Rosie’s book

I’m very excited.  Rosie O’Donnell’s new book Celebrity Detox come out in bookstores tomorrow.  I’ve read a previous draft which I found very brave and honest.  She really nailed what the experience is like to find oneself suddenly famous. 

Personally, when it started happening to me, I found it terrifying.  I remember very clearly the first time someone recognized me from one of my films.  It was at San Vincente Foods 1982.  He was very nice, complimentary, but the idea that someone who I didn’t know, would know me, scared me.  I guess again, it goes back to my childhood, and how I kept myself safe by being a good hider when my step-dad was in a beating mood.  And then suddenly, I was famous and I couldn’t hide anymore.  I loved acting, but the famous part sucked.  Imagine.  You are pregnant with your first child and suffering from severe morning sickness, you are in a restaurant bathroom with throwing up and someone is banging on the bathroom stall, sliding paper and pen underneath for you to sign.  They can hear you throwing up, they know you are sick, but they don’t care because in their mind, you aren’t a person anymore.  You are a monkey in the zoo.  Just one of thousands of incidences that just boggled my mind.  Binoculars trained on the house, the bedroom, the bathroom?  What?!  Some people might say, “Well, why did you become an actress then?” An understandable question.  You see, I liked acting, thought I would try to make a living, I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would get leads in movies become recognizable.  I just liked diving into other people’s skins is all.  And if I had known what being famous was like and that it was going to happen to me I don’t know that I would have made the same choices. 

Rosie takes the mask off the cult of celebrity and generously lets us peer inside to the human.  It took a lot of courage for her to write this.  Even more to publish.  And I have to say, it moved me deeply.  I’m flying to Calgary to participate in WordFest and I’m going to buy her book to keep me company. 

I’m planning on blogging, but if I can’t figure out the hotel’s Internet situation (i.e. make it work) then you won’t be hearing from me for a few days. 

I have five events to do in five days and the big question is...do I have the foggiest idea what I’m going to wear?  Did I learn from my last near fiasco?  Of course not!  And I don’t have to even wait until 8:30 pm to start packing because today is Canadian Thanksgiving and I imagine all the shops are locked tight.  And to make matters even more dire, I received an Author’s Information Pack from Ian, (the lovely man who’s in charge of organizing this whole thing.) a couple of days ago, and there was a mention of media.  “ You can expect a fair number of television Cameras and news crews to be at the major venues, especially our official photographer and our major media sponsors (the CBC and the Calgary Herald) Eep!  So it won’t be just a school full of children, or some kindly white haired gentle readers who shall witness my lack of apparel finesse...No it shall be recorded, photographed for all of those people out there who were unable to attend WordFest, but still wanted to have a good laugh. 

And yet, what do I do?  Am I scurrying like a mad woman, throwing clothes by the armload onto my bed.  No.  I’m figuring I won’t be reading at one of the “major venues” They didn’t mention which ones were major.  And then of course, I have the old Mark-of-the-hiking-store-string trick in my back pocket.  So I’m set.  I’m good to go!  I’ve got all these outfits from days-gone-past that surely will fit now that I’m armed with my new weapon. 

It would make sense I suppose for me to have tried out the string trick before I started counting my clothing chickens.  Oh well.  I like to live dangerously!  Hee...hee...hee!

Hmm… I just read back over this blog.  I think it’s interesting how these two subjects (Ro’s book, Wordfest and my lack of preparation) are side by side.  I suppose how I deal with my fear and being public now, is by being me.  Refusing to act or be seen as anything other than who I am, foibles and all.  Because I have to tell you, when I walked away from being an actress, I thought that would be it, I would be able to finally disappear again.  So many new films, actors, but I hadn’t counted on Cable.  That the films would still be playing.  I had thought if I let my hair go grey, wore my glasses and wore undistinguished, disappearing clothes, no one would know it was me.  But people did, do.  So I’ve had to make my peace with it.  Allow people in, to see the real me, hence this website.  That way at least, hopefully, I become more of a person to people than a thing.  Because this strangers knowing me situation, is not going away.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, October 08, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

a turkey gravy note

This is another quick note.  I just got my turkey in the oven, and in this particular bird there was no heart or gizzard tucked inside.  If that happens to you, no worries, a turkey neck alone makes perfectly wonderful gravy stock.  There was however a turkey liver inside and I forgot to mention this in my gravy recipe.  I don’t like liver.  The taste or the texture.  So I don’t put the liver in my gravy stock, I find I can taste the slight tinge of it.  Maybe it’s my imagination, but I leave it out.  If you like liver, go ahead and plop it in.  If you are like me and hate liver, do what I do and cook it up for the dogs.  They love it!

For those of you who don’t know which piece is the liver, it’s the darker colored one that has a swidggy texture and if you spread it out it has two sides of it.  The gizzard has two sides as well, but it is much, much firmer.

That’s all for now.  Back to the family!  Love you Emily xxxooo.  Miss you!

Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, October 07, 2007 in Recipes

turkey gravy

This is going to be very quick as I just picked up my boy David from the airport and since we’re going to be having our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow, I have to get shopping and then make the pies. 
Turkey Gravy
So you if you followed my stuffed turkey recipe, you will now have your turkey stock (neck, gizzards etc) boiling in a pot. 
-Peel the skin off a large onion, lop off the top of one end and bung it in your stock pot.  (You can also throw a carrot and a few sticks of celery in as well, if you have them hanging around your fridge.  If you don’t, don’t worry as it won’t make a massive amount of difference in the gravy) These things can boil in the pot as long as you like to add flavor.
-When your turkey has finished baking and you’ve removed it from the oven and to the chopping board, take the turkey roasting pan and pour the contents into a large glass measuring cup. 
-Let the fat rise to the top. 
-Then pour off the fat and discard.  (You can use a table spoon to skim the last little bits off.)
-Return the remained turkey juices back into the roasting pan and place the roasting pan on the stove.
-Turn stove burner on to medium-low heat.
-sprinkle (depending on the size of your hands)one to two small handfuls of flour into the roasting pan with turkey drippings. 
-Stir well with wood spoon ( or any spoon.  I say wood because I use it.  Because I can leave it in the gravy and it doesn’t get too hot)
-Once the flour is blended and starting to thicken slightly, add the turkey stock from pot. (Don’t worry if the neck or whatever drops in just fish it out.  Or if you’re new at this, you might feel more comfortable using a strainer.)
-Turn the heat up to medium, stirring quite regularly (so you don’t get lumpy gravy.  But guess what, if you do, don’t worry because that is why strainers were invented!)
-Taste.  Add whatever you think is lacking.  A little more salt, another chicken bouillian, some more pepper, a dash of more white wine, a little more spice.  Trust your tongue.  It will know what is lacking.  Keep going and tasting until you get it right. 
-Let gravy thicken and boil down, while you cook up the last minute vegetables, corral your kids into setting the table, and basically race around the kitchen attending to the million last minute things that seem to crop up at this time.
-If you like you can strain before serving to get out any rogue lumps.  Then fill up the gravy boat and put on the table.

Good luck with your Thanksgiving Day feast.  Much love to you and your family from me and mine. 

And Emily, I’ll give you a call tomorrow, but if we aren’t able to make contact, know that I’m loving you and we’re missing you and wishing you were here! Love, Mom xxxooo

Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, October 06, 2007 in Recipes

A flaky pie crust & Meg’s fancy super duper pie dough rolling out secret

Seventeen years ago when Will was just a little baby I was shooting Leaving Normal in a minuscule town in Alberta.  I don’t remember the name of the town.  I do remember the flat beautiful horizon that went on forever, broken up only by the relief of a tall grain silo.  Broad skies.  We were staying at a rather tired looking motel, with a small diner attached.  Yes, the motel wasn’t much to look at, the cast and crew complained.  Generally we stayed in more upscale places.  But me...I was in heaven!  That diner had the best pie I had ever tasted!  And every day when we finished shooting I would race to the diner to have another slice, warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  I could have staying in that dusty, windswept motel forever! 

On our final day of shooting there I worked up my courage and asked the woman behind the counter if she’d consider giving me her recipe for pie crust.  I was so nervous, because some people are very possessive about their recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation.  But she didn’t get mad.  She laughed. “It’s tenderflake,” she said. 
“Yes, it’s very flaky.  Flaky and tender.  I really like it.” I replied, wondering if that meant yes, she was going to give me the recipe or no, she wasn’t.  She started wiping down the counter.  Didn’t say anything else.  I was embarrassed.  “Don’t worry,” I said.  “I just figured it didn’t hurt to ask, but if it’s a family secret I totally understand.”
“No, that’s the recipe.  Tenderflake.”
“Tenderflake?”
“Yes, Tenderflake.  You know, the lard.  I use the recipe on the back of the box.”
I thought eew..lard?  But I didn’t say eew.  I thanked her profusely and left. 

Well I’ve been making Tenderflake pie crusts for 17 years now.  You can’t buy it in the stores in the States, and don’t try to substitute another lard because I tried that and it sucked.  So I’d always bring a couple boxes of Tenderflake lard to the States with me if I was going to have an extended stay there.  BUT the good news is, once I was in LA with no Tenderflake and a hankering for pie, so I phoned and ordered a bunch of it and made pie to my hearts content!  That’s the good thing about that stuff, it’s probably really unhealthy for you because it never goes bad.

So that’s my pie crust recipe.  Buy Tenderflake lard and make the recipe on the back.  (And no, I don’t know anyone who works at Tenderflake, nor do I own stock in the company.) However I don’t recommend their already rolled and frozen pie crusts.  I don’t know why but...not so tasty!

Now for the next part.  If the idea of lard grosses you out, or you are vegetarian, or you already have a crust recipe that you like but can’t get it into the pan, you are in luck because my super duper rolling technique will work for all pie dough recipes!

