This weekend I hope everyone has a chance to celebrate friends and family with some good food!  I’m feeling rather nostalgic this time of year and I am thankful for so many things right now that I won’t even begin to try to list them all here.  I will say that I am very grateful for what I consider to be a super successful first year of farming and the tremendous support I received from friends and family.  I feel surrounded by warmth and love and a feeling of renewed connection to this place in BC I now call home- (although I miss my family back in Ontario very much!)

I just got off the phone with my mother, asking her for permission to post one of my families most favorite Thanksgiving recipes.  She agreed and listed to me her approximate measurements (she never actually uses measuring cups or spoons) to make the yummiest version of stuffing you’ll ever have- or at least I think so!

My mother as as child with Nanny.

My mom’s mom, my grandmother, (aka Nanny) who left us with a strong sense of pride and resilience had roots connecting her to Ireland, but was very much influenced by French-Canadian culture also (a good combination of potatoes and spices).  I just learned that although she grew everything under the sun, she actually never grew potatoes!  I don’t know why I find this ironic.  I guess it is because I have started on a new pathway in life, farming, by growing potatoes, which was very much inspired in part by my mother’s stories of my Nanny’s green thumb.  Anyway, it doesn’t mean that potatoes weren’t a staple in their house growing up.  My mother says that Nanny used to buy big 20 lb bags of what were called “table potatoes”- most likely russets.  Good for mashing and baking.

Four generations (I'm the little one on the left).

Thanksgiving called for turkey and stuffing as I grew up and it is a tradition I hope to carry on.  This stuffing recipe can be made vegetarian as well.  Enjoy.

Nanny’s Fabulous Stuffing

  • 6 large mashing potatoes (mashed with lots of butter, milk, salt and pepper until fluffy)
  • 1 loaf of bread thinly sliced, dried out until crusty and then broken into very small pieces (not too crummy though!)
  • 1 small onion, finely chopped
  • 2-4 tbsp savoury
  • salt and lots of pepper
  • 1/2 tsp celery salt
  • 1 tsp dried of each oregano, basil, sage & parsley or the equivalent measurement in fresh herbs

With your hands, mix all the ingredients well until they form a big ball of moist stuffing.  This can be put into the turkey before it goes in the oven or pressed into a well oiled bread pan.  Cook the vegetarian pan version at 325 to 350 degrees farenheit for approximately one hour or until the stuffing has fluffed up a bit and there is a browned crust on top.  This stuffing goes extremely well with cranberry sauce!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving
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