I’ve been making my own salads and coming up with my own dressing since I was twelve. My basic salad was basically lettuce (probably iceberg for the crunchy juiciness), shredded carrot, diced green onion or finely sliced yellow onion, and diced tomato, all of that proportioned to taste. You can find pre-shredded salads these days that will give you a basic garden salad, such as the ones from “Ready Pac” (available at most major American supermarkets… I’m sure other countries have equivalent products available). The biggest advantage of these (aside from the obvious convenience) is that they will often include a little shred of a more expensive vegetable, such as red cabbage. Great for you and your pocketbook, all at the same time!

Whenever I make a meal salad, I always add cubed cheese (cheddar will do just fine, or any other semi-hard cheese), and then it’s a matter of some protein and a good dressing, which I also make myself.

Sometimes, I even “kick it up a notch”, as we did tonight (thanks to Rip’s brilliant idea).

Here is tonight’s salad.

INGREDIENTS (Dressing)

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbps malt vinegar
3/4 cup mayonnaise
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
3 sprigs fresh thyme
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp half and half
1 tbsp freshly ground mustard seed (or to taste)
garlic powder
1/2 tsp raw horseradish (make sure not to use horseradish SAUCE)

DIRECTIONS

Mix all ingredients in a glass container (a cruet is nice if you have one, but just a one or two cup measuring cup will do fine). Allow to sit for at least 30 minutes before using.

INGREDIENTS (Salad)

1 vine tomato (or more, to taste), finely diced
dash or so of Spicy Montreal Steak seasoning
1/4 finely sliced onion – yellow or red (or 1/4 cup diced green onion, tops and all)
1/4 cup pearl barley
1 package ready-made garden salad
4-6 oz cheddar cheese, 1/4 inch diced

DIRECTIONS

In your salad bowl, dust the onions and tomato with the Spicy Montreal Steak seasoning.
Roast the barley in a cast iron skillet until it’s golden brown and delicious. Once roasted, add a pat of butter and a pinch of salt and stir until the butter melts. Add 1/2 to 2/3 cup water and simmer on medium-high heat until the barley is just al dente (about 10 minutes), stirring occasionally. Drain. Feel free to hold on to the water for future use in a rice (white or brown) or even couscous.
Assemble all ingredients sprinkling as much or as little of the barley as you like, and serve with dressing.

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Last year, in a fit of homesickness, I decided it was about time we have a Christmas meal that was more French Canadian. My eldest children are Québecoises, after all, and hadn’t enjoyed a Québec style Christmas in ten years. So I looked up recipes for things like Tourtière and creton (something similar to the southern “Scrapple“). This recipe was perfect: it tasted exactly the way it should.

Tourtière is served any time one feels like putting in the rather minimal effort, though it is customary to find them around the holidays. The filling can be made of almost any meat, really, but pork and potatoes being cheap, it’s probably the most common choice.

INGREDIENTS

1 1/2 pounds ground pork
1 large baking potato
1 large onion, minced
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 dash ground allspice
1/2 cup water
1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust deep dish pie
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon paprika

DIRECTIONS

Bake the potato until done, 30 – 45 minutes in a preheated 400 degrees F (205 degrees C) oven. Peel and mash the potato.
Place the potato, ground pork, onion, spices and water in a large frying pan and simmer until very thick, for about one hour.
Meanwhile, prepare your pastry.
Line a deep-dish pie plate with pastry. Spoon in filling, spreading evenly. Cover with top crust.
Brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with paprika, if desired. Cut steam vent. Bake for 50 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). If edges brown too fast, cover with a strip of foil. Serve warm with ketchup or with a sweet and sour relish/chutney (I’ll link it as soon as I can find a good one).

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Prep Time: 30-40
Cook Time: 60
Ready In: 90-100
Servings: 8

Ingredients

For the Pastry:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut into small pieces
1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup ice water

For the Filling:

2 1/4 cups chicken stock
2 skinless, boneless whole chicken breasts, about 1 1/2 lb total
Salt
2 1/2 cups baby carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 celery stalks, thickly sliced
10 oz pearl onions, peeled
1 cup small peas
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
7 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 teaspoon minced fresh thyme
3 tablespoons snipped fresh chives
3 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1 egg, lightly beaten

Directions

FOR THE PASTRY:

Place the flour in a bowl. Using a pastry blender or your fingertips, work in the butter until crumbly. Add the cheese and work in until just blended. Sprinkle the ice water over the pastry dough, a little at a time, and gather the pastry into a ball. Knead lightly until just combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill until needed.

