It’s probably the second most important item on the menu after the enormous bird. I’ve tried making my mother’s stuffing and I can’t seem to get it done the way she does. So this year, since I’m hosting turkey day dinner at my place, I’m making the stuffing and I’m using a recipe I found online, which is sorta similar to my mom’s recipe. She might possibly turn her nose at a “foreign” stuffing and make jokes about her recipe not being good enough for my tastes. But in the words of Eddie Murphy, Delirious, “this is my house, my house!” Or, “this my stuffing recipe, my recipe!”

Hahaha, all jokes. I love my mom and I know she’ll like whatever I make. And in this case, it’s a stuffing I’ve already begun to make (and will continue to reheat everyday until Thanksgiving). My back is aching from chopping all the veggies – it took me 45 minutes just to prep them. Maybe I’m a slow-ass cutter. Anywho, here’s the link for the recipe from Profesora Grahasta, except it’s in Spanish so below I’ve done my best to translate. Guess I should have made sure I had the right translation before actually cooking the stuffing. Oh well. It smells good so far!

Ingredients:

2 lbs pork, boneless
1/2 jar of ketchup (about half a litre)
3 tbsp capers, drained
375 grams raisins
350 grams prunes (I didn’t add these)
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
1 lb carrots
1 lb potatoes
1/4 lb red bell pepper
1/2 lb celery
1/4 lb onion
1 jar 375 ml of pickled cocktail onions, drained (I didn’t add these)
22 stuffed olives, drained
1/3 cup red wine
15 ml mustard
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
10 ml salt
7 cups of water
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup brown sugar

Fill a large pot with the seven cups of water and cook the pork in the water at high heat. Meanwhile, peel the potatoes, carrots, onion, and garlic. Cut the potatoes, carrots, onion, celery, and red bell pepper into very small pieces. Cut the olives into slim slices. Once the pork is soft, remove from heat and let it cool so you can shred/pull it later. Keep the leftover water in the pot and add all of the remaining ingredients except the garlic (this is added near the end before you turn the heat off). Once the pork is shredded add to the pot and cook over low heat for 2 hours, stirring constantly so it doesn’t stick.

If you’re making this stuffing it’s not necessary to continue cooking it for days, that’s just what I do so that by the time Sunday rolls around I’ll have a super thick and taste-infused stuffing.

The other day I was at my mom’s place helping her get rid of a few old kitchen items and I came across a small dumpling press. The first thought that came to mind was, “I can make Jay home made pizza pops!” I was instantly inspired.

Now, which pizza crust to use? Well, in my opinion, the best crust, or rather the best pizza ever, is Uno’s Deep Pan pizza. I’ve had Uno’s pizza in New York City and in Chicago and the few times I’ve gone there I have to take a moment to truly enjoy the symphony of taste, texture and love inside my mouth.

So, because I love my Jay so much, I decided to use Uno’s pizza crust for his pizza pops. Luckily, I was able to find the recipe online. Of course it’s not exactly the same as the restaurant version but it will do.

Recipe for pizza crust and filling/toppings can be found here.

Here, I’ve prepped the fillings for the different types of pops: mushrooms, green peppers, onions, cheddar cheese, blue cheese, pepperoni and fresh pineapple.

I made different combinations with the ingredients like:

Blue cheese, mushroom and onion

Pineapple, cheddar and mushroom

Pepperoni, mushroom, green pepper and hot sauce (love that sauce!).

The ones with the hot sauce have an “H” written with the sauce. They are in a container ready to be frozen until Jay craves a little snack.

Here is a cooked pizza pop. I put it in my little toaster oven for about 10mins at 375.