Thanksgiving — Canadialand Style

For us Canadians when you Americans are “celebrating” Columbus Day we’re busy having Canadian Thanksgiving.  Unlike US Thanksgiving there isn’t a cute story or any history really behind the holiday.  I’m convinced that it was created to give us a holiday in October… but that’s just my opinion.

It’s definitely not a big deal here at all.  Sure some people do the whole Turkey thing but then again a lot of people go out to eat too.  It just depends.  I couldn’t care less either way but I like an excuse to whip up a big cut of meat so Thanksgiving it was chez moi!

We’re not big turkey eaters in my house and I was kind of over the chicken substitute so the centrepiece was up in the air.  Until I went to Loblaws that is.  Loblaws had Pork Rib Roasts on sale and I though aha! that will be my meat.  Granted I had never made a rib roast of any sort before but I was up for the challenge.  This happens occasionally… which is how I came to braising a breast of veal one day…. granted I had never braised before nor did I even realize that veal had breasts…

As for the meal… I seasoned the roast with garlic, rosemary, cayenne, salt, pepper and some olive oil and let it sit overnight in the fridge.  When it came to cooking a few recipes I glanced at suggest basting the meat with either broth or white wine.  I happened to have not enough of either so I ended up braising the meat with wine AND broth.  Let’s just say this was the best smelling hunk of meat I’ve ever cooked!  Fast forward about an hour and forty-five minutes later and I had a delicious, moist and flavourful hunk o’ roast… yumm!

The best part about these fall feasts for me is the cranberry sauce.  For years we’ve been an Ocean Spray household.  First it was the jellied stuff then one year when it was my turn to purchase the can I decided to switch things up and buy the whole cranberry stuff.  Oh but not this year folks!  This year I bought an actual bag of cranberries and decided to make the sauce from scratch.  The Ocean Spray folks are even nice enough to put the recipe on the bag.  Being a snob I scoffed and thought I’m not using a recipe that comes on the packaging!  But then I checked a few sources including my homegirl Martha Stewart and even SHE uses the same recipe… granted she doesn’t say it comes from the package but it’s exactly the same… 1cup water, 1 cup sugar and a bag of cranberries.

And that’s what I did.  Literally the easiest thing to make EVER.  And it tastes better than the canned.  Not so much different but just less… well, canned.  I did find a few other recipes that had some variations (orange rind, various types of alcohol etc) so maybe I’ll try those next.  Every year that I eat cranberry sauce it makes me wonder, why don’t I eat this ALL YEAR LONG… and then I vow to open up a can in say June or something, but it never happens.

Next year will be different… next year there will be cranberry sauce all year… you’ll see!

The rest of the meal featured garlic mashed potatoes and roasted acorn squash.   I meant to take a picture of my delicious Thanksgiving plate but remembered way too late…. but trust me, it was gorgeous and delicious!