Meg’s super duper pie dough rolling secret!
-Make your pie dough.
-take a wet sponge and wipe counter.  Don’t wring that sponge out too much, you want the counter to be moist. 
-Lay out two strips of saran wrap onto the moist counter, overlapping by around one inch at the middle.
-sprinkle a handful of flour on the saran wrap.
-shape your pie dough into a sort of flattened out circle and then place in the middle of the floured saran wrap.
-sprinkle another small handful of flour on the top of the pie dough. (this is so the rolling pin won’t stick)
-smooth flour out evenly over dough and start to apply rolling pin.
-Always roll starting from the middle and working your way out.  Don’t roll the pin back and forth as it make the crust tough.
-when you think you’ve rolled it big enough, gently place the pie tin on top of the rolled out dough.  If there is around two inches or more of dough showing from under the pie plate you are good to go!  If not, roll it a little bit more.  Then,
-Gently lift the saran wrap with the pie crust and the pie tin and flip it over.  Now the pie crust is in the tin!
-Make sure the crust is tucked down and touching the bottom of the pan, then peel the saran wrap off.
-Cut the excess dough off making sure you are leaving enough (3/4 to 1/2 of an inch maybe) to tuck up onto the lip of the pan to make the edge of the pie. 
-If you are making a two crust pie (ie, apple pie, peach pie, etc.) Repeat the steps above.  If not, fill with your favorite filling (pumpkin, pecan, lemon etc) pop in the oven at the appropriate temperature and then...ta da!  Enjoy!

I personally don’t wait until after dinner.  When I make hot apple pie, I want it right away!  Sometimes I love eating dessert first.  That way I’m sure I’ll have room for it.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, October 05, 2007 in Recipes

All fixed!

Okay...the audio download problem has been solved.  It was some button that hadn’t been activated.  There is some technical term for it, but when Susie explained it to me, the term and description just went flying into one ear and out of the other.  It’s sort of like what happens to me when somebody tells me their name.  I know that I’m really bad at remembering names (sequencing numbers as well) so when I’m in situation where I’m meeting new people, or even old friends, when I get to the name situation, my brain starts panicking.  And then I’m cooked!  I might as well give up and go home because the harder I try to pull people’s names up out of the mushy recesses of my brain, the faster and more throughly the names elude me.  And this isn’t just treatment reserved for new names, I have been in social situations (yes...even I get invited out once in a while...) where I turn to introduce a very dear old friend of many years, and their name will just evaporate like a mouthful of smoke.  Gone!  I could tell you all sorts of details about that person, their family, their weight loss or gain struggles, their disappointments, lost dreams, sense of humor...But give you their name?  Ha. 

I wish I could be hypnotised or something to be a cracker-jack name rememberer.  Except, I’d never let myself ever be hypnotised.  The idea of placing myself into someone else’s power.  Someone I don’t even know.  To just walk in because they have a sign on their door saying they’re qualified!  No way.  Now I know this isn’t fair.  I’m sure there are wonderful hypnotists out there.  Many people I know have been able to quit smoking by being hypnotised.  I think my fear and distrust comes from my childhood.  Feeling like I had no power over myself, my body and the things that happened to me.  Actually, in all truth, that feeling followed me well into adulthood.  No, being hypnotised is not for me! 

My dear friend D___a went to a hypnotist once to get hypnotised to stop eating chocolate.  It worked too!  That is until I came into town.  Called her up, invited her to take in some theater in the West End.  This was, oh maybe 15 years ago.  I don’t remember what show we saw.  What I do remember is being so pleased that I was back in England after being sequestered in the wild wood of Whonock for months on end.  Friends, adult conversation, West End theater, and best of all...English chocolate.  Keep in mind, this was well before they started selling Maltesers and Minstrels on every street corner.  D___a went to powder her nose in the ladies room and I headed straight for the concession stand to load up.  I bought myself a huge box of Maltesers because I knew that I would not be eating alone.  D___a could sling back the chocolate with the best of them. 

I tried to wait until she returned from the ladies room, but my mouth wouldn’t let me.  I opened up the box, pulled a delicate little malt covered morsel out and laid it in my mouth.  I let it rest gently on my tongue for a while, like a secret.  Then, when the chocolate was nice and creamy soft I crunched the malt portion between my teeth so it could mingle with the chocolate.  When D___a returned I has managed to restrain myself from devouring the whole box of these wickedly delicious candies.  “Do you want some?” I offered generously, ready to pour out a whole handful.  (That’s the thing about growing up poor, I find I always give away way more than people actually want.) “No thank you,” D___a demurred.  She’s just being polite I thought.  I know the deal, done it myself.  Said no when I wanted to say yes because I didn’t want people to think I was a greedy pig.  “Really, it’s okay.  I bought a big box.  There’s plenty for both of us.” I rattled the mostly full box at her.  “Oh...It’s so tempting, but no,” D___a said.  “Are you sure?” I asked, worried that maybe she had a fever or something.  “I’m sure,” she said peacefully.  “I’m trying to stop eating chocolate.” “Why?  You aren’t overweight.”

I can’t remember what she said next.  I do remember her seizing my arm as I went to tuck the Maltesers into my purse.  I do remember her throwing a large portion of them down her throat all the while muttering “Oh shut up...” I do remember later, her confessing to me that she’d paid good money to a hypnotist to stop eating chocolate.  And that she had managed to hold off for three whole months before I rolled into town.  I do remember how horrified I was that I’d unwittingly foiled her stop-eating-chocolate plan, but how I felt even worse because when she told me about it, the visit, the hypnotist putting her under, how the whole time she was throwing the chocolate back she was hearing the woman’s voice saying in a witchy, disgusted tone, ”sickly...sweet...chocolate.” I couldn’t stop laughing.  We laughed so hard that tears came.  And my poor friend, even now, to this day, 15 years later, every time she indulges in chocolate she has this woman’s voice in her head saying, ”sickly… sweet... No.  I am not a good friend to have.  Dangerous is what I am.  But I’ll tell you this right now.  I’m never, ever going to frequent a hypnotist on my own free will.

