Hello, Again! ...and Meat Pie

Why, hello there!  I've been a bit derelict in my duties as a blogger as of late.  To you, I apologize...  I had such good intentions but the holidays being what they are and my "regular job" being what it is, I just couldn't squeeze in the time.  That said, I have a great post for today...  Tourtiere!  Otherwise known as French Meat Pie.

I think I've mentioned before that my family (on both sides) is mostly of French-Canadian ancestry.  Migrating from Canada, through Maine and New York during the Industrial Revolution, they settled in the areas surrounding Woonsocket, Rhode Island in the Blackstone Valley to work in the various woolen mills.  That was back when immigrant folks stuck together and the Woonsocket area seemed as French as Quebec herself.

Today, the city still remembers its French Canadian roots with signs as you enter the city that welcome you with, "Bienvenue!", The Museum of Work and Culture, and the American-French Genealogical Society.

So what does all this have to do with Meat Pie?  Well, it's tradition amongst Canadian-French folk to make Tourtiere (pronounced "Tor-tee-ear") around Christmastime and for New Year's Eve to celebrate the season and ring in the new year (usually served as part of a very late night party after Midnight mass and involving lots of festive beverages, but I digress).  The dish, like many ground meat dishes of that time, was born of frugality but often contained spices that would have been saved for special times like the holidays.  Like the American Meatloaf, every family has its own recipe for Tourtiere and each one is as different as the next.

I thought I'd share with you my favorite recipe for Tourtiere.  This one is an adaptation of one that was given to me by a wonderful woman by the name of Claire who lives in the still quite French village of Manville, Rhode Island.  The original recipe had many of those imprecise instructions that are characteristic of recipes from that era, so I've updated it a bit for the modern home cook (complete with measurements for the seasonings, which you were just supposed to know by taste, I guess).  I hope you enjoy it!

Tourtiere
(aka French-Canadian Meat Pie or "Pork Pie")

Important Note: The original recipe calls for "3 to 4 Uneeda Biscuits" as a thickener and they were the secret weapon of this particular recipe.  Uneedas are a very old-fashioned thick, dry unsalted cracker that were discontinued a couple of years ago by Kraft Foods when they needed to streamline their product line.  Their closest cousin, the Crown Pilot Chowder Cracker, was given the boot as well.  I've searched high and low and the closest match I've found thus far is a hefty cracker made by Goya.  If you can find those, use them but reduce the salt.  Otherwise, about a half sleeve of unsalted Saltines will do the trick.  The recipe makes 2 pies but may be halved.


2 two-crust pie shells (4 rounds)
2 pounds ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 cup boiling water
1 cup finely chopped onions
3 medium-sized russet potatoes ("baking potatoes")
2 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
2 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon oil or butter
8 Goya Crackers or about 1/2 Sleeve of Saltine Crackers
1 egg (optional)

1) Wash potatoes and pierce skin several times with a fork.  Bake potatoes in the microwave on high, beginning with 5 minutes.  Microwave an additional 2 minutes at a time until a butter knife slides through easily or potatoes are soft to the touch.  Set aside to cool.

2) When potatoes are cool, remove white flesh and discard the skins.  Mash well or run through a potato ricer.

3) In a large pot or dutch oven, saute onions until soft but not brown.  Add meat and boiling water.  Cook, stirring until the meat has lost its red color.  Add the spices and continue cooking for another minute or so.

4) Stir in the potatoes, mixing until almost all of the potatoes are no longer visible.  Crush the crackers thoroughly and add a little at a time as needed until the mixture has thickened and most of the crackers have dissolved.  Mixture should be pasty but not dry with no liquid in the bottom of the pot.  Taste and adjust the seasonings to your preference.  Allow to cool slightly so it won't melt the pie crust.

5) Prepare two bottom pie shells in pie plates.  Divide the mixture equally between the pie shells and smooth-out the top.

6) Add the top crust and seal and crimp the edges as you would a fruit pie.  Pierce several holes in the top of the crust with a knife.  Optionally prepare an egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of water) and brush the egg wash all over the crust.  This will give it a glossy shine once it is baked.

7) Bake pies on a baking sheet at 375 degrees until the crust is golden brown and the meat filling is heated through (you can stick a probe thermometer through the vent holes if you wish).

