Eating up the Hill: Turkey lunch with the trimmings

I generally have turkey once a year: at Christmas. Which is just about the right amount for me, actually. Especially given that between different dinners and assorted leftovers, I usually have about a year's worth of turkey over the holiday period.

My first turkey of the 2016/17 holiday season came last week for lunch, when the Parliamentary cafeterias served their annual holiday lunch across the precinct. Being a patriotic Canadian, I gathered up some compatriots and we headed upstairs for a traditional Christmas lunch.

After starting with some perfectly adequate mushroom soup (sold separately), I dug into the lunch. And I have to say, for a cafeteria lunch I was pleasantly surprised. But let me start first with the disappointments. The carrots were under-cooked. It can be hard to get carrots right in a cafeteria setting, which may be why so many resort to the frozen bags of peas and carrots. I do appreciate the effort with the real carrots, though. Also, the mashed potatoes were fine I guess, but I don't really like mashed potatoes. Just don't get the point. Maybe that makes me a bad half-Irishman, but there you go.

Let's move on though, as I really did enjoy this lunch. The white meat turkey was as moist as you're going to do in this setting. I'm not used to stuffing in loaf format, but it was tasty. The gravy was hot and flavourful and provided generously. But the surprise highlight was the mini-tourtiere. Beef, I believe it was. Not a part of my traditional Christmas meal, but rich in flavour and truly delicious.

All in all, a hearty and satisfying Christmas lunch. I give it 4.5 out of 5.

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Eating up the Hill: Liberal caucus don't call it Christmas party

Last week was the annual office Christmas party. At my last job, each of the managers would bring in dishes they had prepared for an afternoon potluck. However, while I'm sure Marc Garneau's macaroni & cheese is amazing, the caucus leader's office opted to have the Liberal caucus holiday party catered by the Shaw Centre.

This party actually got some press earlier in the day, when a right wing pundit with a deadline and no ideas called the Liberal "holiday party" part of the phony war on Christmas. My friends, if there's a war on Christmas on Parliament Hill, Christmas is winning...

I can report, though, that in his remarks, Prime Minister Trudeau did wish attendees a Joyeux Noel. Hopefully someone can translate this for our friend from the Sun.

But on to the food! Unfortunately, I neglected to snap a photo of the starter: a truly delicious soup. It wasn't potato but was something similar and cream-based. Simple, hearty and warmed the innards. A fine start to the meal.

A fine start unfortunately let down by a disappointing main of airline chicken. Really, that's what it's called. This airline chicken was dry. I will take blame for it not being hotter, as it was served while we were in the line-up for photos. But it was still overcooked. The brown sauce was delicious, but it wasn't plentiful enough to overcome the dryness of the chicken. The asparagus, however, was on point.

Always end on a high note, I say, and the third course did this. The desert was excellent. There was some debate at the table as to just what it was. I say it was ice cream. Others disagreed. I admit the consistency and temperature was a bit off ice cream, but it was darned close, and the fruit compote and sugary faux-cookie complemented it nicely.

So I didn't leave my third caucus holiday party hungry. And unlike my first caucus holiday party way back in 1997, no one did the Macarena. So a winning night all around. And thanks to caucus chair Francis Scarpaleggia and his team for all their hard work organizing the party.

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Political Christmas cards, and Scarborough subways subways subways

Before I head to the West Coast tomorrow for Christmas, I thought I'd share a few of the political Christmas cards that -- for the last year ever if the Conservatives and Canada Post get their way -- the mailman has dropped through the slot of my front door.

The first, and my favourite, is from my local Liberal MPP, Scarborough-Centre's Brad Duguid. Clearly, he knows what his constituents want for Christmas -- subways subways subways.

Sticking with provincial politics, here's the card from Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, who poses with her happy extended family.

And finally, federal Liberal leader Justin Trudeau's card includes scenes from his RV tour of BC this summer with his family and other happy family shots.

Lastly, it's not a Christmas card, but I have to share this recent mailer from the Fort McMurray-Athabasca Conservative MP, that perhaps demonstrates why their party prefer their MPs use centrally-produced filler for these taxpayer-funded mailers. The one-sheater to constituents includes a crossword puzzle that's all about Brian Jean. One clue asks his hair colour, for example. Help me with another clue though; what's a 10-letter word for someone in love with themselves, starts with an n?

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