Happy Thanksgiving!

I’m just putting the finishing touches on Thanksgiving Dinner. I’ve made 2 sets – one for Scott and I and one for my folks, which I’ll drop off shortly.

Here’s this year’s menu:

Sweet Corn Soup

Roast Turkey with Honey & Rosemary Glaze (you’ll notice my lovely NorPro Turkey Timer in the picture above – it’s my new favourite kitchen tool!)

(Scott & I will also be having Dorie Greenspan’s Honey-Glazed Duck Breasts tonight and then turkey tomorrow)

Ruby Eats Cranberry Sauce

Traditional Stuffing

Red Beans & Rice (I can’t not have something Southern in there!)

Roasted Butternut Squash

Spinach, Kale & Onion Toss

All the Best Pumpkin Tarts (made from their Pumpkin Pie recipe)

Homemade Pumpkin Chocolate Cupcakes

Nanaimo Bars from Ruby Eats

I am so very thankful to you and everyone in my life. I hope that this holiday brings you peace, love and fantastic food whether that’s a grilled cheese sandwich in front of the TV or a home-cooked meal shared with family and friends.

Chef Lynn Crawford Dishes on Thanskgiving at Ruby Eats

It’s Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and Chef Lynn Crawford has a lot to be thankful for.

Having just shot close to 40 episodes of Pitchin’ In and finished the accompanying cookbook that will be out in January, her schedule is tight. But that hasn’t stopped her from running her insanely successful restaurant Ruby Watchco and opening her new food shop just doors away from the restaurant, Ruby Eats, where we sit at the front counter this morning to talk  Thanksgiving dishes and ingredients.

I have never met Lynn before today, but I am astonished by her energy. She has been on both coasts doing events and television shows and doing the restaurant and the book and the shop – and yet, when she sees a woman picking up a celery root with a long stalk of greens shooting out of it, she leaps outta her chair and goes to talk to the woman about it, giving her hints on how to use it. It’s just another 10 minutes before she’s up again to go help someone pick produce from the lovely baskets around the shop.

It is clear that this store, “an extension of Ruby Watchco,” is not just a chef’s pantry of local ingredients, books and prepared foods (all made in the Ruby Watchco kitchen just a few doors west), but her way of extending her joy and passion for food.

Here at the store, not only can you pick up local produce and cheese, but cooking tools and cookbooks. Sit and have a coffee. Nibble on a homemade nanaimo bar.

This morning there was a frenzy about the biscuits. Made fresh every morning with 10-year-old cheddar from the Ottawa Valley, handmade buttermilk, fresh chives and other herbs, they are the same biscuits made and served at the restaurant. And they are the same biscuits that have a devoted following – some of whom came close to bribing the staff about getting them (they are first come, first serve – no exceptions).

Decked out with pumpkins and hay stacks, I ask Lynn about her Thanksgiving meals growing up:

“My Father was in charge of the turkey and stuffing. Often when I’m going to a celebration of Thanksgiving and Christmas, I am asked to bring mashed potatoes. That’s it.”

Lynn worked the holidays for years while the Executive Chef at  The Four Seasons (Toronto, New York), so it’s only been these past couple that she’s had it off:

“That’s when chefs work. That’s what we do,” she says with not a trace of sadness.

Lynn’s passion about food is infectious. I bring up the topic of turkey alternatives (how do Americans do the two turkeys so close together, I’ll never know) and she starts building dishes right there in front of me. There is no actual ingredients in her hands, but the way she’s talking about it and caught up in it, there might as well be:

- Duck wrapped in smoked bacon with cranberry sauce

- Slow-roasted pork with an apple cider glaze.

- Scallops served with a carrot-ginger puree and pear chutney (she’s just been on both the west and east coasts and is enamored with scallops at the moment)

- Pumpkin-mushroom risotto with Niagara gold cheese

- Crisp veal paillard with sage and brown butter gnocchi

- Squab or quail with a shellac of pumpkin honey, topped with toasted pumpkin seeds

It goes on and on. Slow-roasted grapes, endives and chanterelles. Butternut squash, mushroom, leek and kale bread pudding. Celery root bisque…

I think I may have drooled on her chef clogs.

Thanks to Chef Lynn Crawford, my staid menu for Thanksgiving has suddenly been infused with excitement. As have I.

She is excited about this time of year:

“The celebration of the harvest and fall. It is such a magical season. The bounty. The smells and tastes – spices, apples, pumpkins, roast flavours. It’s a comforting season filled with warmth.”

And of course showcasing local wine and food producers is at the center of all of this. Her store and way of cooking is a testament to that, but also in the wines she likes:

“Inniskillin is one of my favourites. It’s a premier brand with such a huge reputation of great quality and taste. I always go to the Icewine.“

So if you suddenly need ingredients – or inspiration – head on over to Ruby Eats. And come on down on Saturday, October 22 when the restaurant and store will have their doors open for Take a Walk on Riverside.

Back on the Line

So after a summer of no cooking (and eating meals like the sandwich above),  I am thrilled to be back on the line.

That is, in my own kitchen.

Last week I made Southern meatloaf (pictured below before going in the oven) with greens and potatoes and tonight it’s veal chops with stuffed zucchini.

I’m back. And man does it feel good.

Watch for upcoming posts on the opening of Davos Restaurant on the Danforth, Sip & Savour Ontario’s Media Preview Event at Longo’s, my interview with Chef Lynn Crawford on how to create the perfect Thanksgiving Meal next weekend and much, much more.

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