FOR THE FILLING:

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring the stock to a simmer. Add the chicken and simmer, uncovered, until opaque throughout, 15-20 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the chicken cool completely in the liquid. Remove the breasts, reserving the stock. You should have about 2 1/2 cups stock. Cut the chicken into 3/4-inch chunks. Set aside.

Bring a saucepan three-fourths full of water to a boil and salt lightly. Add the carrots and cook over medium-high heat for 5-6 minutes. Add the celery, pearl onions and peas and cook until all are barely tender, about 3 minutes longer. Drain well; set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter. Sprinkle in the flour and whisk until the mixture is gently bubbling and smooth, 2-3 minutes; do not brown. Gradually add the reserved stock, whisking constantly, and bring to a simmer. Cook, stirring often, until smooth and slightly thickened, 4-5 minutes. Add the cream and cook, stirring occasionally, until the sauce coats the back of the spoon, about 5 minutes longer. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt and pepper to taste, the thyme, chives and parsley.

TO ASSEMBLE:

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F. Add the chicken and vegetables to the sauce and stir to combine. Spoon into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Brush the edge of the dish with some of the beaten egg.

On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the pastry into a rectangle 10 by 15 inches. Transfer the pastry to the dish, pressing on the edges firmly. Trim away the overhang. Gently knead the dough scraps together, roll out 1/8 inch thick and cut out several small leaf shapes. Brush the top of the pie with the beaten egg. Using the knife, score the pastry leaves lightly, attach them to the pie pastry, and brush with more egg. Cut 3 slits each 1 inch long at the center of the pie.

Bake until golden, 25-30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand for 5 minutes, then spoon onto warmed individual plates or bowls.

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Our very first Thanksgiving together, my husband and I established a tradition of making our meals non-traditional. That is to say, although we might make something that looks traditional, preparation and ingredients wouldn’t be.

Over the years we’ve also gone outside the American tradition, making an Italian meal, or improvising something more Middle-Eastern, and so on. No meal, however, ever turned out nearly as good as this one.

This one was special.

It’s our own recipe, and I’m recreating it here from memory, which means it may not be quite as successful in the remake as the original; still, it should turn out like nothing you’ve ever tasted before. We’ve since attempted it with turkey, but it didn’t quite capture the beauty of the original made with chicken. I bet you could do it with duck, too, though you’d want to compensate a little for the type of meat.

Ingredients

1 Large chicken (5+ pounds is good – anything smaller will be a pain to debone)
Moroccan Spice Mix
(to taste)
1 cup dried apricots
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup warm chicken stock or water
One 5.6oz box Near East toasted pine nut couscous, separated into its components

Preparation

Prepare your grill for smoking, using a mix of mesquite and hickory chips: soak the chips in some warm water while you prepare everything else. Keep the grill at 350^°.

Carefully debone your chicken, leaving only the wing bones intact. (If you have a really good butcher, you might ask him or her to do this for you).

Place the deboned chicken on a platter and rub the spice mix in the cavity.

Chop the apricots into cubes about the size of the raisin (half an inch).
In a bowl, combine the raisins, chopped apricots, water, couscous, and the pine nut packet. Leave out the spice mix, as the chicken juices and rub will flavor the stuffing enough already.

Stuff the chicken cavity with the couscous mix, and stitch closed with cooking twine (or a good quality, thick cotton thread if that’s all you have).

Place your pre-soaked chips in your grill according to your favorite method. We simply made an aluminum container in which we placed the chips, then laid those on the grill. Line the grill’s grate with aluminum foil. Now carefully lay the chicken on the lined grill, close the lid and don’t touch it for an hour or two (or until it’s golden brown and delicious, and the juices run clear), making sure the temperature remains steady.

Remove from grill and let settle for 15 minutes. Serve with a side of green beans and flat bread, if you like.

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