Tourtière du Québec (French Canadian Meat Pie)

Painting By Pauine Paquin capturing the joy of winter in Quebec

For French Canadians, this is the time of year when we prepare the Tourtière that will be eaten during the Holidays.  

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (to serve with Tarte Tatin)

Homemade vanilla ice cream with salted butter caramel sauce

Out of habit, I bought some apples at the grocery store.  The girls used to eat them every day and we went through them quickly.  Now that we are just two, they don't really get eaten.   With a few apples in the fridge that I didn't want to throw away, I decided to make tarte tatin for desert one night.

Three Takes on Tarte Tatin (with vanilla ice cream of course)

For Family

For Friends -  with ice cream on the side

Fabulous with Vanilla Marscapone Cream and
Salted Butter Caramel

Tarte Tatin is basically an upside down apple pie.  What makes it so good is that the apples cook in a salted butter caramel.  It is a fairly easy desert to make and here is a take on how to present it three ways.  The only thing is that it really should be served with a good quality vanilla ice cream (see the post on vanilla ice cream that follows to make your own).

Cauliflower, Bacon and Mushroom Gratin

Bacon and/or mushrooms are optional but make this really good

I'm not a huge fan of plain cauliflower but my mother-in-law makes a great cauliflower with cheese sauce.  It is always a hit so I started making it at home.  We now have this probably once a week at the height of cauliflower season (which is late Summer and Fall).  I was watching a British cooking show the other day (say what you will about food in England, but all their cooking shows are fantastic), and they added bacon (makes everything taste good) and mushrooms to the béchamel.  Then, they sprinkled the whole thing with breadcrumbs.  It was really good and made a great meal with a salad.  Mike says he has become a big fan of the cauliflower dish and this is also one of Kat's favorites (she hasn't had it with the bacon and mushrooms yet though).