Carrot Soup with Ginger
Serves 4 to 5

1   medium onion, chopped
1   tablespoon (15 mL) olive oil
8   good-size fresh, local carrots, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch coins
1   medium potato, cubed
1 to 2 tablespoons (15 to 30 mL) freshly grated ginger
5 cups (1.25 L) vegetable broth, chicken broth or water
Salt and freshly ground white pepper to taste

In a soup or stock pot, sauté onion in olive oil until translucent. Do not brown. Add carrots and and potato and stir briefly. Add ginger, broth or water, and bring to boil. Turn heat down to medium-low, cover partly, and cook until vegetables are tender, 20 or 25 minutes.
Remove from heat, cool slightly and purée all or part of the soup (depending on how smooth you like it) in a blender or food processor, or with a hand-held blender.
Make ahead, if you like, and refrigerate, then reheat just before serving. Recipe doubles easily and freezes well.

Recipe courtesy of Susan at CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc.

This recipe is too good to be true for fruit and veggies so healthy. Mary Lyn Duncalfe from Casa Corazon brought it to the Kingsland Farmers’ Market Christmas party and we all loved it so much we pestered her for her recipe. So here it is . . .an amazing side for your turkey dinner.

1                Butternut squash (about 2 lbs) peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes

4               Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2″ pieces

1/4 cup  Brown Sugar

1 Tbsp     Flour

1/2 tsp    Ground Cinnamon

1/4 tsp.  Ground Nutmeg

4 Tbsp.  Unsalted butter, melted

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Heat oven to 35O degrees F. Butter a 9″ x 13″ baking dish. Toss squash and apples together. Add the sugar, flour, spices, butter, salt and pepper. Toss well to combine.  Spread evenly in the baking dish and cover. Bake for 30 minutes, then uncover and bake 15 minutes more or until squash is tender.  Trust me, this is delicious!

Barb from Jackson’s Deli is something of a turkey expert. There is not much about preparing and cooking a turkey that she doesn’t know. So I asked her to share how to cook the “perfect, moist turkey”. Here is her step-by-step plan to achieve turkey perfection.

Step 1  The most important step in ensuring that your roasted turkey turns out moist and delicious is the very first step – buy a fresh turkey. Frozen turkeys have lost some of their natural moisture in the freezing process.

Step 2  Heat the oven to 325 degrees F. Plan on approx. 20 minutes per pound to cook your roast turkey

Step 3  Take the turkey out of the packaging that it came in. Remove the neck and giblets and set them aside.

Step 4  Rinse the bird in cold water inside and out. Pat dry with a paper towel.

Step 5  Use your favorite stuffing recipe to create a stuffing your family will love and fill the turkey with it.

Step 6  Rub the turkey completely with olive oil and lightly season. Place the bird into a roasting pan.

Step 7  Put the giblets and neck into the roasting pan or boil on top of the stove so that you can use the flavourful liquid in your gravy.

Step 8 Cover the turkey with foil, and baste every hour.f the turkey needs browning, take off the foil for the last 30 minutes. The meat thermometer should read 60C when inserted into a meaty thigh area

Step 9  Allow the roast turkey to rest for 20 – 30 minutes before carving.