Holiday Meals

ROSH HASHANAH

So a few weeks ago was the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. To celebrate, Tanya and I decided to make a traditional Jewish meal which consisted of really yummy foods each having their own meaning, but the theme for Jewish New Year is that of eating sweet foods to bring forth a sweet year. The above photo shows our dinner consisting of fishballs cooked in a tomato sauce, chickpeas cooked with leeks and onions, and carrot tzimmes which is a sweet carrot dish with apples and cinnamon. Oh, and of course the red wine!!! =)

THANKSGIVING

There we were, Tanya and I, in Save-On Foods a week and a half ago, attempting to buy some fish for our dinner when we passed by all the produce on sale for Thanksgiving. Yams, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, carrots, celery, cranberries, etc. The light shone in our heads and we decided to see how much Turkeys were. A far cry from fish, but we had never made a Thanksgiving meal together and decided to see what we could do. In the end, we bought a 5kg fresh turkey (and saved $10 with a coupon!!), yams, brussel sprouts, cranberries, carrots, mushrooms, stove-top stuffing, onions, celery, and marshmallows.

We stuffed our turkey very simply. Mushrooms, celery, onions. Put it in the oven at 450 F for 25 minutes to brown the skin and then lowered to 325 for 2.5 hours breast side down. This ensures the breasts cook in the turkey juices staying moist and juicy!! We cooked some yams and candied them in the oven with the marshmallows, steamed the brussel sprouts, made home-made cranberry sauce with the cranberries, and tried out Stove-Top rice stuffing. Then once the turkey was done, we saved the juices and made a very lean gravy by straining out the oil/fat. Tanya and I celebrated our first ever Thanksgiving together as husband and wife with a huge week-before-thanksgiving feast!!! =) Our leftovers? Turkey barley soup and turkey sandwiches. Yummy!!!!!