Warm bacon and brussel sprouts salad

Here is a super simple 4-ingredients warm salad recipe, perfect for cold fall and winter days as well as a beautiful side dish to any feast!



INGREDIENTS (2 people as main dish, 4 people as side dish):
- 1 lb fresh brussel sprouts
- 6 to 8 strips of thick cut bacon
- a dash of apple cider vinegar, to taste
- 1 tbsp balsamic mustard (I used Fox Hollow Farm More than a Mustard, which I bought last fall while on a trip to VT)
Note: you can find this mustard here or here, but you can also replace it with 1 tsp of Dijon mustard, 1 tsp of brown sugar, 1 grated clove of garlic and 1 tsp of quality balsamic vinegar)


RECIPE:
- chop the bacon in bite-sized segments and brown in a dry skillet over medium heat until the fat is rendered and the bacon is golden and crispy

- reserve the bacon on a paper towel and saute the halved brussel sprouts in the same skillet with the rendered bacon fat and drippings over medium heat for 3-4 minutes

- deglaze with the mustard and the apple cider vinegar then turn off the heat

- add the crispy bacon and serve warm

Leftover Thanksgiving turkey and corn chowder

It's that time of year again.

Thanksgiving has come and gone. You've already had reheated turkey twice, and you just cannot even think of having it a third and last time… Look no further, this is an awesome new way to use your Thanksgiving leftovers.

Here's how I made this delicious chowder out of my leftovers :)



INGREDIENTS (2-3 people):

- leftover turkey meat, shredded or diced
- 1/2 to 1 cup leftover gravy, but feel free to use more or less according to what you have left!
- 4 to 8 cups chicken, vegetable or turkey broth, depending on how thick you want the chowder to be (I used chicken bouillon, since that is what I had on hand)
- 1 large carrot, 1 medium onion and a few branches of celery, diced finely in a mirepoix
- kernels from 2 ears of fresh corn
- 1/4 cup AP flour
- 2 tbsp butter
- a sprig of thyme



RECIPE:
- in a deep skillet, stockpot or dutch oven, melt the butter and saute the carrot, onion and celery over medium heat until soft

- make a roux by adding the flour and cook it over low heat for a couple of minutes

- add the gravy and broth and stir over medium-low heat until thickened, then add the corn kernels and the shredded/sliced turkey meat and stir until well combined

- bring to a simmer over low heat for a few minutes, or until warmed through

- serve hot alongside a nice thick slice of grilled sourdough or buttered cornbread
- enjoy!

Pumpkin pie

Last weekend was Canadian Thanksgiving and I baked my first ever pumpkin pie for the occasion!

As a French national, pumpkin pie is a very foreign concept to me, so I had to research how to go about this. It turns out there are a gazillion recipes. Some use sweetened condensed milk, some use cream, the spice blend varies from baker to baker… I chose to use sweetened condensed milk because, well, I just LOVE the stuff! I also made it my own by adding some cloves, vanilla extract and allspice.

Here's how you can make it.



INGREDIENTS (one 9" pie)
- 1 can condensed sweetened milk
- 1 1/2 cups pumkpin puree
- 2 jumbo eggs
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/8 tsp cloves
- 1/8 allspice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- a dash of vanilla extract
- 1 single pie crust (click here for recipe)



RECIPE:
- preheat your oven at 350F
- roll out the pie crust and place it in a pie dish, trim to size, line it with parchment paper, baking weights (I used rice that I keep and reuse especially for this) and blind bake crust for 30 min 350F

Note: keep the trimmings, they may come in handy to doctor the crust back into shape if the dough shrinks during blind baking!
- when the crust has baked for 30 minutes, let it cool at room temperature while you prepare the filling. - to make the filling, mix all the remaining ingredients in a bowl and whisk until smooth

- pour into pre-baked crust, lower the oven to 320F and bake another 60 min

Note: the pie is ready when a toothpick comes out of the filling dry
- serve at room temperature with freshly whipped cream and enjoy!

Leftover Thanksgiving turkey and barley soup with stuffing dumplings

This is the ultimate leftover Thanksgiving turkey soup!

If you're like me, and cannot even THINK of having yet another reheated piece of turkey after the weekend, try this soup. It is so easy to make, and you probably have everything to make it in less than an hour.

You can pretty much make this soup with any leftovers you have. Here's what I did with mine.


INGREDIENTS (4 people):
for the dumplings (makes about 50 small pieces):
- 2 cups of cold stuffing
- 1/3 cup gravy
- 1 egg
- about 1 1/2 cups of panko breadcrumbs (you can use regular breadcrumbs, flour, semolina, cornbread, biscuits, etc... Just use something to regulate the moisture level of the dumpling batter)


for the soup:
- 8 cups chicken stock
- leftover turkey meat
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 1 onion
- 2-3 carrots
- 1 bunch of parsley (I would have normally used 2 celery branches, but only had parsley)
- 1/2 cup barley (or rice, orzo, soup pasta, angel hair, potatoes, beans...)
- salt to taste


RECIPE:
- first make the dumplings: mix the stuffing, gravy and egg until smooth, adjust the moisture level with breadcrumbs until thick (the texture of thick cookie dough is what you're after here) and let firm up in the fridge for about 20 minutes

- in the mean time chop the garlic, carrots, onion and parsley and saute in splash of olive oil over medium high heat

- add the chicken broth, bring to a boil and add the barley

- turn down the heat to medium and simmer for 25 minutes, until the barley is almost cooked through
- about 20 minutes in start shaping the dumplings: wet your hands so the dough won't stick and roll a small amount of dough into a ball

- add the dumplings and diced turkey meat in the soup and cook for another 5 minutes (or until the turkey is heated through and the dumplings rise to the surface)

- enjoy!