My pie crust turned out perfect! It was light, crispy, and flaky, and the whole tourtière was very tasty. I know I’m tooting my own horn here, but I’m so happy that I managed to do it myself.

Part of the fun in cooking is also the giving. I brought a pie down to a friend, and he was ecstatic.

Also notice the huge rolling pin I received as a gift from my in-laws. It’s a bit hard to judge the size in the picture, but it works like a charm. I swear, I’ll never go back to a regular-sized rolling pin again.

Traditions are especially important during the holiday season in my French-Canadian family, but not having relatives close by or children of my own, I needed to find a way to connect with my heritage this season. So, I decided to make tourtières.

People, including French-Canadians, have different ideas of what a tourtière is. Is it the kind that looks like a pie filled with ground meat? Or does it have potatoes, carrots, and meat covered with a thick crust?

The answer to those questions depends on where you’re from. If you’re of the  Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region in Québec, the former is a pâté à viande and the latter a tourtière. Everywhere else in French Canada, as far as I know, a tourtière is a meatpie, with nothing but ground meat (usually beef, pork and/or veal), onions, salt and pepper, and maybe a couple of herbs. These are the meatpies I made yesterday. Here in the North, however, many substitute the beef for caribou or moose meat. I’m anxiously waiting for a friend of mine to drop off some moose meat.

I’ve only made tourtières a couple of times before, and each time I had the help of a seasoned cook. This time I was on my own. Of course I had to make the necessary phone calls to my mother and grandma to make sure I had things right.

Judging by fluffiness and flakiness of the small pastries* made with the leftover dough, I succeeded with my pie crusts; actually, I think it’s the best crust I’ve made yet. The meat mixture was also quite tasty, so I’m guessing that my tourtières will turn out to be good, but only at dinnertime tonight will I know for sure.

*When I’m done with pie crust pastry, I roll out the leftover dough, brush on some butter, and spread brown sugar, (you can add cinnamon and nuts if you like.) then roll it up, cut it up, and bake it. Nothing is wasted!

The drive to Skagway is quite spectacular to say the least. It’s easy to bring visiting family and friends for a pleasant day trip, as it only takes two hours to drive there. Yesterday was a perfect autumn day for it, and only one cruiseship was docked, which meant no fighting for sidewalk space.

One of the popular landmarks in Skagway is the Red Onion Saloon, a bordello turned eatery. The place has much flavour of the goldrush days: ladies are dressed in corsets and wear bright red lipstick.

Since I was bringing a visitor for the touristy stuff Skagway has to offer, and trust me, there is much of that, I decided to take her for lunch at the famed red velvet curtained establishment. I wouldn’t say the food and service is outstanding, but it is good, and the prices are very reasonable.

However, when I received my bill at the end of the meal, this is what I got:

I couldn’t believe my eyes, and I was downright insulted. Not only did she write down a tip without even implying that it was just a suggestion, but she was trying for about 20% in tips. This was insulting not because of the level of service or the quality of food, but because of her presumption.

We called her over to the table and first asked if we were expected to pay the $39.00 or if it was just a suggested tip. She said it was a suggestion.

I then mentioned to her that I am from Whitehorse (most of their business is from cruiseship passengers) and have been at the Red Onion on a number of occasions, and I have never ever seen a server do this. Was this something new? She replied that “we get people here from all around the world, and sometimes people don’t know how to tip, so this is just to help them.” She’s helping herself more than anything else in my opinion.

We reassured her that the food and the service were very good, but that the norm for tipping is 15%, not 20%, and that we felt that she was being very forward by indicating a 20% tip on the tab for herself.

In the end, I did leave her a good tip (a little more than 15% but not the requested amount). She eventually came by the table to collect payment and apologized, which I was pleased about, but I have to wonder if “Madam Jan” doesn’t have something going with ‘ol Soapy Smith, the most famed con artist in Skagway’s history. Maybe his ghost resides in the old Red Onion Saloon.

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To leave you with a more pleasant impression of our drive, here are a few photos taken in and around Carcross, Yukon, the halfway point:

For a scrumptilicious fantasmagorical warm beet salad, get fresh ingredients from your local market (I can’t say enough about the Fireweed Community Market), and toss ‘em all together. You never know what you’ll end up with. In my case, I ended up with this wonderful spur of the moment recipe.

1. Boil red and white beets
2. Boil (or steam) carrots
3. Meanwhile, melt butter in pan.
4. Sauté:
   • green onions
   • dill weed
   • sliced mushrooms
   • sliced collard greens
   • sliced beet greens
5. Add to mix:
   • sunflower seeds
   • dried cranberries
   • 2 tsp. lemon juice mixed with zest
6. When carrots and beets are cooked, slice and add to salad mix
7. Toss salad with salt and pepper to taste

I had never tried collard greens before, and I didn’t know you could eat beet greens. Apparently turnip greens are also edible. Who knew!

Oh, and I purchased a beautiful original painting ink work from Stace Pshyk.

