Today is National Caviar Day.

Caviar is processed, non fertilized and salted sturgeon eggs called roe and is considered a delicacy due to it’s high cost. Less expensive caviar is usually imitations using salmon, trout and other fish eggs.
It comes mainly from Russia and Iran where the wild sturgeons swim the Caspian Sea and can be eaten as a garnish or spread.

Here are the 4 types of “true” caviar in order of most to least expensive.

Beluga : pea sized pale, silver gray eggs.
Sterlet : small golden eggs.
Oestra : medium sized gray to brown eggs.
Sebruga : small grey eggs.

One thing I really noticed this past weekend while I was spending time with my family was that you really didn’t need to be fancy to have great memories.  You don’t need to produce a spread worthy of a fancy magazine article or to make every last thing from startch.  It’s about the little things that make it personal.

It’s about the turkey turkey lifters.

And cranberry sauce out of a can. 

In my family if you didn’t have ridges it wasn’t really cranberry sauce.

It’s about the perfect gravy,

The cultural variety,

And the exploding turkey

That came out of the pan legless.

It’s about the table setting where there is a least one piece of Corningware, a fancy milk jug,

Cheap but delicious wine and the token bottle of ketchup.

It’s about 3 different kinds of pie

Where at least 2 hit the plate. 

It’s about the family coming together as a team to produce a meal fit for a king.

It’s all about the stories and the traditions behind them.  Because no matter how it tastes or how it looks it’s all about love and togetherness where the ending is always the same.  

Wonderfully delicious, completely satisfying and absolutely memorable!

Everyone is particular about the stuffing they prefer on the holidays.  I remember one year myself and two other friends who had no family functions for Thanksgiving decided to cook our own turkey dinner.  Because stuffing is such a big part of the meal and we all liked it a different way we ended up with 3 different kinds.  But really can there ever be too much stuffing.

Growing up my mom wanted to please all of us kids so we also had multiple variations of the same stuffing. With onion inside the bird for me, with onion outside the bird (dry) for one brother, and no onion outside the bird for the other brother.  Who knew stuffing could be so political.

Here is the recipe I grew up with and continue to use today.

You need:

If you want lots of stuffing use the amounts on the higher side.  Any stuffing that doesn’t fit in the bird can always be wrapped in foil and cooked in the oven just before dinner.

A couple days before the meal open the bags of bread so the slices can harden up a bit.  The day of the dinner break up the bread into small pieces in large pan.

Slice the celery.

Dice the apples. I like to leave the peels on.

Add the celery and apples to the bread.  Sprinkle with the poultry seasoning and mix well.  This is a great excuse to use your bare hands since it’s the best way I’ve found to incorporate the seasoning.

Dice the onions.

Next add butter and onions to a  fry pan over medium heat. 

Doesn’t this look great.  And your place will smell fantastic.

Once the butter has melted and the onion are slightly translucent remove from heat. Pour butter over the bread.   

Here you can use your hands again to mix it all together but be careful since the butter is still hot.

Taste a few pieces to see if your seasoning is how you like it.  I don’t like a strong poultry seasoning taste.  You can also try a few more pieces just because the first ones tasted so dang good.

Whatever leftover stuffing you have that doesn’t fit in the turkey wrap in foil and heat up later. 

Turkey Stuffing Full Recipe:

1. A couple of days before the meal open up the loafs of bread to get hard.

2.  In large pan or bowl break up the slices of bread in small pieces.  Add the apples, celery and poultry seasoning.  Mix well.

3. In large fry pan over medium heat add butter and onion.  Cook several minutes until butter is melted and onions are slightly translucent.

4.  Pour butter over bread and mix well.  The stuffing is now ready to be put in the turkey.

When the weather gets hot, it’s always great to be able to heat up the kitchen less and enjoy the great outdoors more.  BBQ’s are always a summer staple and with minimal cooking ahead of time you can have lot’s of refreshing, cool summer food to accompany yours teaks, wings, ribs and burgers.  The following are all great side dishes that I spent many summers enjoying with my family.  And if you make large enough quantities it will get you through the week or ready to throw a summer party.

