Mom's Traditional Christmas Tourtiere

In my family it's not Christmas dinner unless there's meat pie on the table. I grew up in Northern Ontario so there was a lot of French-Canadian influence from Quebec and New Brunswick in our meals. Meat pie was definitely one of them.

This year I'm hosting Christmas for the first time EVER! We've always made the trip up to Sudbury every year but this time we asked to stay home and have people come to us instead. We also wanted our daughter to know what it's like to have Christmas at home and to wake up in her own bed. Plus, I'm kind of curious to see what London is like at Christmas.

So knowing that I'm doing Christmas I'm starting to really pin down what it is I'm going to be serving over the few days that I'll have guests staying over. Obviously, there WILL be meat pie. Thankfully it's something that can be made ahead of time and frozen to save time later.

My mom makes the best meat pie. I don't know why but everyone else's just doesn't taste right. I knew that I'd have to give her a call before I attempted to make mine. I was really disappointed though when she told me that it was nothing but pork, beef, onion and spices. That's it? Really?

Yes, that's it. But when I asked her which spices she just said 'you know,...whatever I feel like putting into it. Usually the same as what I use for my marinara sauce'. Sheesh..that wasn't really much help; typical of family recipes I suppose. I guess I was going to be winging it...

Here is what I ended up with:

• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 lb lean ground beef
• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1/4 cup beef broth
• 1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• 2 tbsp Epicure Herb & Garlic Dip Mix (dried garlic, herbs, spices, salt, sugar, chives)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

In a large pan saute the meat until browned. Drain off the excess fat and add the onions. Once the onions have softened add the remaining ingredients and simmer for a few minutes until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat and let cool. Spoon the filling into a prepared pie shell and cover with the remaining rolled dough. Pinch the edges of the crust together and poke holes onto the top with a fork. Bake in a 375F oven for 45 minutes or until the crust is a golden brown.

To serve: Top with a good drizzle of ketchup. Yes, ketchup. Like spaghetti, shepherd's pie and eggs, us French-Canadians love our ketchup! It's delicious and meat pie demands ketchup!

This pie freezes very well. We baked the smaller one right away to make sure it tasted just right (wink, wink) and placed the larger pie in a ziploc bag and tucked it away in the freezer. For Christmas I'll take it out and let it defrost a little in the fridge and then bake it in the oven. Easy, peasy!

You know what made me real proud though? I made the crust myself using Anna Olsen's recipe for pie crust in the "Back to Baking" book. Finally!! A pie crust that worked out for me! Usually I end up with chunks of butter here and there or it shrinks on me or doesn't roll out well... This one was perfect.

And you know what? I actually think my pie is better than my mom's. Can't wait to see what she thinks of it!