Anne of Green Gables Inspired Holiday Recipes

Sullivan Entertainment

Anne’s Cream of Onion Soup

“This soup was one of Anne’s favourites and she was rather proud of her ability to make it.”-Anne of Avonlea

Ingredients:

3 tbsp butter (45 ml)

2 large onions, sliced

¼ cup cornstarch (50 ml)

1 tbsp all-purpose flour (15 ml)

1 tsp salt (5 ml)

1 tsp white pepper (5 ml)

2 cups boiling water (500 ml)

4 cups milk, scalded (1 L)

1 cup mashed potatoes (250 ml)

2 tbsp chopped parsley, sliced onions or chopped chives (optional) (25 ml)

 

Instructions:

 Melt the butter in a large pot and add the sliced onions. Cook the onions over medium heat until they are lightly browned. Stir in thecorn starch, flour, salt, and pepper and cook for a minute, until the cornstarch and flour are lightly browned. Gradually add the boiling water, stirring constantly. Continue cooking the mixture until it is smooth and slightly thickened.

 

Mix the scalded milk with the mashed potatoes and stir them into the onion mixture, Simmer the soup for a few minutes and serve it, as Anne said, “as soon as it’s done”.

 

Sprinkle each serving with chopped parsley, sliced green onions or chives, if you like.

 

“Prunes and Prisms” Stuffing

Charles Dickens’s phrase “prunes and prisms” from his novel Little Dorrit was applied several times in the Anne books. It referred to prom and proper behaviour.

 

Ingredients:

12 large, pitted prunes

12 whole dried apricots

1 cup orange juice (250 ml)

3 tart apples, peeled, cored, and cut in 1-inch (2.5 cm)chunks

1 onion, peeled and cut in 1-inch (2.5 cm) chunks

 

Instructions:

Soak the prunes and apricots in the orange juice for about thirty minutes. Drain the fruit, discarding the juice, and mix the prunes, apricots, apples and onions together in a large bowl.

 

Stuff the goose or turkey just before roasting.

Green Gables Bread Sauce

 

"Anne, whose cheeks were already beginning to glow crimson, as much with excitement as from the heat of the fire, prepared the bread sauce for the chickens, minced her onions for the soup, and finally whipped the cream for her lemon pies."-Anne of Avonlea

 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter (or goose fat) (25 ml)

1 cup stale breadcrumbs (250 ml)

1 ½ cups milk (375 ml)

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Instructions:

Melt 1 tbsp (15 ml) of the butter in a skillet. When the butter begins to sizzle, stir in ½ cup (125 ml) of the breadcrumbs. Cook over medium heat until they are nicely browned. Set aside.

In a small pot, heat the milk slowly until tiny bubbles form around the edges. Remove from heat before the milk boils up.

Put the remaining ½ cup (125 ml) of breadcrumbs in a heavy saucepan over medium heat and pour scalded milk over them. Stir and simmer the mixture for about twenty minutes. Add remaining butter, salt and pepper. Keep the sauce warm until you are ready to serve it.

Pour bread sauce over slices of meat and sprinkle the browned breadcrumbs on top, or serve the bread sauce topped with the browned breadcrumbs in a warm bowl and let each guest spoon the sauce.

Makes about two cups.

Enjoy and happy holidays!

For more recipes check out the Avonlea Cookbook and Cooking With Anne of Green Gables. And watch Anne of Green Gables and An Avonlea Christmas this holiday season on GazeboTV.

Images and recipe text courtesy of the Anne of Green Gables Christmas Treasury by Carolyn Strom Collins and Christina Wyss Erikson.

Watch Sullivan Entertainment productions on our online streaming site called GazeboTV! Plus, explore tons of Anne-inspired merchandise at Shop At Sullivan!

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