After reading Croque-Camille’s post about Chicken Pot Pie, the light went on. Literally. There’s nothing more frustrating than reading a new recipe and encountering all kinds of food-related terminology that baffles you. It’s a sure way for the cookbook to collect dust on my shelf. At least CC explains them: CLEARLY.

A while back, I was looking at a Marchand de vin sauce and was baffled by the term mirepoix. I didn’t know what it meant at the time, but later found out that it’s the same thing my grandma, my mom, and I always did to prepare a stock, soup, or stew. It’s your basic aromatics of celery, onion, & carrot used for a base, except that’s what WE always called it: la base. The same goes with a lot of specialized food terms used by chefs. Many of the terms, I’ve realized, refer to methods that my grandma always used in the kitchen and with which I am familiar.

There are many other food-related terms, that over time I learned was terminology used by professional chefs or wanna-bes. But I also find it amusing how, when people want to sound sophisticated, they really, really like French words. And then, even I have a hard time pronouncing French terms the English way (like hors d’oeuvres), but that’s for another post.

Now I think I’ll go and prepare brochettes au saumon as an hors d’oeuvres before serving Duck à l’orange for dinner. I thinkCrème brûlée would be perfect for dessert.

Boy, do I need a good pastis as an apéritif before I get started.

For the last week, I’ve been trying to find creative ways to get rid of foodstuff before it’s too late. “Never buy groceries on an empty stomach, my mother always warned me. I usually try to heed her advice, but for my last trip to the store, I must of had a brain fart, so I ended up with almost every fruit and vegetable under the sun.

Trying to get rid of way too many kiwifruit resulted in a tasty sauce that’s delicious over vanilla ice cream. Something has to balance out all those fruits and vegetables! Here’s what I did:

• peel the kiwifruit – use a teaspoon and scoop the fruit out (I had about 10)
• put in a food processor
• add 1 cup white sugar
• add 2 teaspoons of lemon or lime juice mixed with zest (adds a nice tang to the syrup/sauce)
• simmer for about an hour

I poured the sauce into an empty bottle and keep it in the refrigerator. Deeee-lish!

The number of power outages in the Yukon boggles the mind. If nothing else, they certainly make us aware of how much we rely on electricity. I had just finished pouring the batter on top of berries for an upside-down cake when we experienced a black-out in my area. Since I had just bragged on Kara’s blog, the banana bread baking goddess, about having baked a banana bread in a barbecue once, I decided I’d try it again with this cake:

Barbecued Cake

Heat the BBQ on high for a few minutes. Then turn one side off, and reduce the other setting to medium. Place cake on upper level opposite the side that’s turned on for indirect heat.

Nicely done!

Upside-Down Cake

This was supposed to be an upside-down blueberry cake, but I didn’t have enough blueberries, so I added strawberries to make up the rest. The cake was delicious.

Scrabble & Cake

We played a game of Scrabble (I won – yeah!), ate some cake, and the power returned. Here’s the recipe for anyone interested. It’s from a eighty-something woman I knew many years ago:

Blueberry Upside-Down Cake (or any other berry)

1. Melt 1/4 cup of the butter in 9″x9″x2″ pan.
2. Sprinkle with brown sugar.
3. Mix berries with lemon rind; put in pan, distributing evenly.
4. Cream rest of butter (1/2 cup) with granulated sugar, and beat until light. Add egg and beat well.
5. Sift dry ingredients together.
6. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk to butter/sugar mixture, beating until smooth.
7. Spread on top of berries.
8. Bake in 375° oven for 30 minutes. (I do the toothpick check.)
9. Let stand 10 minutes, then turn out onto plate.

P.S. You can use more berries.

When driving along Second Ave. on Thursday afternoons, you can always spot the peaks of white tents in Shipyards Park. This is where locals set up their wares at the Fireweed Community Market. Aside from the ol’ faithfuls that are there every week, there are always little surprises tucked in here and there. I love farmers’ markets.

My friend Deb got me into going to markets when I would visit her at her cottage at Sauble Beach. Before moving to Whitehorse, I never imagined that there would be a farmer’s market, let alone any farming here. We do live north of the 60th, after all. How naive. It’s almost as bad as people down south thinking we live in igloos and travel with sled dogs in the Yukon.

At our little market, you can get elk burgers, bison burgers, freshly-squeezed orange juice, fireweed jelly, fresh vegetables, plants, and the list goes on. This past week, I indulged in two local specialty items: morel mushrooms and wild rose syrup.

The rose syrup I tried in a spinach salad with strawberries, pine nuts, green onion, and bacon (the spinach and green onion also courtesy of the market). It was a little on the sweet side, so I’ll have to adjust my dressing recipe for next time. I’ll also have to whip up a cool drink of rose syrup and gin on our next hot day, if it ever comes. That and a little drizzled on ice cream sounds like a nice afternoon with my feet up in the yard. Come on sun!

