Christmas Duck l'Orange

As told to me by my Dad:

Pork/Duck L’Orange

You want a cup of orange juice concentrate. That’s real orange juice of course from the oranges. You don’t want a juice that is in a bottle unless it’s genuine orange juice with the pulp and everything in it.

¼ cup of red wine

2 tbsp lemon juice. You can also substitute lime juice if you want, it might be a little better for duck, give it a shot.

1 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp ginger

½ to 1 tsp curry powder

3 garlic cloves, very fine chopped

½ tsp dry mustard

½ tsp basil

Sprinkle duck with pepper to taste, but first of all rub it a little bit with a couple teaspoons of season salt, whatever you want to use, again to taste.

Now with pork, of course, pork chops, a pork roast really, you plug in about 12 whole cloves on the top of the roast. I don’t know what that would be like with duck. I guess it would be fine actually, I’ll leave that up to you to poke the breasts with cloves.

And then follow whatever the cooking instructions are for duck. I’ve never made it, you’d have to have it well done of course. With a pork roast just stick it in a pot with your foil there at 250 degrees in the oven for 4 hours, and there you go.

(Duck cooked well at 450 F in a roaster covered in foil and then the lid (keeps moisture in). Flip the duck after 45 minutes, cook for another 45 minutes. Fanny Farmer says that a meat thermometer in the thigh should go above 180 F.)

Easy perogie casserole

This recipe would give 4 to 5 single servings - adjust quantity and cook time based on how many people you need to feed. Leftovers will freeze well.

In an oven-safe crock or casserole dish, mix the following:
1 small bag perogies
1 medium can crushed tomatoes
1 large can sliced black olives (drained)
1/4 cup no alcohol red wine
1 chopped onion (not red onion)
1 each chopped red, yellow, orange pepper
6 large mushrooms, quartered
Mix well.
Cover with a layer of sliced cheddar cheese (do not use processed cheese!)

Bake covered at 400 F for about an hour. If you are cooking more food, decrease temperature to about 375 F and leave it in the oven until it smells really good and is turning a nice dark brown around the edges.

Jen's wicked crock pot chicken

*Note: This recipe needs to be started around 6 a.m. to be ready for awesomeness by supper time.

You will need:

1 chicken that actually fits into your crock pot. Check it to make sure its innards aren't inside, and cut off the ginormous gobs of disgusting fat often found around either opening into its body cavity. This is not heart attack chicken. Line the bottom of the crock with about 12 ounces of water and turn crock on low.

Stuff inside of chicken  with a Very Large Carrot. I've never seen carrots this big before. In fact, I think it's probably equivalent to 3 normally large carrots. And the reason for putting them inside the chicken is because there probably isn't room outside the chicken.

Put the chicken in the crock. Squish it in. You might have lots of room or you might have not much at all, depends on the crock and the chicken. Today I had hardly any room at all.

In a teacup, prepare the spice mix: 3/4 tsp dry mustard, 1 tsp Lawry's season salt, 1/8 tsp garlic powder, about 1/4 tsp fresh ground 3 colour pepper. Mix it together to break up the dry mustard lumps and sprinkle evenly over the chicken.

Add 1 onion (not red) cut into 6 equal pieces. Just wedge it in around the chicken wherever it fits. Then fill the remaining available spaces with cut potatoes. Top up the crock with more water, gently rinsing the spice from on top of the chicken into the crock. Leave an inch of room between the water and the top of the crock. Somehow this space always fills with more liquid, I've no idea how or why.

Turn the crock onto low. Chicken et al should be ready by 6 pm.

To make the gravy, remove chicken and veggies from crock. This may be difficult as meat will be falling off the bones it will be so tender.

Taste the broth and make any necessary adjustments with regard to salt. In a teacup mix 1 tbsp flour with water. You probably want 1 tbsp flour for every 16 ounces of broth and enough water to dissolve it into a paste with a whisk. Make sure all lumps of flour are completely dissolved before adding flour-water mix to the gravy!

Turn the crock pot onto high and whisk the flour-water mix into the stock. Mix it well. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so and whisk again. Keep checking it about every 10 minutes and whisk it well. Continue until it has thickened sufficiently, remembering that it will be considerably thicker after chilling in the fridge overnight.

This dish is particularly good with a large variety of vegetables - if you have a large crock and can fit more root vegetables in to cook with the chicken that is best. Otherwise, steamed veggies are also a lovely accompaniment.