A Canadian in Seattle

We were fortunate enough to celebrate Thanksgiving twice last year, in October for Canadian Thanksgiving, and again in November for the American one. We had a lot to be thankful for! I decided not to cook a whole turkey, since we weren't having anyone over, and I didn't want to be eating turkey for the rest of the year. Instead, what I made was turkey breast, -which I had no idea was enormous on it's own without the rest of it's body. I didn't take a picture of the bird before we carved it because we were so hungry by the time it was ready that I just didn't care anymore. I kept it very simple, by rubbing mayo under the skin and on top, and roasted it. (Yes, I was stressed out about it, and yes, I paced back and forth in front of the oven.) I accompanied it with candied yams, cranberry jelly from the can -because I like it, I don't care what you say, and cornbread stuffing. I wouldn't make the candied yams again in quite the same way, it was waaaay too candied, so I won't bother giving you the recipe. Roasted sweet potatoes would've been better, but hey, you live and you learn. The turkey turned out moist and savoury, so I highly recommend the mayo trick, maybe even for roast chicken. The drippings from the pan were so good, but sooo fattening because of the mayo, I just added chicken stock to the drippings to make the gravy. I didn't have any cornstarch to thicken it, so I added flour: I do not recommend this because it made it look like a coagulated mess. Just go out and buy some cornstarch!

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Cornbread Stuffing: (this makes A LOT of stuffing)

• loaf of cornbread
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups chopped onions
• 1 cup chopped celery
• 1/2 cup chopped shallots
• 4 teaspoons dried rubbed sage
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme

• 2 cups low-salt chicken broth
• 2 large eggs, beaten to blend

Preheat oven to 325°F. Cut corn bread into 3/4-inch cubes. Place corn bread cubes on baking sheet and toast until dry but not hard, about 15 minutes. Cool. Transfer to large bowl.

Butter 8x8x2-inch baking dish. Melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions, celery and shallots; sauté just until pale golden brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in sage and thyme. Add to corn bread cubes in bowl.

Stir chicken broth into stuffing. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix in eggs. Transfer to prepared dish. Bake stuffing in covered dish alongside turkey for 1 hour. Uncover stuffing and bake until top begins to crisp, about 5 minutes longer.

Instead of making turkey sandwiches, I made turkey soup! I shredded the remaining turkey breast, boiled three cups of chicken broth, added the shredded turkey to it, grated 1 cup of extra old, sharp cheddar cheese (adding gradually), added about another 2 - 3 cups of water gradually, seasoned it with salt and pepper, and added a pound of rigatoni to it and voila! Delicious turkey noodle soup! My mom used to make this so it's my comfort food. This is recipe is so simple, but it really hits the spot on a cold, winter day!