As for the morel mushrooms (which were at a really good price), I finally tried my friend’s cream of mushroom soup recipe. It was delicious! I mixed them with a couple of portabellos and button mushrooms.

For those of you who don’t know what morels are:

• look like brains fried on drugs
• usually found in areas where burns occurred the previous year
• hollow
• They’re used in French gourmet cuisine (very expensive mushroom)
• May cause poisoning symptoms for some people when consumed raw and/or with alcohol, though I’ve had them (cooked) along with a glass of wine in the past without any reaction

You can go to Wikipedia or Shroom Boom if you want more info on morels.

Aaahhhh!!! The mushroom soup soothed me, comforted me, and helped me forget the rain.

When you have something good, share it. That’s my philosophy.

Call these cinnamon buns or rolls, sticky buns, or whatever you want; they’re all the same.

So, here goes another delicious recipe that’s a hit with everyone who tastes it. The nice thing about making your own sticky buns, is you make them the way YOU like them. If you like raisins, add them. If you don’t like cinnamon, leave it out. If you’re allergic to nuts, leave those out too. Maple syrup fanatics like me can use it instead of corn syrup. You can even make these in the breadmaker; at least the mixing and kneading part.

Sticky Buns

12 Tbsp. butter (works out to almost ½ lb)
1 pkg active dry yeast (2 ¾ tsp)
¼ cup sugar
¾ tsp salt
3 egg yolks
½ cup milk
3 to 3 ½ cup flour
¾ + ¹/₃ cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp. corn syrup
¾ cup pecan halves
½ tsp cinnamon

1. Melt 6 Tbsp of the butter and let cool. Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup lukewarm water. Stir in sugar, salt, yolks, milk, 4 Tbsp. of the cooled butter and 2 ½ cups of the flour.
2. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead until dough is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes, working in enough of the remaining flour so that the dough is no longer sticky.
3. Put in a buttered bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. To test, press dough with your fingertips. If an imprint remains, the dough has doubled.
4. Butter a 9” baking pan. In a sauce pan, combine 6 Tbsp. butter, ¾ cup brown sugar and the corn syrup. Stir over low heat until smooth. Pour into prepared pan and strew ½ cup of the pecan halves on top.
5. Combine the ¹/₃ cup brown sugar with the cinnamon. Chop remaining ¼ cup pecans.
6. Punch dough down. On a lightly floured work surface, shape into an approximately 18” x 9” rectangle. Brush with the remaining 2 Tbsp. melted butter. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and cinnamon and the chopped pecans. Roll up dough starting with a long side.
7. Cut into 9 slices and put in the prepared pan. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 40 minutes.
8. Heat oven to 350°. Bake until browned and bubbly, approx. 20 -30 minutes (I check it with a toothpick). Let cool in the pan 5 minutes. Invert onto a serving plate and let stand about 30 seconds before removing pan. Cool slightly before serving.

Be sure to watch baking as sometimes the syrup bubbles over the sides and may cause a fire. I usually put an old rectangular cookie sheet underneath to catch the drippings. PLEASE BE CAREFUL!!!

Make your favourite cream cheese frosting to serve with the sticky buns:

Cream Cheese Frosting

½ pkg cream cheese
¹/₈ cup butter
1 ¼ cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla

Beat all ingredients until smooth. Store in refrigerator and slightly heat small portions to pour over heated sticky buns.

You can double these ingredients to spread over carrot cake, spice cake, or pumpkin cake. Thanks to my friend Deb in Mississauga for the frosting recipe.

Okay, so you’ve heard my raves and rants about service in Whitehorse. It’s often hit and miss. Last Friday night, Dave and I went out for a celebratory dinner. I just finished my four year long studies, and we were also celebrating six months of marriage. A nice dinner was in order. We decided to try Chief’s Steakhouse, partly on the recommendation of Michael’s Meanderings.

Like Michael, I like my steak medium, so I generally order medium-rare, as most restaurants tend to overcook steak. Well, I got what I ordered, and I didn’t send it back to the kitchen. My filet mignon was like butter melting in my mouth. When Dave began to cut into his T-bone, the meat came apart with his fork, so tender it was.

The side of vegetables was perfect. Freshly cut broccoli, cauliflower, and carrots cut into large pieces and steamed to perfection. These and the pan-fried potatoes brought me back to my mother’s cooking. Nothing better than a home-cooked meal.

The food was simply delicious, and I plan on returning to try other things on the menu. We had smoked salmon as a starter, and a wonderful merlot called NK’NIP (pronounced in-ka-meep), named after the Osoyoos Indian Band that makes it.

The service was everything I could’ve asked for, and then some. The waitress (whose husband is part owner of the restaurant) was friendly, smiled – somewhat hard to come by in Whitehorse restaurants – and made us laugh more than once. She was definitely on top of her game, and we certainly appreciated it. The restaurant was very busy also, another good sign.

Like Michael, I strongly recommend you try this restaurant if you haven’t already. And if you like it, blog about it. Good service deserves the word to be passed on. The food and service at Chief’s added to our special occasion.