A whole lotta cooking going on

This has been a pretty cold winter, and when it isn't below zero, it's snowing.  We haven't had that much snow so far and, in fact, we had a little thaw that left us with some bare ground.  But those little snow showers can make the roads pretty "greasy" as they say here in New England.  Now we are in the middle of a cold snap, so I've been doing more cooking than usual.  I've made a bunch of bread, and last week I made a big pot of pea soup and some apple crisp.

Sunday, I made a big batch of curried sweet potato coconut soup from a holiday card I received.  It was delish, especially with some homemade bread.  Today we are having another rib-sticker - French-Canadian Pork Pie, Tourtiere.  Here's the recipe, adapted from cooks.com:

Get crust for a two-crust pie ready (either use prepared crust or make your own).

Place in heavy skillet and cook, stirring, for about 5 min.:

            1 lb. lean ground beef
            ½ lb. lean ground pork

Add to skillet:

            1 clove garlic, minced
            1 chopped onion
            1 t. salt
            ¼ t. pepper
            ¾ t. sage
            ½ t. thyme
            ¼ t. allspice or mace
            3 T. chopped fresh parsley

Cook about 20 min.

Add 1 boiled potato, mashed
Sprinkle with 2 T. flour and low salt beef boullion (if desired)
Add about ¾ c. water and stir until thick.

Pour into 9” pie shell and top with another crust.  Seal edges well and make some slits in top.

Bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 min. or until nicely browned.  Mary recommends serving a green salad with tourtiere.

This pie can be frozen before baking.  If frozen, thaw overnight in the refrig. before baking.  My former secretary Mary, who retired a little before I did, used to make them around Christmastime, and I always bought them from her.  I think she used mace instead of allspice, but my adapted recipe is pretty much the real deal.  I like it a little creamier than some tourtiere I've had, probably because the filling resembles Dutch croquettes, delicious barfood.