What's Cooking? Canadian Thanksgiving

We don't have family in town and usually invite an assortment of friends for holiday feasting. This Canadian Thanksgiving there were 16 assembled in my kitchen, including 4 school aged children and one toddler.

Holiday eating habits for active folks have definitely changed over the years...maybe it is our advancing age(gasp) that makes that overstuffed holiday feeling less attractive each year.

To reflect this, eat well, but healthy and not feel like a turkey myself afterwards the menu included a pear, Gorgonzola and prosciutto appetizer prepared by Pat, a green salad with mango, red peppers, dried cranberries and walnuts, a couscous salad, marinated grilled vegetables, curried squash, a honey orange glazed ham, cranberry bread and Gabi's lemon meringue pie with ice cream.

Before the vegans/vegetarians chime in...you can omit the ham and still enjoy a balanced meal.

Preparation for all the different dishes took a while, however, there was no last minute rushing around and everybody was able to relax before dinner was served.

Green Salad with Mango
This is my own creation. I love it for the color combination.

Ingredients:

• 1 head green salad (romaine, red leaf, green, baby greens or mixed); best with greens fresh from my garden, but alas, it is October and my winter crop is not quite ready
• 1 green mango, cut into thin, narrow slices (get a mango that is hard and not ripe, the one you would usually not buy). Green mango has a tart taste and is easy to slice;
• 1-2 red peppers, thinly sliced into long strips
• handful of nuts or seeds (sunflower, pumpkin or walnuts work well
• salad burnett, chives or spring onions, chopped

Dressing:

• olive oil
• juice (to reflect my dinner theme I used cranberry juice)
• splash of soy sauce
• splash of sesame oil

Cut/tear lettuce and wash and drain well. Top with red pepper and mango slices. You can get creative and arrange the reds in the center and the mango around the edge. Sprinkle with chopped herbs. Add nuts and dressing just before serving. Toss.

Couscous Salad with Dried Cranberries and Walnuts

This will become a new standby. Easy to prepare, pleasing on the eye and healthy.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnuts or pecans
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat couscous
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 medium cucumbers, peeled, seeded and diced
• 1/4 cup shredded fresh basil or mint leaves

Dressing:

• 1/3 cup lemon juice
• 3 gloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• ground black pepper
• 1/3 cup olive oil

Toast the nuts in a pan at 180C (350F) for about 7-10 min. Let cool.

Place couscous, cranberries and turmeric in large bowl. Pour in boiling water, stir, cover, fluff after 10 minutes, cover again and let cool down.

When cool, stir in walnuts, cucumbers and basil.

Combine the dressing ingredients and add to couscous mixture just before serving.

Curried Acorn Squash

Peeling acorn squash is hard work and when preparing the squash I decided (prematurely) that I wouldn't try this recipe again. Looking at the yellow pile of squash, I knew that I definitely would not make this again...what with presentation...? At dinner time, my big pile of squash was devoured in no time flat and everybody raved about it.
Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 pounds acorn squash (2 medium sized squash)
• 1 chopped red onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 cups water
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened shredded dried coconut

Peel and seed squash (maybe baking it for a few minutes in the oven would help?). Cut into 1.5cm squares.Cook onion in oil until just softened. Add mustard seeds and cook over moderate heat, stirring until they begin to pop (20 seconds).

Add garlic, cumin, coriander, turmeric, salt and brown sugar and cook, stirring, 30 seconds. Add squash, stirring to coat well with spices. Add water.

Boil mixture over moderate high heat, stirring frequently for about 10minutes. Add coconut and salt to taste and cook until squash is tender and liquid is evaporated, about 5 minutes.

Cranberry Orange Glazed Ham

No, this is not vegan or vegetarian friendly. Nor is it intended to be. All guests were warned ahead of time that there will be pork...Nobody complained!

Canadian Thanksgiving fare is traditionally turkey. We love traditions, but turkey in our house is a Christmas tradition and given that we just polished of the frozen remnants of last years turkey, we opted for ham.

Ingredients:

• 1 smoked, fully cooked ham
• whole cloves
• 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups cranberry cocktail
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 teaspoons all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons mustard
• 1 1/2 tablespoons butter

Garnishes

• fresh cranberries and orange slices (ok, I admit, I forgot to add this. Stewart and Ean did such a good job with serving...

Stud ham with whole gloves. Place in large roasting pan. I also added lots of garlic gloves and nugget potatoes. Add 3/4 cup of cranberry juice. Bake covered at 180C (350F) for 1 h.

Combine brown sugar, 3/4 cup cranberry juice and next 5 ingredients in a saucepan, mixing well. Bring to a boil and cook 1 minute.

Coat exposed part of ham with sugar-cranberry mixture. Bake 30 more minutes, basting with ham juices twice. Garnish with oranges and cranberries.

Cranberry Bread

I originally planned corn bread, but came across this recipe and decided that

since the common thread in all the dishes was cranberries, I'll give it a try. I doubled the original recipe and made two loafs, which was a good thing, because almost all got eaten. Next time I'll double the recipe, but use 3 pans to avoid the mushy parts in the middle (despite upping the baking time).

Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnut crumbs
• 125g unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar (less is fine too)
• 1 egg
• 1 cup orange juice
• 3 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 tablespoon grated orange zest
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 180C (350F). Grease a loaf pan. Toast nut on a baking sheet until lightly browned and fragrant, about 5 minutes. Leave oven on.

In large bowl beat butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg. Beat 1 minute. Gradually beat in juice, add flour, baking powder, orange zest and salt. Mix until just blended. Stir in cranberries and nuts. Spread into loaf pans.

Bake until loaf is golden (about 50-55min). Let cool slightly, then remove loaf from pan and let cool on wire rack.