From the Kitchen of Grandma Olive

Every year my family makes what we call touque (took-kay) together for the holiday season. This year we’re having touque-making December 3rd! Touque is also called Tourtière which is French for “pie dish.” It is a meat pie that originated in Quebec, Canada (Woohoo Canada products represent!!) and is a traditional French-Canadian Christmas and New Year’s dish served at dinnertime.

Great-Grandma Olive

There is not one specific recipe for touque but my family uses a recipe my Great-Grandma Olive always used that has been passed-down for generations. Traditionally, you make a LOT of pies for the extended family the first week of December. Members from each family gather at the oldest mother’s home to help make the pies. My family makes 35-45 pies each year. The pies are then frozen and the first pie of the new batch cannot be eaten until Christmas morning. This recipe is for one pie.

 

**Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

 

SPECIAL SUPPLIES

• Pastry cutter or cuisinart with sharp blade to mix dough
• Cake tin (not a pie tin, sides on cake tins are higher & not slanted)
• Rolling Pin
• Blender to puree onion

INGREDIENTS FOR MEAT

• 1 pound coarsely ground pork (if they don’t have ground pork, ask the butcher for pork shoulder and have them ground it for you)
• 1/6 of a large onion
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup water

DIRECTIONS TO MAKE MEAT
Puree onion in blender. Add correct amounts of meat, onion, water, salt and pepper. Cook on stove and add more water if there is not enough juice after evaporating. There should be about 2/3 meat and 1/3 juice after cooked.

INGREDIENTS FOR DOUGH

• 1 cup flour
• 1 (rounded) tablespoon Crisco
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/3 cup ice-cold water

DIRECTIONS TO MAKE DOUGH
Blend dry ingredients first with cuisinart or pastry cutter. Then add wet ingredients until mixture forms into a ball. Roll out a bottom crust (about 1/4 inch thick) of dough to cover inside of cake tin. Trim extra dough off sides after pinching around rim of tin. Roll the top crust, also about 1/4 inch thick, to lay over the top of the tin.

DIRECTIONS TO FINISH

• Fill cake tin about 2/3 full with meat and juice
• Cover meat with top crust. Pinch top crust to bottom crust around the rim of tin.
• Trim off the extra pie crust.
• Bake at 400 degrees until edges are slightly browned (about 20-30 minutes)
• Let it cool.
• Cover with tinfoil or put in large Ziploc bag
• Freeze until ready to eat.
• Reheat in oven at 350 degrees F for 1 hour uncovered before eating.

I’ll try to get some pictures posted of my amazing family making touque this weekend. It is quite the production considering there are over 40 of us (Including aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents!) What are some of your family traditions? I want to hear all about them in the comments!

To E or not to E… that is the question!

I’ve always been a stickler for spelling and grammar. I worked as a copy editor for my college newspaper for two years and English has always been one of my best subjects. To all those spelling and grammar freaks who correct people on their “me and my friend” and their “my friend and I”’s, and who cringe after accidentally adding too many O’s to a “to” in a text—this post is for you!

One of the first things I noticed when I started educating myself about whisky is the difference in spellings – whisky versus whiskey.

First of all, what is it? Whisk(e)y is (according to Dictionary.com) “the general term covering bourbon, rye, Scotch and other liquors distilled from a mash of grain.” Even though the spellings have the same definition, there is one major distinguishing factor setting them apart.

• If it is made in Scotland, Wales, Canada or Japan it is spelled “whisky” (plural “whiskies”).
• If it is made in Ireland or America it is spelled “whiskey” (plural “whiskeys”).

Despite the general rule of thumb for whisky spellings, in 1968, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ruled the official spelling in America to be “whisky.”  Some distilleries wanted to stick to their traditions though and kept spelling their name with the E. That’s why when you look at the labels of American-made whiskies some have the E and some go E-less. The decision of ATF doesn’t hold as strong as tradition apparently.

Mount Royal Light is a Canadian whisky. It is originally a Seagram Company Ltd. product. Seagram’s was a company from Montreal, Quebec, Canada which (we assume) is why Mount Royal Light was named as “whisky” instead of “whiskey”.

And now for a little grammar lesson! Can you score 100%? Edit these sentences and write your answers in the comments! (Hint: 3 errors in #1, 2 errors in #2, 2 errors in #3)

1. Because their is 1/3-less alcohol in Mount Royal Light, bartenders will not loose there head as easily.
2. Remember when you’re friend drank that “other whisky” instead of Mount Royal Light and had to lay down?
3. I prefer to drink Mount Royal Light whisky rather then that beer I could of bought.

*Thank you to www.whiskydistilled.com for information contributing to this post.

To E or Not to E?