Hmm… I think it’s so funny where these blogs go.  This was just going to be a short hello to inform you that the audio downloads are now up and running.  Oh and Don says to tell you that it’s going to take around 5 minutes for the download to complete (is that the right phrase?)

Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 03, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

Yikes!

Hi everybody,
Just a quick note, please don’t download Singing Songs yet.  It appears there is a glitch.  I’ll let you know when it is rectified.  Thanks for your patience!  Okay, I’m off to get my boy up for school.  Will blog more later.  -Meg

Posted by Meg Tilly on Wednesday, October 03, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

Singing Songs Audio Book

The audio version of Singing Songs is READY!  I’m kind of excited.  I spent a good deal of the summer working on these.  It’s hard to believe that starting tonight people will actually be able to HEAR them.  Kind of exciting and kind of scary!  Wow.  Just writing that down made my heart start pounding…
Anyway, it’s available now.  Yikes.  I hope you like it. 
I was going to have both Gemma and Singing Songs available at the same time.  But Richard, a.k.a. sound producer/editor/mixer of Digital Magic Studios fame, (well famous to me because he was a rock during the recording of these books and worked his butt off,) anyway, he’s romping around Las Vegas with his fiancee Jenny and is not due to return until Oct. 6th.  We have the whole downloadable Gemma, but we want to offer the option of downloading chapters as well, and there is a portion of Gemma that is no where to be found.  We need Richard’s expertise.  So that’s why it’s just the Singing Songs audio version that’s downloadable right now.  But sometime in the middle of next week Gemma should be available as well.  So, if you are going to want both, you’ll want to wait until then because it will cost a little less for those of you who want two.  I haven’t recorded Porcupine yet.  I’m going to wait and see how many people actually buy the audio books.  I don’t have to make money with this venture.  This is about fulfilling a promise.  What I decided is, if I break even and am able to pay for Richard’s fee and what it cost me to rent the studio time then I’ll keep recording my books for those of you who want them.  However if it ends up that I can’t break even then obviously I won’t keep doing it. 
Oh my, I’m nervous.  I hope you like it.  Actually, to be truthful, I want to say, I hope you love it!  Hey, I just did.  Now my fingers want to hit delete, but I’m not going to.  Nothing wrong with working really hard and hoping that people like what you’ve done.

OH!  And I noticed Rosie put it up on her blog so I guess it’s okay to say it now...Rosie’s optioned Porcupine and she’s going to direct it and I’m writing the screenplay and I’m so excited I could p__p my pants!

Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, October 02, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

Roast Turkey, with stuffing

Roast Turkey is one of my favorite meals of all time.  There is such a feeling of abundance about it!  Even during hard times as a child, on Thanksgiving, we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted.  And let me tell you...we did!  I always purchase a BIG turkey, because I love having lots of leftovers.  Sliced cold turkey, tucked between toasted bread, a little mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.  Yum!  (My husband adds some of my leftover cold mashed potatoes to his sandwich, which he swears tastes delicious...but eew!  Really, I’m glad he’s so happy, but yuck.  Ruining a perfectly good turkey sandwich with cold congealed mashed potatoes?) This year we are celebrating Thanksgiving early because my boy David is coming by on the sixth on his way back from visiting his friend in Toronto.  Emily, sadly won’t be here.  She’s at University in the States and the Thanksgiving is in November there.  Will, obviously will be eating.  As will I and Don, however, Don did have a hard time controlling his mirth when I came back to the car from the butcher shop clutching an order form for a 22 lb Free Range, Organic Turkey.
“22 pounds!” he kept saying.  “You ordered a 22 pound turkey?” I don’t know why he was so surprised.  I always order a turkey around that size.  “There are only going to be four of us,” he said, which was a fact I was well aware of, but hearing it out loud filled me with a sort of wistful longing for my daughter to magically arrive home with a hungry friend or two in tow.  “David’s going to be here,” I said, chin stuck out slightly.  “And John might come too.” But even as I say the part about John coming, I know he won’t.  He hasn’t been coming up as much as he used to, I don’t know why, but I miss him, feel like time is slipping through our hands.  “Besides,” I said with a little more conviction than I felt.  “I want to have lots of leftovers!” “Well, you will have that,” Don said smiling at me affectionatly.  And then I didn’t talk anymore because he was backing up and he is a...ahem… distractable driver. 

Roast Turkey with Stuffing

If you can afford it buy a free range organic turkey.  If you can’t, don’t worry about it.  Being able to buy a turkey at all is a splendid thing!  If your store carries fresh turkeys I recommend that over frozen.  I find fresh turkeys tend to be juicier than frozen.  If you have a regular sized oven I would warn you against buying anything over 23 lbs.  I once told the butcher, “Give me the biggest turkey you got!” I ended up with a 25 pounder, and it wouldn’t fit in my roasting pan, so I had to race out to the store and buy one of those flimsy disposable roasting pans.  Two of them actually because they were so flimsy I was worried that the turkey would just bust right through it and end up rolling around on the kitchen floor!  And then, after all of that...the darn thing wouldn’t fit in my oven!  It was an odd shaped bird and it’s frame was too tall, so I had to saw the thing in two, overlap the two halves, with the stuffing tucked underneath.  It tasted well enough, but just didn’t feel the same.  So from then on, I never would let my enthusiasm run away with me.  My turkeys are now always between 20-23 lbs.

