recipes

Friday 10: It's All Gravy

It feels like yesterday we were celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving and here with are with American Thanksgiving right around the corner. I don't even want to think about how fast Christmas is approaching!

I have to admit that I like American Thanksgiving better. It always feels like a bigger holiday. Canadian Thanksgiving falls on a Monday, so people tend to have their big turkey dinner on the Sunday and then travel on the Monday. It just feels wrong and rushed to me. 

So in honor of my favourite Thanksgiving (shh! don’t tell the Canadians) next week, I’ve collected some delicious food links, some travel tips, and a couple of things to just get us all in the Thanksgiving mood. It’s all gravy today!

The Ham(ster) 

#1 Tiny, cute animals partaking in Thanksgiving dinner. ‘Nuff said. (Link for email subscribers!) 

#2 Thanksgiving recipes from each state (plus DC and Puerto Rico!) so you can try 52 new dishes: The United States of Thanksgiving via The New York Times. Ahh this reminds me why I always wear sweater dresses with leggings for holidays: elastic waistband + food, food food! = comfortably stuffed.

#3 How about a Thanksgiving playlist that is perfectly curated and timed to finished when your bird is done cooking? Check out Spotify’s Time for Turkey. Read more: Spotify Uses Science to Match Music with Thanksgiving Turkey Cooking Times via Epicurious 

#4 If you’re like me and you are getting tired of hearing about pumpkin everything (even if you don't have anything against pumpkin): Thanksgiving Pie Head to Head - Classic versus Salted Chocolate Pecan Pie via Serious Eats

#5 I made this cranberry sauce for pork tenderloin a few weeks ago and fell in love with it. Quick, easy, and delicious. I used orange juice and orange zest instead of cranberry juice. No more can-shaped gelatinous cranberry goop (although sometimes the goop is wonderfully nostalgic). via Pioneer Woman

The Histoire

#6 It seems like Southern Thanksgiving recipes are everywhere now, which might make you think that the South has always loved Thanksgiving. It actually took a long time to catch on and, later, for Southerners to put their own stamp of things: How Thanksgiving, “the Yankee Abolitionist Holiday” Won Over the South - via Serious Eats

The Travel

#7 If you’re going to be on the road, check out Google’s Seven Traffic Tips to Get You to the Thanksgiving Table. The basics? Avoid traveling Wednesday and try to come back on Sunday. 

#8 Whatever your mode of travel: Go early, be prepared for lines/waits/delays, make yourself comfortable and bring entertainment. I’m thinking a big cozy shawl like this, a good book—I’m finally starting Kate Morton’s The Forgotten Garden—and a sachet or two of luxurious tea. 

The Wildcards

#9 I stumbled on a description of barmbrack, a spicy fruity bread traditionally made in Ireland in autumn, on Saveur this week. A piece of cloth, a bean, a ring, and a coin are wrapped up in parchment and baked inside as omens for the person who finds them. I’m putting the recipe on my “must try” list for the winter. Lucky Charms via Saveur

#10 I’m going to end things with this beautiful video by Louis Schwartzberg on gratitude because being thankful doesn’t just come around once a year with a feast attached to it.  (Link for email subscribers!)

I’ll be traveling a bit myself next week, so I might be slower with the posting. If you’re out there celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you have a very warm, happy, food-filled day. And even if you’re not celebrating Thanksgiving, I hope you also have a very warm, happy food-filled day—because why not?!

Safe travels and happy weekend! 

PS: I’d love to hear your favourite Thanksgiving recipes and traditions! Leave me a note in the comments.

Friday 10: Pies, Poison, a Podcast, and Passes

This week has flown by! I had my birthday on Tuesday and pretty much ate my way through it. Then on Wednesday, S and I went to a Toronto Maple Leafs game. I think it was my first game at the Air Canada Centre and we had a great time. The Leafs destroyed the Bruins. We paid approximately 1 zillion dollars for me to have a collectors cup full of Coke Zero. I drank it all. I don’t think I ever want to drink Coke Zero again. We stayed up way past my bedtime and I think I’m still paying the price. I am old now, what can I say?

So figured it was a good week for a link roundup! There’s some Ham, some Histoire, and some Travel. 

The Ham

#1  We received a huge pile of carrots in our CSA box this week. Melissa Joulwan’s recipe for Cumin Roasted Carrots came highly recommended to me. It seemed perfect for the season, so I’m giving it a try tonight. 

#2  On the less healthy side, Serious Eats’s list of 11 Must-Try Pies Across America seems like a good reason to go on a road-trip, right? Not to be biased, but I’d probably start in DC for the Baltimore Bomb which is described by Dangerously Delicious Pies as “loaded with Berger Cookies (a Baltimore specialty) that melt down and swirl into a sweet vanilla chess filling.” Sign me up!

#3  Italian master barista Ettore Diana gives coffee at McDonald’s and Starbucks a thumbs up. Take that coffee snobs!

The Histoire

#4  My favorite video and link of the week. Vince Speranza, a WWII vet, tells the story of returning to the French town of Bastogne 65 years later and finding out he’s a legend. It’s a must-see! You’ll probably want to check this out after you watch, too. 

#5  A look at the strange, fascinating history of poisonous Victorian clothing (link via Stuff You Missed in History Class). The exhibition that inspired the article, Fashion Victims: The Pleasures and Perils of Dress in the 19th Century, is on at Toronto’s Bata Shoe Museum until June 30th, 2016. 

The Travel

#6  I’m daydreaming of staying in the Ufogel (€120/night), a Tyrollean house and "spatial wonder." I can just imagine cozying up with hot drinks to watch the snow fall on that beautiful landscape after a long day of attempting to ski.

via Apartments for Sale Paris and Paris Perfect | Saint Aubin

via Apartments for Sale Paris and Paris Perfect | Saint Aubin

#7  I’m also daydreaming of buying this fully-furnished Paris apartment. It’s located in the 7th arrondissement and has an Eiffel Tower view. I’m not sure if €915,000 (approximately $1.2 million) is a deal or not, but it seems like it after seeing what Toronto prices have been doing lately. 

#8  I have been looking into the Languedoc-Roussillon region of France a lot  lately and this lovely post about the seaside town of Collioure from Girl in Florence has only sparked my wanderlust more. 

#9  Are those museum passes worth the money? I generally skip them because we don’t hop from museum to museum fast enough. The New York Times takes a look at Amsterdam, Madrid, Florence and Paris to see what kind of bang for your buck you are actually getting. 

The Wildcard

#10 And, finally, I’ve been completely mesmerized by a podcast called Serial. This season (I say that in hopes that there will be more) is all about the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, a young high school student in Baltimore. If you are one of the few who has not heard of it, give it a listen.

That's it for this week! The flurries were flying as I wrote this. I think I'll go settle down with some tea, a book, and a down throw!

I hope you have a happy and warm weekend.