{"id":17127,"date":"2019-11-27T16:03:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T21:03:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=17127"},"modified":"2019-11-27T16:27:20","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T21:27:20","slug":"heavenly-holidays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/heavenly-holidays\/","title":{"rendered":"Heavenly Holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"border: none; width: 100%; height: 450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&amp;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&amp;d=dec19_flipbook_for_web&amp;hideIssuuLogo=true&amp;pageNumber=14&amp;u=portlandmagazine\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h1 class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">Get ready for<em> <b>le Temps des F\u00eates.<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n<p class=\"p1\">December 2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><em><span class=\"s1\">By Rhea C\u00f4t\u00e9 Robbins<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><b>Beyond the Pork Pie:<\/b> \u201cMom used to make us <strong>tire sur la neige<\/strong>\u2014maple taffy made with snow. It was a wonderful part of winter and holidays.\u201d\u2014<\/span>Priscilla Morin, Sanford.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-17158\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Hungry-Eye-300x210.jpg\" alt=\"DEC19 Hungry Eye\" width=\"300\" height=\"210\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Hungry-Eye-300x210.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Hungry-Eye.jpg 500w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/DEC19-Hungry-Eye-200x140.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>T<\/span><span class=\"s1\">raditional Franco-American Christmas celebrations never lack delicious food. It\u2019s time to bring out the china, polish the silver, and set the table\u2014<strong>R\u00e9veillon<\/strong> is nearly here.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Celebrated on Christmas Eve and New Year\u2019s Eve, the starring role of <em>R\u00e9veillon<\/em> is the <em><strong>tourti\u00e8re<\/strong><\/em>. Recipes for <i>tourti\u00e8re<\/i> vary between families and their geographical backgrounds. Some say the pie\u2019s name comes from its baking dish\u2014<em>tourti\u00e8re<\/em>. <em>A Little Canadian Cookbook<\/em> suggests the pies were once filled with <em>tourtes<\/em>\u2014passenger pigeons\u2014now extinct. Today, they\u2019re usually stuffed with ground pork or beef. Vegetarians versions are out there, too. Some cooks may take extra pains to adjust the texture, such as finely grinding the roast. Mashed potatoes, onions, and the chef\u2019s choice of spices round out the recipe. Whatever the fillings, they\u2019re all baked into a flaky double crust. Some serve the <em>tourti\u00e8re<\/em> with green ketchup.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\">\u201cMy Grandmother would never dream of a Christmas dinner without<b> scalloped potatoes<\/b> and pork pie.\u201d<\/span>\u2014Hallie Powers, Harpswell<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p class=\"p5\"><span class=\"s1\">T<\/span><span class=\"s1\">he sweet delicacy of the <em>R\u00e9veillon<\/em> is the <em><strong>B\u00fbche de No\u00ebl<\/strong><\/em>, or Yule Log. Once upon a time, in Europe\u2019s Iron Age, a burnt log offering was given in recognition of the end of the winter. The onset of Christianity supported baking a cake instead to mark Christmas. The cake is a chocolate roll with cream filling coated with chocolate frosting and decorations like marzipan mushrooms, leaves, and stems to resemble the Yule Log of yore. <\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p3\"><span class=\"s1\">Christmas Day feasting begins with breakfast, which is often leftover <em>tourti\u00e8re <\/em>topped with a fried egg. After opening the presents it\u2019s time to whip out the eggnog\u2014homemade with real cream and eggs (and a splash of rum for the adults). Christmas dinner centers around the decorated table with fine foods prepared from traditional recipes: turkey with dressing, capon or ham, riced potatoes, green beans, squash, peas, and homemade English muffin bread. Take your pick of dessert pies: chocolate cream, lemon meringue, pumpkin, apple, raspberry, and mincemeat. Classic Christmas cookies are decorated with frosting and colored sugar. Christmas candies, homemade, are temptingly near everyone\u2019s reach. But a Franco-American Christmas without <i>tourti\u00e8re<\/i> is impossible.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> \u201cTourti\u00e8res were made by both sides of my family. We\u2019d get home from midnight mass and Mom would already have a meat pie ready for the oven. I didn\u2019t really like the taste of it, so I covered my slice with ketchup.\u201d\u2014Janice Hill, Brunswick<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"> \u201cMy French-Canadian side hasn\u2019t passed down much from their heritage. My grandmother was a young bride when she came to America from Saskatchewan, and my grandfather didn\u2019t approve of her heritage. She wasn\u2019t even allowed to speak French in front of their children.<b> <\/b><\/span><span class=\"s2\"><b>Perhaps I\u2019ll adopt some new traditions!<\/b><\/span><span class=\"s1\"><b>\u201d <\/b>\u2014<\/span>Carlene Varney Iverson, Topsham<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Savoring memories in<br \/>\nthe 21st century.<br \/>\nBy Rhea C\u00f4t\u00e9 Robbins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,315],"tags":[597,583,594,127,596,595],"class_list":["post-17127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-hungry-eye","tag-buche-de-noel","tag-christie-consulting-services","tag-christmas","tag-maine","tag-reveillon","tag-tourtiere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17127"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17226,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17127\/revisions\/17226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}