienteles.

I must say, after a busy year as Communications Director for, serially, The Skybar VIP Lounge and then The Capilano Suspension Bridge ("Suspending Disbelief Since 1934"), it's good to come home again. I was, truth be known, getting a little tired of the waddling tourists and charm-challenged locals. To say nothing of my cheating wife.

We look forward to servicing you and your wife in the near future or at your current or sooner convenience.

Pardon the shameless touting but Beychevelle appears to be taking a day off. By the way, Beychevelle in Lithuanian means "Place of Mayonnaise".

Yours etc.,

F. Morris Chatters

Chatters Restaurants 2004 Ltd.

Edited by jamiemaw (log)

from the thinly veneered desk of:

Jamie Maw

Food Editor

Vancouver magazine

www.vancouvermagazine.com

Foodblog: In the Belly of the Feast - Eating BC

"Profumo profondo della mia carne"

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  • 1 year later...

Because the Pan does not do it for Thanksgiving. But hey , we found a high end food store on the Granville rise ( I do not want to name names, that did a nice setup for Thanksgiving, so we went for it ! - Big mistake !

I have never been so sick in my life ! Without going into details , I was sick !!! And so was the wife !

We called and talked to the Chef. She blamed it on us , poor handling, could not have been them, every excuse in the book. There was no possible way they could have done anything wrong. Really a poor way to handle it. No problem , we call the owner. She happened to be away in Europe at their cooking school / retreat there. Sent e-mail , letter etc.

I had a bit of a bee in my bonnet by this point. No response ever came from any person in any of the forms we sent it.

I have never set foot in the place again and never will.

So , long story short , I think I might be cooking a turkey this year with all of the bits and pieces. I will have the cooks at the restaurant prep the vegetables etc but I will cook the bird.

What will I be thankful for this year. Not being sick for days after Thanksgiving.

Arne , is that what you were looking for when you asked the question?

Hmm... I am quite certain I know of which place you speak, and I have two friends who have had the same gastrointestinal reaction to deli food from said place. Too bad they didn't listen to you- I just hope that something worse dosen't happen! :unsure:

"Never eat more than you can lift" -Miss Piggy

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Does anyone have any good ideas for cooking a nice Thanksgiving dinner when the typical fare is "out of season" in California?

My mum is arriving on Tuesday for a visit. Since that's only one day after Thanksgiving, I told her we'd have a nice TG dinner. Turkeys are not to be found in the stores yet and, given that her flight arrives around 4 p.m., it's probably not a wise choice of entree anyway.

(Besides that, it was 30 degrees here today. Turkey would probably feel too much like winter food!)

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Does anyone have any good ideas for cooking a nice Thanksgiving dinner when the typical fare is "out of season" in California?

My mum is arriving on Tuesday for a visit. Since that's only one day after Thanksgiving, I told her we'd have a nice TG dinner. Turkeys are not to be found in the stores yet and, given that her flight arrives around 4 p.m., it's probably not a wise choice of entree anyway.

(Besides that, it was 30 degrees here today. Turkey would probably feel too much like winter food!)

A chicken would be fine as well. My husband's family (who are Brits) prefer pork roast for holiday dinners, some prefer ham. I think as long as all the fixings are the same it will still be appreciated. Stuffing, sweet potatoes, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, etc.

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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As an American (I hate that word), I would not object to moving Thanksgiving to October, since we already have another holiday off in November (Veteran's Day). But since I am part Cherokee and Choctaw I would not want it to be held on Columbus Day.

In the states, we don't have holidays, with time off, in March, April, August, or October, but have two holidays in January and two in November. I wish Martin Luther King Jr. had been born in March because between the second Friday of November (Veteran's Day) and the 16th of January (MLK Day) we have five holidays. My birthday is at the end of January so when that rolls around, most of my friends are to burned out to do anything.

"Homer, he's out of control. He gave me a bad review. So my friend put a horse head on the bed. He ate the head and gave it a bad review! True Story." Luigi, The Simpsons

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This year we did Osso Buco - the perfect comfort food for Fall.

Memo - thanks for the shanks, little veals

Edited by Memo (log)

Ríate y el mundo ríe contigo. Ronques y duermes solito.

Laugh, and the world laughs with you. Snore, and you sleep alone.

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I've decided on carbonnades flamades for tomorrow night's dinner. Chicken was a very real option but there's a good chance my mum was at one of my sister's houses for dinner tonight (or last night), where I assume she would have eaten some sort of roasted poultry. I forgot to ask her....

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I've decided on carbonnades flamades for tomorrow night's dinner. Chicken was a very real option but there's a good chance my mum was at one of my sister's houses for dinner tonight (or last night), where I assume she would have eaten some sort of roasted poultry. I forgot to ask her....

I had to google that one. It sounds delicious and I'm sure your mom will enjoy it!

Don't wait for extraordinary opportunities. Seize common occasions and make them great. Orison Swett Marden

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For my first Thanksgiving away from home, I made a pretty "traditional" dinner. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures

Starter:

Leek and Potato Soup

Main + sides:

-Pre-salted Roast Turkey (12 lbs)

-Bread stuffing

-Mashed Irish Cobbler potatoes

-Turnip and béchamel gratin

-Roasted beet salad (Bouchon)

-Salad of mixed greens

-Gravy

-Cranberry sauce

-wine (and lots of it!)

Desserts:

-Pumpkin chiffon pie with gingersnap nut crumb crust (Pie and Pastry Bible)

-Cranberry chiffon pie with chocolate wafer crust (Pie and Pastry Bible)

PS: what kind of oysters are those?

Edited by Mallet (log)

Martin Mallet

<i>Poor but not starving student</i>

www.malletoyster.com

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