2008 December 26 | dinner with Julie

Archive for December 26th, 2008

Day 361: BBQ Turkey Pizza and Hot Spiced Ginger Lemonade

It turns out it’s a leap year. I thought for a minute I had miscounted, having reached day 360 (!) with a week left until New Year’s Eve. I don’t know how I didn’t notice this in February, but we have an extra day this year, so 366 it is. (Of course I won’t be stopping entirely. I can’t say for sure whether I’ll continue writing every single night, if I do Mike might move out of the house or at least into another bedroom, but I will keep this going. I have 4 more days to work out the logistics! Have I told you DwJ will be in the National Post? On January 3rd! A little ironic that it will run 2 days after this project was supposed to end…)

I think I love Boxing Day even more than Christmas Day. We did a whole lot of sitting around, playing with W’s marble games and puzzles and hockey with his new net set in the hallway, chipping away at the Boxing Day crossword (Mike was the hero of the day when he came up with haberdasheries – a 14 letter word for men’s clothing stores – finally all those years of watching This is Spinal Tap was put to good use) and grazing on Cheezies (the real ones) and stocking chocolate. We did escape to the hill to try out W’s new red sled and needed warming up when we got home, but having already plowed through the Hershey’s kisses in my pocket and half a Toblerone, the thought of hot chocolate shockingly did not appeal. So we simmered up some hot spiced lemonade, which did the trick without being too reminiscent of the mulled cider we’ve had on and off the stove all week.

Hot Spiced Ginger Lemonade

Try this with orange juice instead of lemonade, or a combination of the two. To make a simple lemonade syrup, combine equal parts lemonade and sugar in a saucepan; bring to a simmer to dissolve the sugar and cool. Add to water to taste; about two tablespoons of syrup per cup of cold or hot water.

2 L lemonade (preferably not pink)
1 cinnamon stick
5 whole cloves
5 whole allspice berries
a 2″ chunk of peeled fresh ginger, coarsely grated or sliced

In a large saucepan combine the lemonade, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger and bring to a simmer; cook for about 10 minutes. Strain into a glass pitcher, insulated carafe or Thermos and serve warm. Serves 8.

Then it started getting dark and it was apparent we’d need some sort of dinner. Normally a turkey sandwich or perhaps a skilleted turkey hash with plenty of crispy bits would have fit perfectly into our day, but all we had was a baggie of turkey – no gravy, no stuffing, and most importantly no cranberry sauce. So what’s really the point? So I turned the turkey into something that didn’t remind me of our two previous dinners at all – a pizza using a skiff of barbecue sauce instead of tomato, topped with a caramelized onion, shredded turkey, roasted red pepper and grated cheese. W thought it was weird, so he ate apples and cheese.