-heat oven to 325 degrees. * regular bake, not convection.
-Grease your roasting pan lightly with whatever oil you have handy.  This is important so when it comes time to remove the turkey to the chopping board it doesn’t stick to the sides. 
-Wash turkey throughly in the sink.  Inside and out. Then dry.  It’s important to tip it up on it’s end so that you don’t have a little pond of water trapped inside.
-place the neck, heart and gizzard in a pot of water to simmer.  This will be your stock for your gravy
-Throw a bay leaf and around 7-8 shakes of dried sage, rosemary, thyme into the water. Or chop and use the fresh stuff.
-Add one or two chicken bullion cubes to the water, and a glug or two of white wine.
-place pan with turkey in the fridge and start the stuffing

Meg’s Delicious One-Of-A-Kind Turkey Stuffing

Ingredients:sour dough bread, french bread, whole wheat bread, celery, butter, bacon, apple,( sausage, if you like) onion, frozen orange juice concentrate, paprika, rosemary, thyme, sage, onion powder, salt, pepper (and lemon pepper if you have it lying around.)

- cut or tear into a huge cooking pot or bowl, 10-12 cups of bread.

- Peel and dice one large onion.(Using my super onion dicing trick found in my beef stroganoff recipe)
-wash and chop half a bunch of celery, starting at the top, leaves and all.
-peel and dice one apple (green is nice, but really, use whatever is lying around in your fridge.)
-Fry 6 slices of bacon in a LARGE pan until brown, remove from pan
-Fry 4-6 (depending on size) sausages until brown, remove from pan
-pour out around half the bacon and sausage greasy, discard. 
-Fry the onions, celery and apple in leftover grease and 2/3 cup of butter until onions turn sort of opeque.
- dump around 1/3 of the broken/cut bread into the onion/ celery/ apple, add salt, pepper, rosemary, thyme, sage, paprika, to taste. 

- chop the sausage and bacon and add to bread mixture
-toss well. 
-Add two rounded tablespoons of the frozen orange juice concentrate to the mixture in pan

Make sure you scoot the bread mixture to the side so you can drop the frozen juice on to the hot part of the pan so it can melt.  Stir as it melts so that the flavor gets mixed equally.  Now I know the idea of frozen orange juice in stuffing sounds weird, but trust me, it adds that special zing.  You can’t really taste it, but you miss it if it’s not there!

- now pour the contents of the pan into the large pot holding the rest of the bread bits and mix well. 
-Taste the seasoning one last time, add more if it needs it.
-Take the turkey out of the fridge and stuff.

First stuff the top part where the head and neck used to be.  Then fold the flap of skin over the stuffing and tip up on it’s head and stuff the rest of the bird. 

-slip some cooking string, or a piece of white thread underneath the turkey’s back and tie the wings so they are tucked close to the turkey’s body
-Then pop the stuffed turkey, chest up into the oven.

Let me re-phrase that.  If you bought a huge honking turkey like me, it is unlikely that you will jauntily “pop” that sucker into the oven.  More than likely you will stagger that baby over to the oven and pray you don’t get a hernia when you bend over to heave it in.

Now...Very Important! Many cookbooks say you are suppose to cook a stuffed turkey that is over 16 lbs for anywhere from 18-23 minutes per pound.  With my big gigantic turkeys I find it’s more reasonable to give it 15 minutes per pound.  But even then, depending on the turkey, that amount can be too much.  What I do is when we are around an hour from the supposed end time, I take the turkey leg in my hand (wearing the pot holder of course!) Twist the leg gently.  Using no more pressure than around half of what you would use opening a new jar of catsup.  It the drumstick bone rotates easily in your hand take the turkey out immediately!  Because it is done and if you don’t take it out, that sucker will be dry as dust.  It can happily sit on the counter while you finish up the gravy, and last minute vegetables. 

Another Very Very Important Tip: After the turkey has been in the oven for around a hour you are going to want to take a stick of butter out of the fridge and run it all over the turkey’s breast, legs and wings.  Try to repeat this every half hour or so.  By around the 4th basting, there should be enough juice in the bottom of the roasting pan that you can stop using the butter and take a turkey baster, suck up the juice from the bottom and squirt it all over, really drench that turkey.  There’s no such thing as basting a turkey too much!  Also, don’t bother removing the turkey from the oven every time you want to baste it.  Just slide the rack out, baste it, slide it back in and shut the oven door.  There’s no need to race around checking the clock and doing it every half hour on the hour.  Just use that as sort of a frame work and basically baste it when ever you are passing the oven.  I aim for every half hour, and I doubt I’ve ever actually managed to do it.  Don’t worry if one or two bastings slip your mind, my turkey is always nice and juicy!

The Last Very Important Tip: You must remove all the stuffing from the turkey before you store it in the fridge!  What I do is scoop it all out into a large serving bowl so it’s easily accessible and people can come back for 4th and 5ths.  That way you won’t forget and by accident put the partially stuffed bird into the fridge and poison your family!

