Last night I was trying to fall asleep but instead was thinking about blogging. Actually more about why I like blogging. I started one month ago today and I am enjoying this more than I imagined I would. It combines three things that I love, cooking, photography, and math. Yes, math. I absolutely love monitoring the stats on my WordPress dashboard. It is rather fitting that it called hits to the blog because it is like a drug to me when that graph shows a sharp incline on those days when something of mine is featured on either foodgawker or TasteSpotting. I’ve been featured 5 times within this past month and I’ve got a really terrible camera so I’m counting myself very lucky so far. I also love the blogging community and the way that everyone supports one another with positive comments. It is just too much fun.
This week I tried something new while putting together our menu for the week. I gave each family member a choice for one meal. Both kids agreed on the meal today. Today we are eating a classic French-Canadian recipe, Meat Pie or Tourtierre. It is basically a meat loaf in a pie crust but the spices are what makes it uniquely French-Canadian. This is my mother’s version which only contains ground beef but I’m also including my Grandmother’s version which has both ground beef and ground pork.
Meat Pie
- 3 lb. hamburger
- 1 1/2 cups water
- 1 cup chopped onions
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp allspice
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves (I usually omit this because it gives my husband heartburn.)
- 1 Tbsp salt
- 2 cups dry bread crumbs
- Pie crust – top & bottom
- Optional – add grated carrots and wheat germ if desired (This is my variation, to replace some of the bread crumbs)
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Cook all ingredients except crumbs and pie crust in sauce pan for about 30 minutes stirring occasionally. The boiling ground beef looks really gross but trust me on this, it works. Remove from heat, add bread crumbs, carrots & wheat germ (if using) and mix well. Fill unbaked pie crust with mixture. Cover with top crust and seal pastry edges together. Bake at 425 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until crust is golden brown. Makes 3 pies. Extra pies can be wrapped in plastic wrap and frozen for later use.
The filling is fully cooked so you could assemble the pie, refrigerate it and then bake it later.
My daughter practically licks her plate clean when we have this meal.
Tourtierre (French Meat Pie)
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 lb. ground pork
- 1 lb. ground beef
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 15 single saltine crackers (crushed)
- 1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 cup water with beef bouillon cube
- salt & pepper to taste
- 10″ pie crust (top and bottom)
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Melt butter and cook onion until transparent. Add meat, cook, then drain fat. Add water, spices and cook a bit more. Add cracker crumbs. Put into a 10″ pie crust. Cover with top crust. Bake at 450 degrees for 15 minutes.
Try It You Might Like It 
I hope to help your stats! This sounds good. Yet ANOTHER one I’ll have to try!! Made another batch of the pickles today. Yummy Yummy!!
Wow, that looks interesting. I have never seen such a thing. What side dishes go with it?
Growing up my mom always had French-cut green beans from a can as a side dish with this. While as a kid I loved those salty green beans I no longer like the texture of the canned green beans. Instead I make some baked fresh green beans with mushrooms. Add a sprinkle of some of your favorite vinaigrette salad dressing or balsamic vinegar to a baking dish filled with green beans and mushrooms and stick in the oven at 400 for 20 minutes. I’m the only one who’ll eat that though.
Piccalilly is my son-in-laws choice with meat pie. He grew up in Quebec.