Preparing

Preparing
Originally uploaded by amkb

Anna:

Lately, we just haven't been taking a lot of pictures, and the ones I've been taking have been for my crafting blog. I figured it was about time. ;-)

We're slowly getting prepared for Christmas, including making tourtierre, the traditional French Canadian meat pie. Normally I use the blend of meats my MIL taught me, but not all of them were available, so this year is going to be different. Which is fine with me. I like experimenting.

I'd ordered 24 pounds of ground meats for 2 dozen pies. We ended up with a bit more than that, as the game meats come pre-packaged and frozen to the butcher, and they don't have control over the weights. I also bought a new pot, just for cooking the meats, as there is no way we could do it using the roaster like last year. We did only 12 pounds and it barely fit - stirring as it cooked was very messy. The roaster doesn't exactly fit on the element, either, and isn't long enough to fit over two. So I got this 16 quart capacity stock pot. It'll fit on one element, hold all the ingredients, and still have room for mixing.

I hope.

Tomorrow, the frozen meats should be thawed out enough for us to start cooking in the evening. Sunday, we make the dough and set up the assembly line. I've done very little baking in this oven since we've moved, but I know that one side of the element doesn't heat up properly. We'll have to make sure to work around that.

I'm really looking forward to making our pies!