8) Serve hot or lukewarm with ketchup on the side (this part is a personal preference).  Pies may be made up to 2 days in advance, refrigerated and reheated.  They also freeze very well.  If planning to reheat, consider under-baking the crust slightly to prevent over-browning.

An Autumn Treat: Staying at An Inn

Something that has become sort of an autumn tradition for my wife and I is staying at our favorite Bed & Breakfast Inn in Southern Maine.  Aside from being a bit romantic, Inn's are a great and more personal way to see an area without the commercial feeling of a hotel vacation.

At many smaller Inns, the Innkeepers are a family or a husband and wife team and they live right there at the Inn, on the premises, or nearby.  They're invested in the community as members and as small business owners.  You can't really get any closer to "Main Street, USA."

Innkeepers are full of knowledge of the local area.  It's like having your own personal breakfast chef AND concierge.  Because they live there, they can often recommend off-the-beaten-path areas to visit or dine.  You really get an experience that you just can't get in a hotel.

If you're planning to take an autumn or winter vacation this year, consider staying at an Inn.  After the foliage season, you can often get great prices because it is past their peak season and they sometimes just want to keep the rooms full.

The photos above are from stays at The Pinecrest Inn in Gorham, Maine and the Old Tavern Inn in Grafton, VT.

'Tis the Season...for Pick-Your-Own

One of the most wonderful things about summer is that you can get great deals on berries and fruits by picking them yourself at "Pick-Your-Own" farms.  Plus, it's a fantastic family outing at the same time.

Here in New England, we've already had a great strawberry season (good thing after last year's soggy mess) and we're moving quickly into blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry season.  I didn't personally get out to get strawberries but I'm not going to miss the blueberries--however hot it usually is when they're ready to pick.

Many folks like to go out and pick berries but don't know what to do with the abundance they bring home.  Strawberries, in particular, go from great to mush very quickly.  Here are a few ideas for storing and serving.

• Make Refrigerator Jam - Most people assume that making jam is difficult and that it requires a lot of fancy equipment.  The truth is that if you make a small batch and use very clean containers, you can keep it in the fridge for a few months in an ordinary plastic leftovers container.  No canning or special equipment involved!
• Freeze Them - If you have the freezer space, most berries freeze pretty well to be used later in the year in baked goods or for a summer-tasting treat.  Freeze blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries in a single layer on a large baking sheet (uncovered).  As soon as they're hard like marbles, transfer them to a zip-top bag and put into the back of the freezer far from the door so they don't accumulate  moisture and freezer burn.  Strawberries need to be washed, thoroughly dried, hulled, and cut into quarters.  Place the quarters into quart-sized zip-top bags and freeze.  The defrosted result will be a little mushy, but it's perfect as a cheesecake topping, waffle/pancake topping, or for mid-winter strawberry shortcake.
• Make and Freeze Pie Filling - This is a neat trick.  Prepare your favorite berry pie filling.  Instead of filling a pie, line a pie plate with plastic wrap and spray lightly with nonstick spray.  Pour cooled filling into the pie plate.  Freeze until solid and, using the plastic wrap as a sling, remove the frozen "pie" from the plate.  Wrap in several layers of plastic and foil and keep frozen.  When you want to use it, prepare your pastry crust, drop-in the frozen berry slab, and add the top crust.  Bake as usual.
• Make Juice - If you happen to have a juicer or a food mill or even a wire mesh strainer, you can make juice.  Puree the berries in a food processor and add a little hot water to loosen it up.  Add to a sauce pan and bring mixture up to a boil.  Once it reaches a boil, turn off the heat and let it cool.  Strain through a food mill or strainer and pour into containers to freeze.  In the winter, you can add this juice to some freshly brewed iced tea, lemonade, or add sugar and drink it straight-up.
• Dry Them -  If you happen to have a food dehydrator, dried berries can be awesome additions to salads and they can be re-hydrated with a little warm water and added to muffins and pancakes and other treats.  You can even make "fruit leather," a homemade equivalent to fruit roll-ups.  Scour the Internet for recipes.

As I come up with more ideas, I'll be sure to share them here.

