Holiday Entertaining

Happy New Year!

Well, my food-loving friends… the Holidays have come and gone. I was so blessed this year to spend lots of time with family & friends, which in my world also means…food events!

I’m going to share a couple of my favourite things I enjoyed over the Holidays. Consider these as some ideas for future entertaining! I know I will.

Cheese

What’s a holiday party without a cheese tray? Still a Holiday party…but a more…lame version….

Okay bad joke.

What i’m really trying to say is If you don’t have a cheese platter at your party, please don’t expect me to come….

Okay, maybe a bit harsh.

Just make a cheese tray for cripe sakes. Udder Way Artisan Cheese can help you out.

A couple weeks ago I was invited out to check out the new factory of Udder Way Artisan Cheese.

Tor Krueger, co-owner of Cheese Shoppe on Locke, opened this new venture in the old Gos and Gris factory on the Stoney Creek Mountain (380 Highway 20 East).

It’s a new space for him to make artisan cheeses (including their specialty, Snow Peak Goat Cheese Pyramids).

At Udder Way, you can expect to find a gift shop/cheese store (think compact version of Cheese Shoppe on Locke), plus a small factory where you can get local, freshly-made delicious cheese.

I picked up some Snow Peak Goat Cheese (Udder Way) and Jalapeno Cheddar (Blyth’s)- I’d recommend both! They’re at either ends of the cheese spectrum (honestly, I just made this up) which makes them ideal for creating a balanced cheese tray (true though).

Turducken

Echelon Foods was kind enough to reach out and contact me to see if I would be willing to try out their Turducken. Seriously, if there’s meat involved, you don’t even need to ask. I was finally able to check this bad boy off of my foodie bucket list.

If you’ve never heard of a Turducken – you are missing out. It’s a large-size turkey, deboned and stuffed with chicken, duck, and stuffing. Meaty, meaty goodness.

Echelon makes an Original Turducken with Chicken Apple Stuffing or Italian Sausage Stuffing, a Premium Turducken (no drumsticks or wings, just the roast) with stuffing and – get this – a Bacon Wrapped Turducken! As much as I would have loved to try the Bacon-Wrapped version, my family is not as meat-crazy as I am (boo-urns), so we went with the Original Turducken.

I ordered it online, easy peasy. It came within 3 business days…just in time for Christmas Eve! There was literally no prep on this. It just needed to be defrosted over 24 hours, then it was plopped into a roaster and was good to go.

This was the best-looking roast I have ever made. And it tasted perfect. Thanks Echelon Foods for making me look like a Food Network superstar in front of all my fam. *flips hair*

Crantini Jelly

Now, the Turducken was already beautifully flavoured (especially the stuffing), but I’m a creative lass and can’t help putting my own spin on things. SO I picked up some Wandering Locavore Crantini Jelly from my workplace, Christy’s Gourmet Gifts.

You can have the Crantini Jelly just on it’s own with crackers, but I ended up mixing it up with some olive oil and basting the Turducken with it. I mixed cranberries with root veggies and roasted them around the Turducken. It gave great additional flavour to this already mouth-watering meal.

Now that all the Holiday entertaining is over, we can move on to think about the new year – 2016!! 2015 was my best foodie year yet, and I expect 2016 to be even better!

Do you have a food goal for 2016? Perhaps to experiment with a new recipe ingredient or try a new restaurant?

Please share it in the comments below – I’d love to hear from you!