Cooking for Christmas eve

I have a weakness for books in general, and these days there is always at least one cookbook on my wish list. I manage to resist purchasing the books most of the time. Since seeing "Julie and Julia" I keep noticing Julia Child's books in the store, but I haven't bought them. (Uhm.....yet?)  But from time to time I do get "conquered".

This summer I kept looking at "A Taste of Canada" in my local bookstore. Each time I walked into that particular section of the store, it was sitting there, placed with the front facing out (rather than the spine, the art of  merchandising ...) and it seemed as if it said: "pick me, pick, me!" I then had to look one more time, secretly hoping to find a defect that would let me decide I really didn't want it. Eventually I realised there was no defect, and bought the book.

I didn't use to like to cook very much before. I spent a decade with tiny impractical apartment kitchens. My first place had a real life enamel slop sink in the kitchen, and no actual counter!  When we moved to a place with a more practical (if very ugly) kitchen, there was still the long and intense workdays that killed any motivation to go beyond the "ready in 20 minutes or less" options. 

Work and life are in better balance these days, and now I have time and motivation to try some other recipes. I still look for meals that can be ready relatively quickly on weekdays, but I do try a lot of new recipes now, even during the week.

Of course I had to do some of the holiday cooking from my new acquisition. I wanted to be semi-traditional on Christmas eve, and incorporate winter vegetables, while at the same time give it a "new" twist.  The result was tourtiere turnovers and a rutabaga casserole.

A nice Jackson-Triggs Merlot to accompany the food.

The casserole consists primarily of mashed rutabaga with a few carrots and four pears, seasoned with ground ginger and then baked with a lemon parsley breadcrumb crust. The usually bitter-ish taste of the rutabaga (bane of most small children) is nicely balanced with the other flavours without disappearing. The turnovers are made with puff pastry and traditional tourtiere filling, and served with cranberry sauce for those who want it.

I decided to leave desert to the local catering and pastry shop, Sucre-Sale. I ordered a log there last year as well, and they do a fantastic job.

You almost feel guilty cutting it!

As far as Christmas day is concerned......I am going to cook an elk tenderloin.  We'll see how that turns out. Stay tuned...........