Traditional food

            I live in a community highly influenced by French-Canadian culture. Old Quebecian lumberjack culture. We have plenty of local maple syrup producers, so we're pretty fortunate there. Even have some friends that invite us over when they make their first batches for the season.

           One of the holiday staples of the culture is a food called Meat Pie. It's pretty much what it sounds like: pie crust with meat filling. Good stuff. There is of course more to it than that. My mother's recipe (my favorite) has equal parts ground pork and beef, diced onion, roasted garlic, clove, cinnamon, salt, pepper, poultry seasoning (celery salt, sage, thyme, savory) and; here's the chef boyardee moment, a package of onion soup mix. You cook all this up, skim or drain the fat, then fold in some mashed potatoes. Fill the pie shell, pie shell over the top. Bake.

          There are two arguments that go along with meat pie. The first has to do with what you eat with your meat pie: gravy or ketchup. I like both, but ketchup is always more readily available. I had it once with a mushroom gravy that was phenomenal.

          The other argument is on the meat used in the pie. Some state that only ground pork should be used, while others state it should be equal parts pork and beef. I prefer the latter. However, this past week I experimented by making one the way my mother did, and the other with ground turkey. I wanted to practice this in preparation for this weekends Christmas festivities with my girlfriend's family. Her parents for health reasons can't eat red meat, so I figured a turkey meat pie would be a nice alternative. Once finished, I could hardly tell the difference, and I thought both were equally delicious.
Both were enjoyed by my co-workers and I the next day.

           So for the holiday festivities I'm going to make one turkey meat pie, and the other I'm gonna experiment a little more with. I'm going to make the second one with tofu, caramelized onions and portabello mushrooms to substitute the meat part of the pie, partly cause I'm curious on how well it can turn out and also because of Marjie's sister and her husband are vegetarians, the same ones I mentioned who had the bad experience at the fancy pants restaurant a few months back. I promised I'd make a dish they could truly enjoy, and this former chef intends to deliver.

          I have one more present to wrap that hasn't been delivered yet. Otherwise my wrapping is done. Looking forward to the holidays.