Browsing the archives for the canada day tag.

Happy Canada Day (yesterday)!

California, Domestic

Today, I’m linking up with The How To Mommy and Organizing Junkie

Last week, we decided that Canadians living stateside should really do it up for Canada Day. I also promise to do something fun on the 4th!

Traditionally, when making poutine, you’d use cheese curds but guess what? There is only one shop in all of Los Angeles that sells cheese curds aaaand it’s not even really in LA, it’s in Long Beach. Also? I only discovered there was a shop in Long Beach that sold cheese curds immediately after I got back to LA from Long Beach. Insert dramatic sigh. The extremely informative dude at Whole Foods that laid all this out for me explained that cheese curds have to be super fresh and there’s not a lot of demand for them down here. Then he laughed and said ‘yeah, cheese curds aren’t big in Southern California’. Then I told him why I wanted them so he didn’t think I was crazy and since everyone seems to love Canadians down here, he suggested several different kinds of cheese to use in place of the curds and I settled on Doux de Montagne. Best decision I could have made. The cheese was really, really soft and it melted perfectly. However, since my husband is not a big fan of ‘unusual cheeses’, I made three versions of poutine. Soft Mozzarella, Monterey Jack and my amazing new love, Doux de Montagne!

Recipe after this week’s menu (well, if you can even call it a recipe)!

This week’s menu is super simple, there’s a lot of exploring and adventuring to do this week. This is our first week of summer vacation from homeschooling and we’re all pretty hyped about it. I’m insisting we continue with math and of course we will all keep reading, but generally they’re free to play at the beach and have picnics at the park and spend too long in the pool so we all get pruney and play board games into the night and whatever else their little hearts fancy (within reason). Hopefully we’ll have photies up on Sunday of these adventures.

This Week’s Menu

Monday – Throwback Burritos and Cocoa Brownies for dessert

Tuesday – Throwback Burritos and Blondies for dessert

Wednesday – Hot Dogs, Hamburgers and Potato Salad with Apple Pie for dessert

Thursday – Chicken Pot Pie with Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert

Friday – Spaghetti with Meatballs and Garlic Rolls with Chocolate Chip Cookies for dessert

Saturday – Chicken Alfredo and Ceaser Salad with Chocolate Cake for dessert

Sunday – Breaded Sole and Rice Pilaf with Ice Cream for dessert

Happy Canada Day Poutine

All you need is:
French fries
Cheese
Beef gravy

Happy Canada Day Poutine
Happy Canada Day Poutine
First chop your cheese of choice into small easy to melt bits, then pop your fries in the oven and make your peameal bacon sandwich( if you’re getting all Canadian).
Happy Canada Day Poutine
Happy Canada Day Poutine
Aww look, Toronto sandwiches in love! Mr So Very Domestic and I, of course. Sorry, moving on. Plate your super hot fries and make sure your gravy is crazy hot.
Happy Canada Day Poutine
Happy Canada Day Poutine
Sprinkle your cheese bits on top of the fries and pour the gravy over top.
Happy Canada Day Poutine
If you are getting Canadian, you’re going to want to go East Coast and have a Moosehead with this.
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Canada Day Celebrations

Domestic

I know it’s been more than a month since Canada Day, but I don’t want to ignore the amazing themed food I made for my usual suspects that weekend – prepare to be schooled. I made a dish from each of three provinces that I have a connection to. My father’s heritage is what I love to call ‘painfully Canadian’. It’s true that both his mother and his father’s families go back to Scotland and England, respectfully, but the first few generations back are from Saskatchewan and Quebec. My father is one of four siblings, three of them born in Ontario, plus my husband and his family are from Ontario as well. One of my oldest and dearest friends is from Northern Ontario and Miss Talea is from Saskatchewan as well and actually supplied the recipe I used! My grandfather’s entire family was from Montreal and the surrounding snobby French towns, so that’s my third!

