Tourtière...A Little Piece of Comfort.

Just about everyone has certain favourite comfort foods that they love. Something that reminds them of the simplicity of being a child, when your mom would spend the evening in the kitchen cooking and you would sit around anxiously waiting for her to yell "dinner's ready!". Filled with excitement you would run full tilt down the stairs in hopes of being the first one at the table and thus eligible to choose the most delicious morsels.

As someone who has a healthy obsession with food, I probably have a much longer list of favourites then the average person. But I maintain that each and every one of them gives me a different level of comfort wrapped up in warm memories. Take for example, my Mums tortière...

This is definitely on my top 5 list of "Things My Mother Makes That I Love". I think part of what makes this dish so special, aside from the fact that it is delicious, is that she only makes it once a year right around Christmas time. Whenever I dig into a piece of tortière it brings with it the memories of past time spent with friends, family and good food wrapped up in a tasty package of meat and potatoes.

A couple weeks ago, busy and lacking proper sleep, I was plagued with a craving for a piece. After some wheedling my Mom eventually agreed to give me the recipe (even though we're only supposed to have it once a year). A couple days later Cory and I sat down to enjoy my first go at making my Mum's tortière and it was exactly what I had needed. A little taste of comfort.

Mum's Tourtière
Serves 6

• 1 pound minced pork
• 1/4 cup chopped onion (we like to add more than this since we love onions so much)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic salt
• 1/2 tsp sage
• dash pepper
• 1/4 cup boiling water
• 1 cup mashed potatoes (we also like to up the amount of potatoes)
  
• Pastry for 2 crust 9-inch pie

Combine pork, onion, seasonings and water. Simmer uncovered, stirring ocasionally, until meat is cooked (about 25 minutes). Let cool and skim the fat off. Stir in the potatoes.

Line a pie plate with half of the pastry. Pour the pork mixture into it. Cover with the second pastry and seal the edges. Cut steam vents into the pastry.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking for approx. 30 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

Enjoy.

Graveyard Cupcakes

I know that most people have already put Halloween behind them and are already well on their way to Christmas. But I like to remember the spookier side of the year for a little while longer and I didn't get a chance to post this until now.

Halloween is my all time FAVOURITE time of year. I jumped at the chance to throw a party this year complete with spooky food. I had another huge camera fail and didn't take pics of everything. But, I did manage to get some shots of these graveyard cupcakes that are just *ahem* to die for.

The grave stones are lady fingers that I , along with Cory's help, wrote on with melted semi-sweet chocolate. The bones, sadly, are not edible. I bought some decorative skeletons from the dollar store, cleaned them then cut them up into little bits.

For the cupcakes I made a rich, extra moist chocolate batter and baked them in square muffin tins. I was running a little short on time, so I did something I don't normally do and used *gasp* a boxed cake mix. I know, I know it is something I almost steadfastly stay away from. But when faced with little time and a lot of food to make, with a little bit of adjustments, boxed works just fine.

Graveyard Cupcakes

• 1 chocolate cake recipe (be it homemade or boxed)
• 12 ladyfingers cut in half (to equal 24 gravestones)
• handful of semi sweet chocolate chips
• green icing sugar
• tooth picks
• Small plastic skeletons (or if you can make edible bones go for it!)
  

Prepare cake recipe. (For the boxed recipe I left out some of the liquid it asked for and replaced it with a splash of vanilla extract and some brewed espresso. The coffee really helps bring out the chocolaty flavour without you actually being able to taste it.)

Pour batter into square cupcake pan and bake 15-20 minutes. Remove to a wire rack and cool.

Meanwhile, prepare the grave stones. Cut the lady fingers in half (1 lady finger = 2 gravestones). Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave. Using a toothpick scoop up a small amount of chocolate and write RIP on the lady finger gravestones. Put aside and let chocolate set.

Once the cupcakes are cooled spread the green icing on top. Take a gravestone and spread a bit of melted chocolate on the bottom (you can skip this part if you want I just found that it helped it to adhere to the cupcake). Slide a tooth pick into the grave stone about halfway in. If desired use a toothpick to create some wisps of grass on the bottom front of the gravestone. Place gravestone on top of cupcake making sure to leave enough space in front to place skeleton bones. Repeat with remaining cupcakes.

Take your skeletons and wash thoroughly to make sure they are clean. Using scissors cut the skeleton into bits so you have various amounts of legs, arms, skulls, ribcages etc. Place on top of cupcakes pressing down slightly or inserting parts into the cupcake to make sure they don't fall off.

Place on a spooky platter and enjoy!!