Ontario Whirlwind Family Tour, Part IV: Furbacher Christmas

Christmas came early this year for my family. Let's face it: Christmas is not even that far away, you guys! Well, we went and got it over with this weekend. I highly recommend the pre-Christmas Christmas.

Before the parents showed up, we got to work on the stuffing. It's Trinidadian (like my mom). Key ingredients include rum, pork and green olives. I made this stuffing two years ago for Thanksgiving... check it out.

I chopped the olives, then took a hundred photos of them.


Here is a page from the as yet still unedited manuscript of the family cookbook I started working on 2+ years ago. It's a WORK IN PROGRESS. Judging by the writing all over it, Nadine has made a little more progress than I have.


Here is a bird, pre-oven.


Post-oven.


I ate a whole turkey leg.


My mom made all-new Christmas treats that we had never heard of. All of them, amazingly, are cracker-based.

Those flat ones are chocolate and butterscotch variations of Skor Bark. They taste like fudge. Pure sugary fudge. Made with one sleeve of saltines, one cup butter, 3/4 cup brown sugar and 2 cups chocolate (or butterscotch) chips:

Cover a baking sheet with foil, spray with cooking spray, and layer the saltines on top. Heat butter and sugar until melted; whip with a fork until caramelly, and pour the mixture over the crackers. Bake at 400°F for 6 minutes. Sprinkle with the chips; let sit 5 minutes until they've softened, and then use a spatula to smooth them out. Let cool in the fridge then feed to people to induce heart attacks.

The squares are made from Ritz crackers! Once you know this, you can totally taste the Ritz, but if no one told you, you'd never figure it out. The recipe is dangerously easy: one box Ritz crackers, one can condensed milk, and one package Skor bits.

Crush crackers in a bowl; stir in the condensed milk and then (most of) the Skor bits. Press into a greased 8-inch square pan, and sprinkle some extra Skor bits on top. Bake at 350°F for 20 minutes.

Try these at home at your own risk: there's no telling how many calories we ingested eating these things.


. . . especially given the fact that dessert was washed down with Ponché Crema (ie. Trinidadian eggnog). Another dose of condensed milk, along with evaporated milk, mixed with a tonne of dark rum, eggs, lime peel and Angostura Bitters. Whew.