(I’ll tell you how to make gravy next time.  And don’t throw out those bones, because in my mind, turkey bones make the very best soup!)

Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, October 01, 2007 in Recipes

Word On The Street

I woke up today to the sound of thundering rain pounding on the roof.  It was one of those days where I wanted to pull the covers up nice and snug around my neck and either go back to sleep, or at the very least, lie there contemplating sleep while wiggling my toes in a carefree-don’t-have-to-if-I-don’t-want-to way.  But neither of these options where available to me. 

Number one, because we have two dogs.  One of them we’ve had for three years and is quite well-trained and will only spray urine all over place only if he hasn’t seen somebody for a great long while and feels the need to greet them in a way that will make them feel very privileged to be singled out for this special honor.  Obviously this is his ploy to make them hurry back.  Hmmm...It doesn’t seem to be having the desired effect however.  But now at least we know how he operates, so whenever his very favorite guests, John for example, is a couple of minutes away, he gets on his Blackberry, calls us, and Scooter is sent outside to empty whatever remains in his tiny bladder.  Molly, however is the unknown.  She is a rescue dog we picked up two months ago, and although we’ve been doing pretty well with her training, (Only had her evil way with the carpets 4 times, and the last one was almost, fingers crossed, a month ago.) I haven’t yet, had the courage to tempt fate and have a nice lie-in.  So that was the first reason I had to get up.  To take the dogs outside for their morning salutations.

The second reason I had to get up was...well, I wish I could say the excitement of the day made me leap out of bed, singing Hosannas, but the fact of the matter is...Word on The Street, in a torrential downpour and wind whipped streets, is no one’s idea of a good time on a Sunday morning when one could be drinking hot cocoa and devouring a good book by a roaring fire.

Well, we went, as did all the other hearty souls who had signed up and volunteered to show up.  The librarians were there with their signs and petitions in the soaking rain, and I have to say, the city better resolve this soon, because what is going on is really not fair!  Not to mention, I grew up in libraries.  How are little kids whose parents can’t afford to buy tons of books suppose to fill their imaginations and hearts if the libraries are shut?

Don and I wandered around in the rain, stopping to chat with the stalwart few who were wet and cold to the bone, trying to keep the rain that was whipping around off of the books, a few depressed balloons in bright colours hung limply from their strings.  I had a good time, but I got to leave when I was done, unlike the volunteers, booksellers and publishers and striking library staff who were committed to be there until 5:30 tonight!  I read.  It was fun.  A tent full of interesting upturned faces.  I was so relieved that my tent wasn’t one of the empty ones with only a couple of bottoms plopped down in the seats.  So thank you to all of you who braved the weather and showed up! 

On the way home we stopped at the market and I got the fixings for a pot roast, because that’s the kind of food one needs when the cold and wet gets all the way into the marrow of one’s bones.  Something hot and savory, cooked with red wine, fresh spices and chunks of vegetable.  And I think I’ll make some Orzo too.  That little tiny Italian pasta that’s almost the size of rice. Cook it up with a little butter, fresh grated Parmesan cheese and salt and pepper for flavor.  I’ve got the pot roast on right now and it’s just got to the point where the flavors and smells have made their way to my writing room.  Yum!  You know what?  Now that I’m nice and warm in my comfy home, with a delicious dinner cooking on the stove, I’m happy I had to get out in the elements.  My body has that tingly feeling that it gets when I’ve been outside and start to warm up, and not only that, if I hadn’t gotten wet and cold...who knows what we would have ending up eating for dinner?

Oh, and K.C Dyer sent me an email this morning telling me that Porcupine was an Editor’s Choice in the Vancouver Sun!  A recommended title!  Yay!

Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, September 30, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

dreams

I woke up missing my daughter so bad it hurt.  The house dark and quiet.  At first I couldn’t separate the dream from reality.  She was around 6 in the dream, at that cozy, snuggle-in age.  Full of cuddles and leaning her little body into mine.  She was that age again where every thing’s more fun, more special when mom’s involved.  I woke up, my happiness filling the room, and then as the dream world separated, drifted up and away, I realized that she is grown now.  Twenty-three.  Thousands of miles away.  And this is well and good.  For the truth is I prayed nightly for help and guidance.  For the gift of being allowed to see my children safely to adulthood.  And I am so proud of her, forging her way in the world.  Landed herself a fellowship at a wonderful university.  Settled into her apartment, with her Bella dog and two cats.  This is how it should be.  The way of life.  But I’d be lying if I didn’t say that there is a sorrow, a loss, mushed up in the mix.  My children are grown.  No sticky, plump hands tucked up into mine.  Their sunshine faces turned up to me like little buttercups seeking the sun.  I’m not the sun anymore.  And never will be.  Never was really, they just didn’t know.  And it’s odd to me, how something I dreamt can effect me so much.  Even now, sitting here at my computer, my heart feels so full of sorrow and joy and loss.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Saturday, September 29, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