Potato Salad

Devilled Eggs

Tomato Cucumber Salad

The past couple of weeks I have been knee high in boxes and dust since moving into our new place.  I pride myself on being an extremely organized person so the kitchen was the first thing unpacked and civilized however it still didn’t stop us from eating out almost every night after the first week of our move.  The fridge was stocked and the counters clean but after spending the whole day unpacking, putting together furniture and tidying up after ourselves you find that you are just to tired and busy to even consider cooking. 

This got me thinking.  I think one of the best presents someone could give you, as a housewarming gift would be a ready to pop in the oven home cooked meal.  A casserole or roast that only requires heating up in a disposable container can do wonders for the exhausted and stressed out soul of the new homeowner.  Not having to prepare anything or drive to the local diner can take a lot off the shoulder of a friend or family member.  And nothing tastes better than a gift from the heart.

Here is a favourite of mine that would be a perfect meal after a long day of unpacking. 

Mexican Lasagne Recipe

Anytime a family member passes down anything from one generation to the next it’s a special moment. A sort of passing of the torch. For me that moment happened the other day when my mom handed me all of her recipes.

I remember as a child my mom was the epitome of a domestic goddess. Our freezers were jammed with homemade pies like strawberry rhubarb, blueberry, and apple. Our cupboards were packed with jars of homemade pickles, beets, relishes and jams. Everything was made from scratch. I remember the whirl of the food processor as it chopped carrots for loaf bread with pineapple or zucchini. I remember the big pots boiling on the stove as it sterilized jars and sitting out on the front porch peeling baby onions that would soon be pickled.

Sadly as we got older and my mom went back to work the stock dwindled and eventually everything in our freezers and cupboards were eaten and replaced with store bought goods.

Society nowadays has become all about convenience. Double income families are the norm so homemade is becoming a thing of the past. Yet I have to wonder in the failing economy if a stockpile like the one I had growing up could save the day for many a struggling family.

As I look over the recipes I make a promise to try an accomplish 1/8^th of what my mom did. Which still is a mountain of food.

It’s our first official long weekend of the summer and many people are heading North to the cottage or staying home and planning their first BBQ’s of the season.

It’s also the time of the year where the men in our lives come out of hibernation and declare their supremacy as professional chefs. Why is it that the ability to operate a BBQ suddenly makes them the number 1 “cook” in the family. Don’t get me wrong; men have an uncanny ability when it comes to outdoor grilling but BBQ chicken does not make a culinary king. And when it comes to all the prep work and the accompanying side dishes, it’s still the lady of the house (in most cases) who pulls it all together.

Marinating means so much more than brushing sauce over and over again and vegetables can be grilled along with those steaks and ribs.

But I’ll be fair and let them have their shining glory for the next several months. Because I know it won’t be long before the turkey gets stuffed and all is right in the world again.

The following are one of my favourite steak marinades and a great vegetable side dish for your next BBQ.

Steak Marinade Recipe

Bruschetta Stuffed Onion Recipe

With Easter only a couple days away I wonder why we only eat certain foods on holidays and not any other time of the year. I’m all about family traditions; it’s always a guess whether we’ll have glazed ham or a big turkey feast at Easter. But why do we only eat these things on special occasions. I love turkey, stuffed with all the trimmings. I’ll occasionally have ham throughout the year but not glazed and dotted with pineapple and cherries like it would be at the holidays. So why don’t we make it one Saturday in the middle of June. My favourite dessert in the whole wide world is pumpkin pie but I only get that at Thanksgiving. You can argue that it’s a seasonal thing but I’ve had strawberry rhubarb in the dead of winter.

I guess if we ate those things year round the special ness around the tradition would be lost making it feel like any other day. But isn’t it supposed to be more about the company and not the food.

I still think this summer at my first BBQ I’ll volunteer to bring the dessert. Pumpkin pie maybe?

What do you think?

Does this happen in other cultures as well?

Pumpkin Pie Recipe