A Life, Lived

Happy Thanksgiving

Creamy Confetti Corn with Crispy Bacon

Oh my.

This is a recipe you'd expect to see on Paula Deen's website (well, before her diabetes scare anyway). This is the exact opposite of healthy, diet food. Of course, you can guess how yummy it is.

We served it as a side dish at Thanksgiving Dinner (our belief is that there is no room for healthy, diet food for this meal) and it was a HUGE hit.

Yes, it is bad for you, yes it is incredibly delicious, and yes, it is quick and easy to make.

Hmmmm - there is something to trailer trash food.

Take my advice - double the recipe because you will want leftovers.

Creamy Confetti Corn with Crispy Bacon

8  bacon slices, chopped
4 cups fresh sweet corn kernels (about 8 ears
1  medium-size white onion, chopped
1/3 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/3 cup chopped green bell pepper
1  (8-ounce) package cream cheese, cubed
1/2 cup half-and-half
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

Cook chopped bacon in a large skillet until crisp; remove bacon, and drain on paper towels, reserving 2 tablespoons drippings in skillet. Set bacon aside.

Sauté corn, onion, and bell peppers in hot drippings in skillet over medium-high heat 6 minutes or until tender. Add cream cheese and half-and-half, stirring until cream cheese melts. Stir in sugar, salt, and pepper. Top with bacon.

Thanksgiving Dinner

We had an amazing time at our Thanksgiving Dinner. It was the first time we've been home since 2008, Paul had to work, I've been crazy at work . . . not conducive to a big day of entertaining but in the end it was JUST what we needed.

Paul had gotten the table ready earlier in the week - all I had to do was set it, add the treats, and get some flowers.

It was  very warm day -so warm that we could sit outside for the first two courses. This is unheard of for this time of year but no one was complaining.

Cheese and crackers, cream cheese stuffed mini peppers, kielbasa, assorted savoury bites (felt like we were in a café in Italy with those!) I also smoked a wheel of brie topped with cranberry sauce on a cedar plank.

Course # 2 - cauliflower soup with 7 year old Empire cheddar cheese.

After our first two courses we moved into the dining room for the rest of the feast. I have some pics but not of everything  . . . Thanksgiving food does NOT photograph well.

We got a fresh, free run turkey from a farm I know. I cooked it in the British way - with bacon! It was stuffed with a sausage, leek, and cranberry stuffing.

I used to hate cranberry sauce - but this one with rosemary and orange has converted me.

We had 4 vegetable side dishes but I only managed photos of 2:

Sage mashed potatoes with 7 year old Empire cheddar.

Creamy corn with crispy bacon.

I skipped dessert. . . yes, can you imagine that?????

Mom had made the traditional pumpkin pie . . .

Everyone said it was amazing - I will enjoy my piece today!

Combatting Conservatives at Thanksgiving Dinner

It's that time of year again!

The leaves are changing colour, the smell of turkey's in the air and your Uncle Earl is rambling on about something he heard on right-wing talk radio that got him riled up during the drive over to Thanksgiving Dinner.

Instead of politely waiting for your Conservative uncle to wind himself down, why not make this the year your family runs a point-by-point fact check on his claims?

Here are a few suggestions:

Your Conservative uncle says: "Stephen Harper is the only one who can be trusted to run the economy." 

Strange, because at least eight previous Prime Ministers managed to post better economic records than Harper.

Harper actually has the worst economic record of any Prime Minister since World War II.

And some economist he turned out to be: it turns out Harper is the first Prime Minister since Pierre Elliott Trudeau to steer the economy through two recessions.

 

Your Conservative uncle says: "All that matters is Stephen Harper created jobs"

Once again, looking at every other Prime Minister in the last half-century, Harper has the slowest job creation record since World War II.

Harper is also the first Prime Minister in half a century to see the number of people with jobs decline.

Of the jobs Harper does brag about creating, those aren't what they're cracked up to be either.

According to CIBC, the quality of Canadian jobs has plummeted to a 25 year low, with more Canadians working precarious, part-time jobs in low-wage industries than they did a generation ago.

In 2014, Canada only created 32,000 permanent jobs, while temporary jobs skyrocketed to 110,000.

Your Conservative uncle says: "Well, then let's cut taxes for corporations to create jobs!"

