Corned beef hash

This is a simple dish, but remarkably tasty and filling. It uses a can of corned beef - NOT the same thing as Spam!

Fry a finely chopped onion until soft. Add a can of corned beef and break the meat down into smallish chunks with a spoon. Keep frying, stirring to prevent the mix from catching on the pan, until the meat breaks down into a mush. Add a can of baked beans and stir in a generous squirt of tomato ketchup. Keep cooking on low until the mixture thickens up a bit.

Serve with mashed potatoes and veg.

Perogies

Not something we had ever come across until we moved to Canada, but very much a favorite over here.

We keep bags of frozen perogies ready to be used. Easy to take out the required quantity. These are surprisingly filling little blighters. I reckon on serving only 6 to 8 per person, so you do need to count them out or you can easily over-cater.

Cook the perogies according to instructions - basically boiling for about 10 minutes.

Serve topped with sour cream, grated cheese, fried bacon, and chopped chives and spring onions.

Butternut squash soup

We have often bought packets of squash soup but never before tried making it from scratch. We were very pleased with the results.

The recipe we found is here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/77981/butternut-squash-soup-ii/

In a generous knob of butter, fry a chopped onion, some celery, carrots, diced potato, and a diced squash. Add enough stock to cover, bring to the boil and simmer until the veg is soft. Blend, and stir in salt and pepper. The result should be a very thick soup.

Departing from the recipe, we then stirred in a generous dash of cream and another knob of butter, and served with bacon bits and grated Parmesan.