THANKSGIVING CANADIAN TURKEY STUFFING

I do love to cook. However, Thanksgiving dinner belongs to Barb. Italians did not celebrate Thanksgiving until they came to Canada. Initially, I was not too fond of a Turkey dinner. It is not the most difficult meal to prepare but it is very tasty. Barb wanted to put her Bread stuffing on my blog. She learned to make it from her mother.

Barb says:
My Mom or Nana's Bread Turkey Stuffing was always a part of our Thanksgiving and Christmas festive dinners. Some Italians in Canada try to claim that a rice stuffing is better in the turkey. Rice stuffing belongs in a duck or cornish hen dish. For me, why try to reinvent a dish that is a great Canadian tradition.

BREAD STUFFING

1 loaf of white Canadian bread.
1/2 loaf of brown or whole wheat Canadian bread.
2-3 Garlic buds.
2 or 3 celery stalks- keeping the leafy middle pieces.
1 onion. White cooking onion or the red onion depending on  your choice.
Fresh parsley. The leafy portion
Sage.
Butter or Margarine- 2 or 3 tablespoons
Salt and pepper to taste.

Once you have decided what time you want to put the turkey in the oven. Make the bread stuffing about 1/2 hour prior.

DIRECTIONS

Washing your hands well before preparing the dish, it is important to wash all the vegetables to be used.

Get a large bowl to mix the ingredients.

Break the bread into bite size pieces mixing the two types together.

Finely dice the garlic buds. You can add more to the mix if you want.

Finely dice the celery stalks and the leafy middle pieces. The leafy pieces help to keep the stuffing together.

Finely chop the onions.

Finely chop the parsley. Use the leafy pieces not the stems.

Mix all the ingredients together.

Add sage- couple of teaspoons  and again mix in the dish. You can add more if you want. Again to taste.

If using butter, cut a few cubes of butter or use a few tablespoons of margarine and place on top, middle and bottom of the mixture.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Put aside.

Take the Turkey- Fresh or Frozen-which should be thawed and rinse out the cavity of the bird.  Put it in the roasting pan. Wash your hands.

Take your bread stuffing and forming handful balls put it in the cavity of the turkey, pushing and really packing it in there. I also put as much as I can in the backside of the bird.

If I can not sew or tie the legs together to keep the moisture of the stuffing intact while cooking, I place tin foil over the stuffed cavity.

Since my children and families love my stuffing, I often double up the recipe ingredients so I have more stuffing than room in the turkey.

I use a casserole dish to cook the extra stuffing. I add some of the beginnings of the gravy being slowly cooked on the stove with the turkey neck, organs for flavour.

The trick to good stuffing is it absorbs the flavour of the turkey while cooking inside so when there is extra stuffing that is cooked separately it does not get the same flavour and can be dry. So mix the stuffing from the bird and the extra together when serving to try to solve that problem.

I also have bought extra turkey thighs to cook. This is another way to cook the extra stuffing. In a casserole dish or separate pan, put the stuffing in the middle with the turkey thighs on the side, again packing them closely, putting on the lid or covering with tin foil to keep the moisture intact.

Depending on the size of the turkey, it is cooked until done. The stuffing is scooped out of the cavity and served in a bowl.

It is one of the main dishes at Canadian Thanksgiving dinners. Adolph and my girls love it so I would not make it any other way!!
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FROM A FRESH APPETIZER TO A HEARTY SOUP

I eat lots of vegetable. For any gathering or a family barbecue at the cottage a fresh vegetable appetizer platter is always a hit with some spinach dip. We all eat a variety of vegetables.

From broccoli

to cauliflower

to carrots

to a variety of peppers- red, green, yellow, orange- vegetables are best eaten fresh.

What to do with the leftovers? The next day make them into a dish. Soup/zuppa well is my second best way to eat them. With a little olive oil in the bottom of the pot simmer some chopped onions and a couple of buds of diced garlics. When simmered add the chopped vegetables left over form the veggie platter. I added some frozen peas, a zucchini, a little swiss chard piece, and some celery too. All chopped into small pieces. Of course salt and pepper to taste.
Ecco la!

Una zuppa di verdure! A hearty vegetable soup! Barb always tells me she loves the smell of soup simmering in the house. I just love eating it!

MINESTRA-TASTY LOW-CAL LUNCH OR FART SOUP

Minestra is like a soup but thicker. It is a good dish if you want to start to reduce your weight.

INGREDIENTS

Pork hocks- 2 pieces

Garlic- 3 buds diced.

Parsley- 2-3 sprigs.

Celery- 1 long piece.

Can of plum tomatoes.

Savoy Cabbage- 1/2 large- shredded

1 tin of Kidney Beans- 28 oz./750 ml.

Olive Oil- a tablespoon/20 ml.

Salt-a tablespoon/20 ml.

Pepper-1/2 teaspoon/25ml.

Preparation time-10 minutes


DIRECTIONS

Serves about 8.

In a large sucepan add the olive oil. Heat the oil.

Add the chopped garlic, parsley, celery and pork hocks and cook over medium heat for several minutes.

Add crushed plum tomatoes and simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Add shredded cabbage and kidney beans( I drain them but you can use the juice from the tin if wanted) and add enough water to cover the ingredients completely.

Add salt and pepper and bring to a boil.

Lower the heat and let simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

For added flavour you can substitute the water with chicken or vegetable broth.

You can serve with some hot peppers to taste in a bowl like Barb may eat it!

I often nickname this dish - " Fart Soup". Eat it once a week if you want to avoid problems with your colon!

SPEZZATINO DI MANZO-ITALIAN BEEF STEW

Everyone has some kind of stew. Canadians make a good stew with stewing beef and large vegetables. The Irish stew uses lamb.
My favourite stew is the way I learnt from ny region- Ciociaria in Italy.

INGREDIENTS

Meat- some tender beef. Can be stewing beef or round steak. 1 lb- 2.2 kg or more depending on the number of people to be served.
Celery- 1 stalk.
Carrot- 1.
Onion-1.
Garlic.
Olive Oil-EVOO.
Bay leaf.
Salt, pepper.
Red Wine.

Remember if serving a large crowd, just up the number of each ingredient.

You can make Italian stew with a good cut of veal with the same ingredients. However, use white wine.

DIRECTIONS

Dice a garlic bud or 2 and fry with a spoon of olive oil in the pot.

Thinly dice the carrot, onion and celery.



Cut up the meat into small bite size pieces. Saute in the fried garlic.

Add the thinly diced onion, celery, onion. Actually doing all this work, makes me think that Italian cooks must have a lot of time on their hands as it takes time to dice thinly with a knife!

Add 1/2 cup of red wine.

Add a Bay Leaf.

Salt, pepper to taste.

Let simmer in the covered pot for 2-3 hours. Check and stir the ingredients often. 

For you modern cooks, it can be cooked in your slow cooker or crock pot. 

The simmering lets the meat tenderize while cooking. 

Before you start to serve any stew make sure to remove the bay leaf. Many people have choked on it as it does not tenderize or fall apart.

I like to serve the stew on top of some mashed potatoes or you can serve the stew or spezzatino on its own.

Making this dish reminded me of my childhood. We used to have a bay leaf tree- actually it was a bush- on our driveway at our house in Italy. It seemed bigger because I was smaller. I remember we had a chestnut tree and some rosemary and oliander bushes too. Cooking can sure bring back memories.  I could not find a picture of the bushes but did round up some pictures of me near the house and another with my cousins in a field of flowers.