Christmas Party.

As a requirement to this evening’s Christmas party at Manuela’s, I had to bring something home-made to the pot-latch dinner and it had to be something uniquely traditional from my country of birth. But because she specifically specified that it may not be from your home country because, and I quote, “since we all consider Canada to be our home now”, I was at a loss as to what to bring to the table since, well, Canada IS my country of birth AND the only country I can call home to.

And so I sent the following email:


I'm absolutely in for your Christmas party on the 24th! If I drink too much Glühwein however, I may have to stay the night!

Aside from my apparent drinking problem, I have yet another predicament. Canada is my country of birth and I still consider it home as well. I made Canadian Butter Tarts last year and thought about baking something else this year from my big book of Kanadisch Kooking Kollektion. But if anything Canadian is forbidden, I guess I could pretend to have just come off the boat from Japan and create a holiday inspired gingerbread sushi. Or how about my Ferrero Rocher maki? Turkey-yaki?

Please tell me that you'll make an exception to the rule for me so that I wouldn't be the only one eating my new creations.


And like the time I went to see my doctor to write me a note excusing me from physical education class in high school, I was excused. Phew! Ferrero Rocher maki does sound pretty good though... I could just hear everyone at the party saying “Monsieur! With these Rocker maki’s, you’re really spoiling us!”

And with that, I slaved away in the kitchen for hours beating eggs, adding sugar, cinnamon, yeast, salt, vanilla extract, soy milk and flour, kneading the dough until it turned elastic. While waiting for the dough to rise, I had sliced and diced McIntosh apples, marinated them in a sugar and cinnamon mixture, and baked them in the oven for about thirty minutes. I took a tennis ball sized clump of dough and flattened it out into a shape of a beaver tail, flash-fried it on a cast-iron pan of canola oil, flipped it into a bowl of sugar and cinnamon mixture, spread Nutella on one side, added the juicy baked apples on top, and dressed it with a little bit of lemon juice.

And voila! Twelve Beaver Tails! The result turned out pretty good considering that this was my first time eating this Canadian pastry and making it too. With comments like “Délicieux!” and “Excellente!”, it was the talk of the party and most everyone asked for the recipe.

From poutine to beaver tails, we Canadians sure know how to eat healthy.

It wouldn’t be a Christmas party without playing Secret Santa, so after desert, we all huddled around Manuela’s ginormous flatscreen TV tuned to the Fireplace Channel and took part in playing wichteln, drawing numbers from a bowl and claiming our prezzies. I won a keychain Maglite with chocolate!

Thanks for hosting such a great party, MSG!