When are we going to see the benefits for the taxes that were already cut?

The federal corporate tax rate has been slashed 13% since the late 1990s, including a cut from 21% to 15% since Harper took office in 2006.

And what have Canadian corporations been doing with their cash? One thing's for sure, they're not re-investing it – out of 16 advanced economies, Canada ranks dead last for business investment in R&D.

And according to the government's own numbers, cutting corporate taxes is the least effective way to create jobs with a calculated return of only 20 cents in growth for each tax dollar cut (that's a net-loss of 80 cents).

Meanwhile, the pile of money Corporate Canada is sitting on has exploded to $680 billion, an amount of money exceeding even the size of Canada's national debt.

 

Your Conservative uncle says: "At least Harper cut taxes for families"

With wages stagnating or going down and jobs becoming more insecure and unreliable for most Canadians, promises of tax cuts seem like a quick and easy way of putting money into peoples' pockets.

Except the pay out for most of Harper's tax promises ends up being "not meaningful" for most Canadians. His boutique tax credits are often structured in such a way that will see most of the benefits go to the wealthiest Canadians.

And although Harper claims his so-called family tax cut goes to every family, that's misleading.

9 out of 10 households see no benefit from the income splitting scheme, and families where one spouse earns over $90,000 will receive nearly a billion dollars in tax giveaways.

Your Conservative uncle says: "Well who cares! We're on a gravy train and it's out of control!"

Actually, thanks to Stephen Harper, Canada's federal government has been reduced to its smallest size in half a century.

What was all that 'fat' Harper trimmed?

He cut one-third of Veterans Affairs staff supporting disability, death and benefits at the same time as troops were returning home from Afghanistan. He's cut one-quarter of staff that handle E.I. claims, or one-fifth of Canadian food inspectors to offer just a few examples.

Happy Thanksgiving

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in Canada. This is the first time we have been home for Thanksgiving in almost 8 years. While it would have been nice to go away given the upheaval in our lives lately with Paul's new job and my work being absolutely crazy staying home is a good thing.

We have a HUGE feast planned with family and friends:

Cheese and crackers
Kielbasa
Goat cheese stuffed mini peppers

Cauliflower soup with 10 year old Empire cheddar

Roast free range turkey
Gravy
Cranberry sauce with rosemary and orange
Sausage and leek stuffing
Green bean casserole with Madeira mushrooms and crispy onions
Brussels sprouts with balsamic vinegar and pancetta
Creamed corn with crispy bacon
Mashed potatoes with Sage and 10 year old cheddar

Pumpkin pie
Mini sweets

On Monday, our actual Thanksgiving Day - we plan on sleeping . . . likely in a food coma. :-)

The weather is so warm right now - 22 degrees - unheard of temperatures for this time of year - that we plan on enjoying the first two courses outside.

Travel Tuesdays - the Berkshires

We're home for Thanksgiving for the first time in a few years. How do I respond? I look at pics from Thanksgivings away! LOL

A few years we spent Thanksgiving in the Berhshires .. .

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

One of the challenges of preparing Christmas dinner is juggling the various dishes and having everything ready on time. In our family turkey appears on the table every Christmas (well, once I served a Prime Rib roast and my sister still goes on and one about the year with no turkey . . . whatever). Once that bird comes out of the oven I'm generally juggling the side dishes - the last thing I want to worry about is gravy!

This year I won't have to worry because I made my gravy a month ago!

This recipe for make-ahead turkey gravy frees up valuable kitchen time. It also results in amore delicious gravy than those frantic, last-minute versions.

Essentially you roast some turkey parts and make a highly concentrated turkey stock. This flavourful stock, stronger than ANYTHING you can get through a regular roasting process, results in an amazing gravy.

Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy

1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 ribs celery, chopped
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 large turkey wings
1 cup water
8 cups chicken or turkey broth
4 sprigs fresh thyme
5 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
salt and ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

Combine onion, carrots, celery, and vegetable oil in a large roasting pan and toss to coat. Place turkey wings on top of vegetables

Place roasting pan in the preheated oven and cook until the turkey wings are browned and vegetables are caramelized and softened, 60 to 75 minutes.

