Doing the side dish shuffle this Canadian Thanksgiving season

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You can have your Thanksgiving bird – but favourite side dishes always seem to shine on the holiday table.

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And this Canadian Thanksgiving promises to be epic, with the table’s bit players promising to be the stars of the banquet.

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We’re talking cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, peas, gravy and stuffing – the traditional poultry sidekick, usually made up of bread, nuts, raisins and delicious herbs.

(It should be noted that, according to the Food Network the words “stuffing” and “dressing” are used interchangeably to reference this fave side dish of the Thanksgiving table. Personally, I’d rather pass on the bird and have second helpings of all the side dishes!

You know households across the country will be stirring up family favourite holiday table recipes to to accompany the turkey, or protein of choice. That said, side dishes can vary from region to region and culture to culture, and we suspect every province and territory has its favourite dish.

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Just recently, time2play.com, a Canadian gambling site, took a deep dive into the search data of some of the most popular Thanksgiving side dishes in each province and territory – and it turns out, stuffing is the most popular side dish across the entire country, with pumpkin pie as the most popular nationwide dessert.

The research showed that almost half of the provinces (four), and over half of the territories (two) can’t seem to stuff themselves with enough stuffing!

I’m shocked to read that mashed potatoes are the least popular side dish (maybe they’re making it all wrong!), with Saskatchewan the only province that proved its love for mashed potatoes.

And…oatmeal cookies aren’t fan favourite either, except in Nunavut, where they are a big hit.

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(In all seriousness, I never really saw oatmeal cookies as a Thanksgiving treat. Maybe an after-school snack, or mid-winter Sunday afternoon read-by-the-fire treat, but what do I know?)

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That said, the cookies are well-loved in Nunavut, according to Time2Play, especially during Thanksgiving.

The beloved pumpkin pie remains a fan favourite as the second most popular side dish across Canada in three provinces – Newfoundland and Labrador, P.E.I. and Quebec.

Again, not shocking as it is a very popular dessert to have for Thanksgiving. Cranberry sauce is the most popular side dish in both Manitoba and New Brunswick.

Sensational Sardinian Stuffing

I’ve had many requests for this family favourite, so I’m running this recipe in time for the holiday season.  To be honest, I love this recipe. It reminds me of my late mother always creating delicious dishes in her kitchen. Plus it’s unique in the use of chicken livers and hot capicola deli meat. You can make it in a loaf pan, but I like to stuff my bird of choice (usually a capon or a couple of  Cornish hens) with this mixture. It sets beautifully – you can slice it like a meatloaf.

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3 Tbsp. olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

2 Tbsp. flat leaf parsley, finely chopped

2 leaves fresh basil, minced

8 chicken livers, including liver found in cavity of bird, membranes removed, coarsely chopped

20 slices hot capicola deli meat, coarsely chopped

4 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1-1/2 cups fine bread crumbs

Salt/pepper, to taste

1/2 tsp. nutmeg

In a large fry pan, heat olive oil; saute garlic and parsley until garlic is translucent. Add chicken livers and stir quickly, 3 to 5 minutes (livers should still be on pink side.) Remove from heat. Add chopped capicola and blend. Cool slightly.

Add eggs, one at a time; add milk and then bread crumbs. Season with salt and pepper and nutmeg. Mixture should be thick. Gently stuff bird; cover opening with layer of aluminium foil. When bird is done, transfer to a warm platter and keep warm,  lightly covered with foil. Gently remove stuffing whole and slice as you would a meatloaf.

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Alternatively, oil a loaf pan. Cover with parchment paper, overlapping (so you can pull out stuffing.) Oil parchment paper.  Pat stuffing into pan and bake in a preheated 350F oven for 45 minutes, or until skewer comes out clean. Remove and slice.

Old-Fashioned Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie is one of the country’s all-time favourite holiday treats. This silken pumpkin pie is wonderful served with lightly whipped cream. Although making your own pumpkin puree may take a bit longer than opening a can of pumpkin puree, the flavour is worth the effort. Recipe courtesy of Foodland Ontario (foodlandontario.ca) Serves 8.

1 9-inch frozen deep-dish pie shell

2 cups pureed pumpkin, about a 3 lb. sugar pumpkin

1/2 cup 18% cream

2 eggs, lightly beaten

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1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp. vanilla

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. each ground ginger, nutmeg and salt

To prepare pumpkin, cut into wedges and remove seeds. Place wedges including peel in a large saucepan of boiling water. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until pumpkin is very tender, about 30 minutes. Drain very well. When it is cool enough to handle, scoop out pulp. Puree in a food processor until smooth. Drain any excess liquid.

Preheat oven to  400F. Thaw pie shell for 10 minutes. Prick bottom and sides of shell with a fork every 1-inch. Bake in centre of bottom rack of oven 8 to 10 minutes. Place baked shell on a baking sheet. Reduce oven temperature to 350F.

In a large bowl, stir together pumpkin puree, cream, eggs, sugars, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and salt until combined. Pour into prepared shell. Bake on centre rack of oven until filling is set when shell is jiggled slightly (centre of filling will not be firm), about 35 minutes. Let cool completely on a cooling rack before serving.