Ontario obviously is at the top of the list, being the only province I’ve ever called home, and though my husband has lived in two other provinces, he was born in here and has spent the most time here. The farmers association in Ontario is called Foodland, and there is even a chain of grocery stores (only in small towns – mind you they’re in every small town) by the same name. There are way too many different fruits and veggies to pick a real ‘staple’ of Ontario foods, but we have an abundance of apples and cranberries, plus apples and cranberries are probably my favourite locally grown foods, so I went with Ontario Apple Cranberry Crumble Pie.

Ontario Apple Cranberry Crumble – from Foodland Ontario

Streusel Topping:
3/4 cup quick cooking oatmeal (not instant)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup coarsely chopped hazelnuts (optional)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

Filling:
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
6 medium Ontario Apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4-inch wedges
1 cup Ontario Cranberries

 

1. Preheat oven to 400° F (200° C). Thaw pie shell for 10 minutes. Set on a baking sheet to catch any drips while pie is baking. To prepare streusel, combine oatmeal, flour, brown sugar, nuts and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add butter cut into cubes. Using fingers or a pastry cutter, cut butter into oatmeal mixture just until fine crumb consistency. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, stir together sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon and nutmeg. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine apples and cranberries until mixed. Stir in sugar mixture and coat fruit well. Spoon into pie shell. Sprinkle streusel topping evenly over top. Bake on lower shelf in centre of oven for 10 minutes. If topping begins to brown too quickly, cover loosely with a piece of foil. Reduce oven temperature to 350° F (180° C) and continue to bake until apples are tender, filling is hot and topping is a deep golden brown, about 50 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand at least 10 minutes before cutting into wedges.

 

So so so good. Foodland suggests serving it with vanilla ice cream. I served it with this Ice Salad from Saskatchewan.

I can’t possibly explain why a general rule of thumb in the prairies is that anything with more than three ingredients served cold is called a salad. It’s not a rule I’ve ever heard from anywhere else and it’s certainty met with raised eyebrows, so I have confirmation that it’s not just me that thinks this is weird. Also, the prairies have a thing for Jello. They love it in an unnatural, 1950s sort of way. My Saskatchewan dish combines the two in a family recipe from Talea for Ice Salad. The recipe she gave me was for this pineapple-orange version which I loved but not everyone else loves pineapple as much as me.

 

Saskatchewan Ice Salad – from Miss Talea

One 14 oz can of crushed pineapple
One 3 oz package of lemon jello powder
2 Cups of vanilla ice cream
Water

Drain juice from pineapple. Add enough water to juice to make one cup. Heat to boiling and add jello powder. Add ice cream and stir until melted. Add crushed pineapple. Refrigerate.

I modified the recipe a little and made these pink ones, a strawberry-raspberry version. I followed the same basic guideline and used vanilla ice cream, but I used raspberry jello instead of lemon and because I ditched the concept of fruit bits, I didn’t have the juice, so I used strawberry fruitopia. Yum!!

 

When thinking about food from Quebec, the very first thing most people think of is poutine. I’m just really not big on the whole cheese curds situation. Aside from poutine, the only other thing out of Quebec would be tourtiere. It’s a meat pie, traditionally made on Christmas Eve.

Quebec Tourtiere

2lbs lean ground beef
5 cloves garlic
1 onion
1/4 cup parsely
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp savory
beef stock
corn
pepper
1/4 brick of marble cheese
your favourite pie crust
1 egg

Make your crust (mine is 3 cups flour, 3/4 cups butter and 5 tbsp water) and line it with thin slices of marble cheese. But not cheese slices, you dig? Then sauté your onions and garlic in a bit of butter and mix in and cook your ground beef. Mix in the corn and pour into your (cheese-lined, uncooked) pie crust.

 

Mix the egg with a bit of water to make an egg wash and brush over the top crust of the pie. Bake it at 350 for about 45 minutes, check on it about halfway and brush with the egg wash again.

 

I also served Tim Horton’s coffee of course!! Next year I want to make nanaimo bars (for British Columbia), maybe some beef stew (for Alberta) and some kind of seafood (for the Maritimes).

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