Green Options

Okay, so here in Canada, Thanksgiving has come and gone. Our fall feast comes before Halloween, which means most of the turkey leftovers have disappeared. There is one big advantage to having Canadian Thanksgiving before the American holiday. If for whatever reason we miss getting together with our family or friends, we simply catch up a few weeks later, choosing to give thanks to the earth again in November as our neighbours to the south do. For some reason, this happens almost every year.

At our house, belated Thanksgiving wouldn’t be the same without Aunty Andy and her homemade Maple Apple Sauce. The original recipe was from Canada’s very own Chatelaine magazine. Auntie has adapted it over the years, whipping it into its current perfection. Serve it with a little ice cream or granola and you’ve got yourself the perfect Thanksgiving dessert, breakfast, or post turkey snack.  Print this recipe and keep it close to the stuffing one you always look for.

It’s fall. The telltale signs have been arriving for a couple weeks now — pumpkins among the watermelons at the farmers market; the winter squashes alongside the zucchini; dwindling tomatoes; arrival of cole crops for a brief second season of greens, mostly kale and chard and heartier greens. Summer’s berries are gone, peaches are fading and the first of the apples and pears arrived.

With the temperature dropping outdoors and a crisp chill in the air, I am contemplating fall soups and a few other seasonal favorites like homemade applesauce.