Word On The Street

Fellow Canadians, Word On The Street is this Sunday!  If you live near Calgary, Kitchener, Toronto or Vancouver come on down and show your support for the authors that live in your region.  If you live in Victoria, Esquimalt High School is having a celebrations of authors this Sunday as well.  What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon, than to be outdoors with your family, tucking into a tent every now and then to listen to an author read and answer questions about their new books.  There are authors to appeal to all ages and interests.  And meeting the people who write the books can sometimes spark more of an interest in reading and writing for our young ones.  For those of you in the Vancouver area, if you are brave enough to face the rainy day forecast, I’ll be reading in “Canada Writes” tent on Homer St. from 12:20-12:40.  And while you’re in the area, swing by the library, chat with the librarians and if you believe in what they’re striking for, sign their petition.  I’m not sure what section I’m going read from Porcupine yet.  Do I read part of what I read at my launch?  That piece is at the beginning of the book and doesn’t really give any of the story away.  Or...do I throw caution to the winds and pluck a piece from the middle of the book? I quite curious to see what I decide.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Friday, September 28, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

audio downloads

Hello everybody,
I’m hoping, fingers crossed, to have the audio recordings downloads that I made of both Singing Songs and Gemma to be available for purchase in the next week or so.  I had thought, “Oh well, down-loadable audio books, how difficult can that be?  Go to a good sound studio.  You’re used to that from the movie days.  Work with a good engineer/producer/mixing genius (aka Richard Dolmat of Digital Sound Magic) read the book into a mic.  Redo what you don’t like.  Richard cuts and mixes it Simple.”

Not quite.  I started with Gemma.  OH MY GOD!  It’s one thing to write this book, that was scary and traumatic enough, but to read the whole thing out loud!  And of course for me, (as anyone who’s been to one of my book reading knows,) it’s impossible for me to just read things plain.  It’s like when I start giving actual voice to the words I’ve written, the saying it out loud makes it more real in a way and it grabs me by the throat and sucks me into the situation.  And the whole “Gemma” situation is not one that is a picnic in the park.  There were days when I’d come home from the recording studio and it would be a good hour before the shaking would stop.  Not to mention, I must have doubled my grey hair count, (If I was counting, which I’m not.  My grey has gone way past the counting stage!) recording these books.  But I hope, hope, hope that for all of you people out there who came to my readings and kept pestering me to make an audio recordings of my books, that these recording will be everything you wished for.  As it was quite traumatic and emotional recording both of these books and I would hate to think I did it for naught.  I recorded Gemma first because I thought it would be the hardest one to do emotionally, and it was.  But then when I recorded Singing Songs, it was a different kind of emotional roller coaster.  I was expecting it to be a much gentler read, and in a way it was, but in another way, it tore me up even bigger than Gemma, because it was my first time reading anything from Singing Songs out loud since I admitted to the truth about it.  And having that knowledge there, out of the closet, made reading the things and experiences I remembered as a child out loud, saying the words, remembering the incidences… Well, let me just say this, I felt a lot more vulnerable and shaky than I expected. 

Anyway, you will be able to download the books either by chapter, so you don’t have to download and listen to the whole book at one time.  But we’ll also offer the option on downloading the whole thing at once for those of you who prefer that.  Once you download the book you’ll be able to listen to it either on your computer, or on your iPod.  (I say this so knowledgeably, like I’ve ever done either, but I’ve been assured that the people who do this kind of thing will know what I’m talking about!)

Posted by Meg Tilly on Thursday, September 27, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

Sweet potato mash

Canadian Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away and my mouth is already watering for that turkey.  I’ll give you my stuffing recipe and how to know when your turkey is done.  I’ll give you my secret for rolling out pie dough without ending up with a bunch of crumpled little fragments, a headache and tears.  But today I’m going to give you my sweet potato mash recipe.  Well it’s not really a recipe, because I’m not going to give you measurements.  That would be pointless as everybody is going to have different amounts of people to cook for.  But I’m going to tell you how I make it. What I love about this dish is that you can prepare it the day before, stick it in the fridge and then pop it in the oven when you take the turkey out and begin making the gravy.  My husband and boys love this dish.  I like it, but to be honest, I prefer just a plain old baked sweet potato or yam with lots of butter, a couple shakes of salt and a spoonful of light brown sugar.  Maybe it’s because it’s what I grew up with. 

Sweet potato mash

Ingredients: yams or sweet potatoes, brown sugar, salt, butter, rum, cinnamon, miniature marshmallows.

I call this sweet potato mash, but actually, around three-quarters of the time I use yams.  It got the “sweet potato mash” name because the first time I made it, the yams were looking a little beat up and tired, so I bought sweet potatoes instead, and so when I made this up, the name stuck.  Also, when you are shopping at the store, if they have organic yams or sweet potatoes get them, they are so much better for you than the ones full of pesticides, and are tastier too.  Don’t pick out the biggest honkers you can find, because I find that although they look impressive, they can sometimes be sort of stringy and fibrous inside, whereas the smaller ones can be more tender. 

-Wash the yams/sweet potatoes thoroughly to get all the dirt off.  Then quarter them and plop them into a large pot of water, skins and all.  I feel the skins adds texture and interest to the mash.
-Boil until soft.  You should be able to poke a fork into it with ease.
-Strain water out. 
-Mash with salted butter (for four regular sized yams I would use around 1/4 to 1/3 a cup)
-Add a glug or two of rum
-Add light brown sugar, salt and cinnamon to taste.

