ottawa foodies

Where's everyone getting there big a@# bird from for thanks giving? And what are you planning to prepare?

My thanks giving menu for this year at home...

- Regional cheese's with my own charcuterie which includes, rabbit terrine, lardo and duck pancetta plum ketchup, date chutney and pickled vegetables

- Puree' parsnip soup with buckwheat honey comb, pancetta and pumpernikle crisps

- Pickled beet and bitter green salad, double smoked bacon, yogurt dressing

- Turkey ballantine, center of trumpet mushrooms, brown butter and fresh thyme

- Green beans with smoked pork shoulder and brown sugar vinaigrette

- Celeriac, Yukon gold whipped potatoes

- Muesli and dried apricot stuffing

- Pan Gravy with smoked birch syrup

- Traditional pumpkin pie, mascarpone ice cream

sounds great - when's dinner :) We usually put on the tradition thanksgiving
dinner -depending on which out of town visitors show up. This year the in-laws
just left and we will be alone, so maybe no big meal. Usually get the turkey
from whichever supermarket has the best deal on fresh birds. They are usually all pretty even - in which case we head to farm boy.

The only thing that shall not be passed over is pumpkin chiffon pie, with lots
of whipped cream.

I'll trade my Turducken for Da Butchers Feast anyday !!

"Green beans with smoked pork shoulder and brown sugar vinaigrette"

Drool drool drool !!

"Turkey ballantine, center of trumpet mushrooms, brown butter and fresh thyme"

Arrrrrrrrrhh !!!

Hey Da B. !! ...I'd do ALL your dishes, pots and pans just to nibble on the leftovers !!

Da Butcher When's dinner?-:) Thanksgiving dinner will be a ham from Padgeberry Farms plus whatever veggies they have at the market on Sunday. Dessert will be a pumpkin pie. The leftover ham will morph itself into split pea soup for lunch the next day. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Mediterrian

Just ordered it - thanks for the reminder! It's not too late!

The wife wants me to deep fry it. She is also doing a leg of lamb. Not sure what else but I'm sure lots of my pickles and preserves will be coming out.

I usually buy my turkey at the grocery store, most often Loblaws. I wait to the last minute, because I prefer a fresh one vs a frozen one (all that hassle of thawing). Was in the grocery store yesterday, and oh my gosh, I think I saw BIG BIRD... there was a turkey in the frozen section that was $ 62 and must have weighed well over 25 Lbs.

This year, we haven't decided what we are doing for Thanksgiving, looks like none of the kids will be around (all have other plans) so it might just be something small and intimate instead of turkey, I'm beginning to investigate Cornish Hens... but I'm open to suggestions.

No matter the main course, the Wine & Trimmings are already settled. Wine is a Pinot Noir that "The Man" has been cellaring, and the Trimmings always include Mashed Potatoes, Maple Squash or Yams, a Second Veggie, Stuffing, Gravy and Homemade Cranberry Jelly. Dessert will be Traditional Pumpkin Pie and also a Cheesecake, served with a special bottle of Ice Wine I've picked up on my last Ontario wine tour.

I get mine from a friend who has a small farm.... truly organic, good chickens too.

Food & Think We usually have a small Thanksgiving at our house too. My sibilings and I usually do our own thing during Thanksgiving and Easter - Christmas is really the only time we all get together. Having said that I will be spending the weekend with my dad and his companion. A turkey would be waaay too much so we usually get a chicken and serve it as if it were a turkey-:) I serve the chicken as the main course and make cranberry sauce, brussel sprouts, and all the trimmings that one would normally serve with turkey. This year will be a small ham with a small amount of leftovers for Dad to have over the course of the week then a little set aside for split pea soup. The Glebe Meat Market is pretty good for accomodating smaller portions plus they sell some really tasty homemade pies-:)

Unfortunately, I'll be working all weekend long (beginning of corporate move...), so I miss out on all the fun of making thanksgiving dinner. My wife and son are heading over to her mom's for dry turkey, boxed stuffing and store-bought pie. I guess I'm not missing out on much...

Tre - LOL, I hear with the turkey tale at the inlaws. My Mom used to get up at the crack of dawn to put the turkey in. By the time it was "ready" it was a horrendous sight, where plump juicy drumsticks should have been were two bones sticking up in the air, and the wings well they were seared right off... just a pile of charcoal at the bottom of the roasting pan. Of course Thanksgiving wasn't complete without the store-bought pumpkin pie with its thick cardboard crust and orangey mass of filling with the tell tale crack down the centre... served up with a dallop of cool whip. No wonder I hated pumpkin pie my whole life... not til I was in my mid 30s and I made it from scratch did I discover the delight that this dessert can be at the holidays.

Ah yes, let's toast this Thanksgiving to thankfully having found our foodie way!

I ordered mine from the Glebe Meat Market this year, I haven't ordered turkey from them before. I'm also going to try celeriac and potato mash this year, another first. Green beans, pierogies (bf's family tradition), and instead of pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake (a lighter recipe with a seasonal twist using ginger snaps for the crust instead of graham cracker).

Picked up my bird after work from Darvish Mediterrian and dropped it into the brining bucket in the fridge.

hey zym, just curious what does the turkey go for at Darvish? I know they have good meat there - but I bought some rib steaks once with out bothering to check the price - 3 steaks $50! Good steaks, but I don't think it was worth the premium. I noticed turkey prices do not seem to be affected by rising grocery prices - 1.99/lb again this year. I guess oil is on its way back down again. :)

I paid $56 for about a 13 lb bird so it's about twice the supermarket price. But it's significantly cheaper than the last organic bird I bought at Sasloves which was almost twice the price of Darvish!

I bought my fresh 15lb'r at Farm Boy for $1.99/lb.

My menu includes:

Roasted turkey and gravy
Sausage stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Cheesy scalloped potatoes with bacon (making ahead today and will warm up and brown tomorrow)
Turnips with brown sugar and butter
Peas

Apple crisp in lieu of pumpkin pie (who doesn't like pumpkin pie?!)

Little Girl is in charge of making the apple crisp, minus the pealing of the fruit. I got Empire apples at Farm Boy for $.69/lb. They also have other varieties including Spartan.

English Custard (making ahead today)to top the apple crisp.

Kids will snack on roasted pumpkin seeds before the feast is ready!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Nice nice!! Im heading to landsdown first thing in the morning to do all my last minute shopping and prepare my feast! I just had a last minute insperation for my charcuterie platter and smoked some duck breast and jarsberg cheese. MMMMM smokey duck...
Happy thx giving everyone...

Just wanted to post that we just finished cleaning up from a very successful Thanksgiving dinner, with the carcass and extra skin simmering overnight for soup! I got my turkey from Loblaws Merivale; it was 7.5 kilos. It was frozen, and labeled as a "Young Turkey" and basted with "PC Normandy Butter". I paid $32.84. It was absolutely delish. I cooked it very traditionally, stuffed with sausage stuffing, at 325F for about 5 hours and 20 minutes. I tented with foil for the first 3 hours, then uncovered it. The meat was moist and flavourful, and it produced a ton(!) of drippings for gravy and for the stuffing I couldn't fit in the cavities.

This is the second year I've bought this brand of turkey, and at $1.99 a pound, as long as you get it early enough to defrost, I highly recommend it. Loblaws was also carrying the same brand of turkey fresh for slightly more per pound, for anyone interested.

It's not fancy, not organic, not free range, but for an inexpensive option, I don't think that this can be beat! And I would love to try it side-by-side with an expensive kosher or organic bird. I would truly be interested in seeing how different they would be. Maybe some year when I have more guests I'll do just that!