Thank you to Love Bytes for hosting me today!
Christmas is only a couple days away and my thoughts are on what I’m cooking for dinner. With a family of four girls, Ryan has always had to be organized at Christmas himself, and he keeps in mind what each of his girls’ favorites are to tie into their celebrations. He’s the kind of dad who helps the girls make popcorn and cranberry garlands for the tree, and bakes cookies for them to decorate. And he’s going to go for a traditional Christmas meal.
I’m not that fond of the old turkey myself, and this year I’ve got more people than usual at my table. I’m going to be making roast lamb this year, and possibly a duck or goose for a little bit of variety. I always do roasted potatoes, and there are always brussel sprouts on my Christmas table, though the way I cook them varies. And then I go with a number of other veggies.
For dessert there’s always Cranberry salad and pumpkin pie, and this year there will also be a toffee almond pie (which is like a pecan pie only with slivered almonds and a package of skor bits – I taste tested this one and oh my goodness, so good.)
With people from overseas coming in for Christmas, I’ll be serving tortiere for Christmas Eve as that’s a very (French) Canadian dish.
This is the recipe that I am going to try this year. I got it from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/80565/traditional-french-canadian-tourtiere/
Traditional French Canadian Tourtiere – makes 2 pies
Ingredients
2 pounds ground pork
2 pounds ground beef
1 cup finely chopped onion
1-1/2 cups water
1-3/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon liquid chicken seasoning
2 (15 ounce) packages pastry for double-crust pie
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
In a large pot, mix the pork, beef, onion, and water. Season with salt, pepper, allspice, cloves, cinnamon, and chicken seasoning. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 30 minutes.
Drain liquid from pot into a bowl. Transfer remaining meat mixture to a separate bowl and chill until ready to use. Place bowl with liquid in the refrigerator and chill 1 hour, or until fat has congealed on the surface.
Scrape and discard fat from the chilled liquid. Spoon the meat mixture into pie crusts. Add 1 tablespoon of reserved liquid to each pie. (This prevents them from becoming to dry.) Place top crust on top of each pie and pinch edges to seal. Cut slits in top crust so steam can escape.
Bake in preheated oven until golden brown, about 50 minutes. Serve immediately or freeze until ready to use.
Sean Michael
smut fixes everything
Blurb:
With four girls, single dad Ryan Withers has his hands too full to look for romance. He’s not complaining—he loves his daughter and the three nieces he adopted when their parents died, and he would do anything for them. He’s caught off-guard when his mother and daughter conspire to play matchmaker.
Alex Bernot works in disaster relief, his job taking him all over the world for extended periods of time, helping others. He’s staying with his aunt while he’s home, and she sets him up on a blind date. Finding a special someone isn’t really on his mind, but he goes to make his aunt happy.
Ryan and Alex enjoy each other’s company more than either of them expected, and they soon make a second date. Their lives are complicated, though, in very different ways, and soon family needs and their jobs conspire to pull them apart. They’ll need to figure out how to work through the things keeping them apart, but first they’ll have to decide if they even want to….
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Best-selling author Sean Michael is a maple leaf–loving Canadian who spends hours hiding out in used book stores. With far more ideas than time, Sean keeps several documents open at all times. From romance to fantasy, paranormal and sci-fi, Sean is limited only by the need for sleep—and the periodic Beaver Tail.
Sean fantasizes about one day retiring on a secluded island populated entirely by horseshoe crabs after inventing a brain-to-computer dictation system. Until then, Sean will continue to write the old-fashioned way.
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Roast lamb sounds like a perfect substitute for turkey. and brussel sprouts are my favorite too. Especially roasted. The toffee pie sounds so good.