Kitchen & Garden

A French Canadian Tourtière Recipe

December 6, 2019 by Sylvia Rose 4 Comments

This French Canadian tourtière is the taste of the holidays for many Quebecers. A flavourful beef and pork filling wrapped in a flaky pâte brisée pie crust, how can anyone go wrong?

There’s a region in Québec that’s a couple of hundred kilometres north of the famous St. Lawrence River, up the Saguenay River, called Lac St-Jean. I have family who live there and if they hear someone call a meat pie that isn’t from Lac St-Jean a tourtière, they are quick to disparage it.

There are tourtière recipes out there that are branded as Lac St-Jean style, but really, everyone’s recipes are so different that it’s hard for me to understand what makes that a tourtière, and my tourtière a meat pie.

By the way, here’s some food history for you. The name tourtière comes from the cooking dish these pies used to be prepared in, and the dish itself is of French origin.

Oh, and just so you know, this is not a tourtière from Lac St-Jean, nor is it in that style. It’s a French Canadian tourtière. The family can flay me later.

RELATED: Bacon and Sauerkraut Quiche

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Spiked Eggnog from Scratch (serve it hot or cold!)

November 29, 2019 by Sylvia Rose 1 Comment

Holiday eggnog, anyone? Unlike commercial eggnogs, which are full of sugar and unsightly additives, a glass of this won’t leave you feeling too guilty. Learn how to make spiked eggnog from scratch and get a bonus vintage recipe to boot!

HOMEMADE HOLIDAY EGGNOG

The first time I remember having eggnog, I was four or five years old. My mom coated the rims of her dinner glasses with green coloured sugar sprinkles and from that moment on, I was an eggnog fiend.

My mother only bought eggnog for Christmas, never before, never after.

A collector of ruby red Lumimarc glasses, she often served the family eggnog in her treasured collection. It was always beautiful and festive, and I couldn’t get enough of that sweet, creamy, and spicy nog. I still can’t.

If my mom had known just how much sugar and additives were lurking in those cartons of eggnog, she would have made her own from scratch.

SPIKED EGGNOG FROM SCRATCH VIDEO

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The Best Holiday Gingerbread Cookies (a stand mixer recipe)

November 22, 2019 by Sylvia Rose 8 Comments

Seriously the best gingerbread cookies ever. Bring out your stand mixer to make these bakery perfect holiday treats. Soft, spicy, and decorated with royal icing, everyone will be clamouring for them!

pink gingerbread christmas trees with sprinkles

Do you know those cookies you see packaged up in cellophane with gorgeous icing work?

The ones that can keep fresh for a month and still taste amazing?

Maybe yes, maybe no?

Well, this is one of those types of cookies, and we’re talking pure ingredients.

A month before the holidays hit, these bakeries are cranking thousands of cookies to prepare for the holiday season. Large batches of dough are made and are manually cut out. They’re baked, they’re iced, and they’re packaged, ready to sell to customers throughout the month of December.

You’ve struck gold, my friend.

These are the best gingerbread cookies ever, and you’re going to love them.

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Easy Cheese Fondue: Everything You Need to Know

November 15, 2019 by Sylvia Rose 3 Comments

Cheese fondue parties are as hygge as it gets. Master this delicious communal meal with these simple tips and tricks to throw a stellar fondue party and to make a store bought bag of fondue taste incredible.

WHAT’S CHEESE FONDUE?

Cheese fondue is up there on my list of things I love.

Fondue is a French word that translates to “melted”, so a cheese fondue is a cheese that’s melted.

A pot of it.

It’s the perfect meal to gather your favourite people around the table to dip various food items into the melty, cheesy goodness.

Like raclette and hot pot, it’s an intimate communal meal that’s special and unique. Knowing that, is it any surprise that fondue parties were all the rage in the ’60s and ’70s?

By the way, cheese fondue is just one type of fondue. There’s also meat fondue and chocolate fondue, but we’ll talk about those another day.

Also, this post may contain affiliate links, meaning that if you choose to purchase something after clicking on one of the links in this post, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you.

If you need more hygge in your life, you’ll want to host a fondue party! And in case you missed the hygge train, it’s a Danish mindset about creating cozy comfort. If you want to learn more about it, Meik Wiking wrote a book about hygge in 2017.

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Easy Roasted Garlic for Big and Bold Flavour

November 12, 2019 by Sylvia Rose 3 Comments

These roasted garlic cloves are big on flavour and make a healthy condiment you don’t want to be without. The next time you fire up the oven, toss in a couple of heads of garlic for the easiest roasted garlic you will ever make.

the easiest roasted garlic tutorial ever

THE EASIEST WAY TO MAKE ROASTED GARLIC

Easiest roasted garlic, you say? Well, here’s a new flash: all roasted garlic is the easiest!

Considering the beautiful simplicity of this flavourful bulb, it doesn’t seem to be used very often except by restaurants and the consumer packaged goods industry. And why not?

If you had to choose between plain hummus and roasted garlic hummus, which would you choose? Or what about butternut squash soup and roasted garlic butternut squash soup? Unless you’re a purist, the chances are you’d be reaching for the latter in both cases. Not only is it delicious added to recipes, it even sounds good.

HOW TO MAKE ROASTED GARLIC VIDEO

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Pork and Shrimp Burgers with a Spicy Asian Slaw

November 8, 2019 by Sylvia Rose 2 Comments

Cast-iron skillet pork and shrimp burgers bursting with rich Asian-inspired flavours.

COOKING WITH CAST IRON

Pork and shrimp burgers are one of those recipes that grills up beautifully on a barbecue, but when it’s raining or freezing outside, firing up the barbie quickly loses its appeal.

As for non-stick pans, well, there are all kinds of problems with those, which you can read about in my article on cast iron cooking.

The reason I love cooking up burgers in a cast iron skillet is that cast iron conducts heat really well and once seared, I can pop the pan in the oven and forget about it for twenty minutes while I do something else.

Have you tried cooking with cast iron yet? I swear, once you make the switch, there’s no going back. The toughest part is learning how to cook in cast iron and how to care for it.

PORK AND SHRIMP BURGERS RECIPE VIDEO

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