Sweet Potato Meringue Pie

While the flavour and spices of sweet potato pie are similar to pumpkin pie, we switched it up with a graham cracker crumb crust. The elegant meringue topping was inspired by the sweet marshmallow-topped yams occasionally served as a Thanksgiving side dish.

Sparkling Eggnog Sugar Cookies

Sparkling sugar granules heighten the appeal of a cookie that you can cut into any shape you like.

Fruitcake Bites with Marzipan

These adorable individual fruitcakes make perfect gifts. Dust the cookie cutter with icing sugar to prevent the marzipan from sticking.

Honig Lebkuchen

These German honey gingerbread  cookies are like Christmas cake: They need time to develop flavour. Store in a cookie tin or wrapped in foil in a cool place for at least 3 weeks or for up to 3 months.

Kiwifruit Jerk Chicken & Sweet Potatoes

Blue Gooseberry Pie

Whether you prefer sour green or tart-sweet red gooseberries, this vibrant purple pie screams out for a scoop of vanilla ice cream. A goose-shaped cutter adds a touch of whimsy.

Caramel Apple Chicken

When we entertain, I love a serving a caramel apple topped Brie. I adapted the recipe to use in a chicken dish. It is easy, flavourful, and company loves it. The saltiness of the bacon, the sweetness of the topping and the crunchiness of apples, pecans and cranberries all work well together. I serve it with a wild rice, pecan and mushroom side dish. Any green salad works well, especially one with a bit of tartness, Balsamic vinegar or Dijon mustard. Citrus is also nice.

Cannelloni

This is my favorite recipe when company comes. Many of the steps can be done a day or two ahead of time which leaves you more time with your guests.

Apple Snow with Preserved Ginger

Apple Snow is a classic of old-fashioned Canadian cooking. Its light airiness and creamy smooth custard sauce make it a favourite of all ages. Because the apples are cooked unpeeled and then pur?, it's essential to choose bright red apples, as juicy as possible. McIntosh, Spartan, Rome Beauty, Ida Red and Snow apples would be the pick of the crop.

Dark Christmas Cake (nut-free)

This recipe is an adaptation of the Canadian Living Dark Christmas Cake from their 2004 Holiday Cookbook. Due to allergies in my husband's family, I had to remove the nuts from the original recipe, and substituted the dates instead. As well, I am not a fan of a lot of candied fruit, so substituted dried fruit for a lot of the candied stuff. It took three tries to come up with the recipe below (which is simply Dark Christmas Cake, 2006 recipe in my cookbook), but my family, in-laws, and coworkers certainly like this one. Hope you do too.