Transfer turkey wings and vegetables to a large stockpot. Place the roasting pan over a stovetop burner on medium heat. Pour water into the pan and bring to a boil, scraping up any browned bits. Transfer mixture to the stockpot and add thebroth, thyme, and garlic (if using).

Bring turkey wing mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for two hours.

Remove the meat. When cool pull off skin, remove meat from the bones,a nd reserve for another use. Strain turkey stock and reserve 6 cups of stock; discard all the solids.

Refrigerate the broth overnight to allow the fat to rise to the surface. The next day skim off the congealed fat and procede witht eh recipe.

Heat butter in a large saucepan over medium heat. Sprinkle in flour and cook, whisking continuously, until it begins to smell like cooked pie crust, 2 to 3 minutes. Slowly pour in turkey stock, whisking continuously. Increase heat to high and simmer until thick and warmed through, about 5 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.

A Thanksgiving Feast in Canandaigua

I know that it has been a week since we celebrated Thanksgiving but things have been a titch hectic since we returned from the finger lakes!

Once we knew that it would be just Paul and I for Thanksgiving the idea of cooking a whole turkey was tossed out of the window. We bought boneless, double breast roast, flattened it out, stuffed it, rolled it up. Covered it with a lattice of bacon, and tied it. I tossed the whole thing in a ginormous zip lock bag and froze it. We we headed out on Friday morning it put it in the cooler - it was the world's best ice pack!

We also cheated a bit with the gravy. I knew a breast roast would not yield a lot of drippings with which to make gravy so I bought a mix.

Now before you fall over laughing I shall point out that it was a Williams-Sonoma turkey gravy concentrate that set me back almost as much as the bloody turkey breast roast. I also made what may be one of the best turkey gravy I have ever had!

Since I am confessing to store bought things on the menu - I used ready made cranberry sauce. GASP Not a can of Ocean Spray mind. This also hailed from Williams-Sonoma and was a lovely mixture of cranberries, apples, orange, and rosemary.

I think that might have been it for ready made.

The dinner was further complicated by the fact that when we got to the rental house we discovered that only one of the burner worked on the stove. With that some choices had to be made -we roasted more veggies and bought store-made mashed potatoes.

As I was managing the cooking on the primitive stove, Paul set the table.

We brought the napkins and place-mats with us. The rest of the stuff we found on the side of the road or bought on our travels.

We decided to have drinks and appetizers on the terrace overlooking the lake.

Cheese and crackers, meats, and a Rosemary Pear martini.

I also roasted some local grapes with rosemary and balsamic vinegar which we served with brie.

YUM

After nibbling and sipping we moved inside for the main meal.

Turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberries, roasted squash, roasted brussels sprouts, and mashed potatoes.

And for dessert?

Pumpkin pie -store bought too. Of course, it was bought from Monica's Pies owned by Monica herself  who has been dubbed one of the top pie makers in the US by the food network.

This was a FINE pie! MMMMM

Not bad for Thanksgiving dinner on the road.

9 Thing You Should NEVER to With Your Thanksgiving Turkey

MY American friends are getting ready to cook a feast today. Just in time I present this wonderful cautionary advice which I saw on twitter. Please do not do any of this with your turkey!

1. Stuff it with cupcakes.

No. No, no, no.

This comes to you from the Cupcake Project.

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com

2. Or with Cheez-Its.

This is a great disservice to both the turkey and the Cheez-Its.

Source: 1.bp.blogspot.com

3. Or with Twinkies.

Here's how, if you're some kind of monster.

Source: helablog.com

4. Fry it the wrong way.

BAD NEWS.

Source: media.heavy.com

5. Brine it in Coolattas and stuff it with Munchkins.

Arrrr, that be the monster they call The TurDunkin'. No man has tasted her and lived to tell the tale.

Source: unwholesomefoods.files.wordpress.com

6. Turn it into a cake.

Things that look like desserts but aren't desserts deserve their own special circle of Hell.

Source: search.chow.com

7. Microwave it.

Just don't, just please, please don't.

Source: farm8.staticflickr.com

8. Give it a bikini tan.

The only possible excuse for this is to provide a girlfriend for the Sexy Chicken.

Source: wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net

9. Or lemon boobs.

There's something wrong with you if you really want to know how to do this.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!