A Home-Grown Campfire

Another nice thing about living in a rural area is that you have the space to safely have a small camp fire pit.  The previous owners of our home had a tipi (don't ask me why) set upon a bed of crushed stone in the backyard and the remnants of the fire pit from the tipi could be seen in the center.

On Father's Day weekend, I dug a larger hole and lined it with some hefty stones that we've been pulling from the flower beds around the property to build us a proper fire campfire pit for evenings of roasting marshmallows and eating s'mores.

We used it that night...just the two of us.  It was nice, romantic, and just all-around reminiscent of the slow pace of camping (which we probably won't get to do much of this year).

Don't you just love the simple pleasures of summer?

Everything But the Oink

There's an old saying about pigs and how you can use, "Everything but the oink," (or everything but the squeal). The saying refers to the idea of taking advantage of 100% of the food we raise, leaving as little waste as possible. Whether it's a pig, a cow, a chicken, or farm-fresh vegetables, the more of the item we use and the less we throw away, the better we're doing for ourselves and the environment. The Native Americans knew this better than just about anyone.

Yesterday, I tackled 20+ pounds of apples that I picked last week and I can truly say that I feel fantastic about having sucked as much out of those apples as I possibly could. It took a few old-school cooking techniques (like using a "ricer") and it was a challenge, but what a great feeling now that I'm done. Here's what I made:

• Spiced Apple Rings (6 jars, 16oz each)
• Canned Apple Pie Filling (10 jars, 16oz each)
• About a quart plus of rosy-pink all-natural unsweetened applesauce
  
• One "mile high" deep-dish apple pie
• Three mini apple pies
• Eight jars of apple jelly (made earlier in the week)
• Three jars of brown sugar sweetened applesauce
  

The applesauce was made by boiling the skins, cores, and other discarded pieces of apples down untill they were soft and then mashing them through an old-fashioned ricer. Because the red skins of the apples contributed their red color, the sauce has a beautiful pink hue.


In the end, I was left with a small pile of actual skin, seeds, etc. that weighed just 2 pounds 9 ounces. That's 2% or less of the original apples, which I think is pretty fantastic.

Since I don't have a compost pile, the final remains were sent down the garbage disposal in hopes that they will once again join the environment and help things to grow, depending on how my city processes waste.

The Smells, Tastes, and Memories of Autumn

I think I've finally admitted to myself that autumn has arrived. Normally, I can't wait for it--it's my favorite season, hands down. However, this year, after less than 4 weeks of actual summer weather, I felt as if it had come too soon.

Of course, I love autumn for many of the reasons we all do. Living in New England, there are, of course, the gorgeous colors of the trees which, I'm told, will be all the more beautiful this year due to the early spring rain having made for great foliage growth. I also love the crisp cool air. There's just something special to me about walking down the road or through a field with a light jacket on, listening to a few early-falling leaves crunch under my feet.

Of course, being the foodie that I am, it's the dinner table that I truly love about autumn. It's that time of year when our heartier foods come out of their summer hiding places and adorn the table in all their heartwarming bliss. Winter squashes such as butternut, acorn, and buttercup are cooked-up, mashed, sweetened, and piled, all hot and steamy into big serving dishes. Mashed potatoes and gravy adorn deliciously roasted cuts of meat, whole chickens, and turkeys. There are cranberries, apple sauce, apple pie, and rows and rows of homemade jams at the farm stands. I'm salivating just thinking of it.

When I was a child, I remember visiting my grandmother's house. In the backyard, she had a large weeping willow tree. While not colorful, it made an awesome sight when all of its thin leaves began to lose their color and cover the ground. Behind the tree, at the property line, was a large pile of vines. When you walked by them, you'd breathe in deeply, smelling a familiar, sweet smell. The vines were concord grapes, quickly sweetening and turning their rich purple color in preparation for winter. Just after the first frost, you could pick the delicious purple orbs and taste the sweet juice as the fruit burst in your mouth.

Of course, nothing says autumn like a trip to the orchard to choose a pumpkin out of the patch and pick apples. To me, there's nothing better than biting into a firm, crisp, tart apple like a Cortland. It's a texture and a taste you just can't get anytime else in the year. While apples keep extremely well, they do change texture as they're held. To truly experience one, you have to taste it right off the tree.

What does autumn mean to you and your family?