Always start slow when you are seasoning.  You can always add more, but once you’ve added it, you can’t take it back out!  You want to make sure that the sweet of the sugar is balanced out with the savory of the butter, salt, and the bite of the rum. 
When you have it just the way your tongue wants it, dump the concoction into a baking pan.  Sprinkle the top with miniature marshmallows, make sure the marshmallows are evenly spread out so they cover the whole surface.  Then stick directly in the oven.  Temperature doesn’t really matter, thank god.  Because I don’t know about you, but on Thanksgiving my oven is always stuffed full.  And some recipes are very finicky about what temperature they have to be cooked at.  Not my sweet potato mash.  It’s nice and adaptable.  So you can bake it at anywhere from 300 degrees to 425.  Cook until hot all the way through and the marshmallows are a puffy golden brown.  If you want to prepare this the day before, then delete the popping-in-the-oven part.  Instead cover and stick in the fridge to be cooked tomorrow.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Tuesday, September 25, 2007 in Recipes

Social Security…Fix?

So this just came in as a news bulletin on my computer

AP Economics
”Administration urges Social Security Fix”
WASHINGTON - “The Bush administration said Monday the only way to permanently fix Social Security is through some combination of benefit cuts and tax increases.”

“Bush Budget Numbers, don’t believe the hype, the deficit is much bigger than you think.” It goes on to say, “We’ll start with the Social Security which will take in about $78 billion more in payroll and incomes taxes than it shells out. The Treasury takes that cash, gives the trust fund IOUs for it, and spends it. That $78 billion isn’t in the budget. Wait, there’s more. The Treasury will fork over $108 billion of interest on the trust fund’s $2.2 trillion of Treasuries—but will give the trust fund IOUs, not cash. They won’t count in the deficit either. Add that $186 billion to the stated budge deficit, and it more than doubles—to $344 billion.

“Now let’s move on. We end up with a total deficit of more than $400 billion after undoing another piece of WAAP legerdemain—the $97 billion increase in Treasury securities held by ‘other government accounts,’ such as federal employees pension funds. Thanks to the magic of Washington math, that doesn’t increase the deficit, even though it increases the government’s overall debt. Don’t you wish you could keep books this way at home?”

Now I agree, the Social Security situation is a nightmare that we only make worse by shutting our eyes and burying our heads under the pillow.  It is most emphatically not fair or appropriate to leave our future generations holding the bag.  HOWEVER don’t you think it would be advisable for the Bush Administration to stop spending the surplus that is coming to Social Security right now?!  Stop issuing IOU’s.  Start investing that surplus so that they can meet at least a little bit more of their obligations and promises to all of us who have been working and paying into this Ponzi scheme since our very first job.  It makes me so mad when I read things like this.  And the sad thing is the average person doesn’t even know that the U.S government is doing this.  It’s an outrage.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Monday, September 24, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

Don’t believe the double speak

This article just came up on Yahoo! Finance “In Aftermath of Rate Cut, Investors Watch Out for Signs of Accelerating Inflation.” Then a couple of sentences down it said “This week investors will be looking for signs that inflation is under control.” Please!  I don’t think we need to see the Wall Street and Government doctored up numbers to know the answer to that question. 

DO NOT believe the inflation numbers that come spewing out every now and then.  Look at the numbers.  In Sept. 2002 a one ounce gold maple leaf coin cost $320.90 U.S. dollars.  Now it is selling at $731 U.S.  Ask yourself, do I pay more now to have a roof over my head than I coughed out ten years ago?  Yes!  Does it cost me more to fill up my car with gas?  Pay my electrical bill?  To heat my house in the winter?  To put food on the table for my family?  Yes, yes, yes, yes, and yes.  Now I think it’s interesting that they decided in their infinite wisdom to remove housing and gas from their inflation index because their numbers were too volatile.  What?  I don’t know about you, but my biggest living expenses are my house and gas for my car and to heat my house and we all know how much those things have risen.  So why aren’t they included in the inflation index calculations?  Yes, fancy t.v.’s and computers, and cell phones are less, but the day to day costs of living that parents have to struggle to pay, these things are more.  University or College?  Through the roof! 

I don’t know how families are managing.  And the thing that really scares me is the fact that most people are just struggling to pay the bills, living month to month, not saving anything for retirement.  I think I read somewhere that the average babyboomer has around $54, 000 put away for retirement!  That is so scary.  The interest one can earn every year on that amount is not even enough to pay the vet and food bill for a small cat.  How is that going to be enough to sustain a person?  And will social security and our pensions be there when we retire?  I wish I could say I believe they will, but I don’t. 

So this is what you have to do.  If you have any credit card debit, pay it off!  Seriously that is an economic killer.  Then if you have any spare cash, pour it into paying off your mortgage.  Now I know a lot of people think, “But no!  I want to have bonds and CD and stocks for security.” But the thing is, on everything you earn with these investments, you have to pay taxes, and with the interest rates and dividend yields at such low levels, you are going to be earning far less in these investment than the interest that is being charged to you on your mortgage.  Or if your mortgage is too difficult to manage, sell it.  Because if you can’t make payments, your going to lose it anyway, and better to be in control of the process and get at least some cash out of it, rather than none when the bank forecloses. 

Oops...I just scrolled back and see that I have gone on rather a long rant.  So rather then continue boring people, I think I’ll stop right here.

Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, September 23, 2007 in Chewing the Fat

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