Stirring Up Memories In The Kitchen

Man! It's cold outside this morning...but warm in my kitchen. I am making meat pies...again. Tourtiere actually. I made a batch for Mom before I left Ontario, and while that is a good thing; there are no meat pies in MY freezer. Now Mr. O really doesn't mind if I have no present for him under the tree, but no meat pies for Christmas, is another thing altogether! I heard so much about his Mom's meat pies , when we were first married that I went on a search for "THE" perfect meat pie recipe. Well Canadian Living, Bless their hearts, published this recipe many years ago and after trying it and getting the Mr. O seal of approval it has been my old stand-by. ( I know it measures up because when I made them and served them to Mr. O's father, he said they were the best! ...just like his Mom made them!) What is it about mom's cooking?

Now just to show you how old this magazine is, you might notice the price up in the right hand corner... .39cents! If you click on the pic and enlarge it you may even be able to make out the date under the letters "V I" in Living. It would seem I am a creature of habit, because even though I have another copy elsewhere, this is what I pull out of my recipe collection each year. The pages are getting quite shabby and un-readable in some places, and I never try to make it from memory, but just having this old magazine on my counter seems to be the "secret ingredient".

It is not very "Christmas-sy" around here, because as some of you may know, Mr. O and I are leaving in just 5 more sleeps to drive back to Ont. to spend Christmas with Mom; so I have not done any decorating or preparing for the festivities. Honestly, what was the point?

That being said, smelling my meat pies cooking and listening to seasonal music has stirred up a few memories of Christmas Past.

After they are finished I will make my "traditional" peanut brittle and that will be the extent of my Christmas baking. ...well maybe just a small batch of scotch cookies; but just a small batch mind you! Do you feel the Merry yet?

Bonne Appetit and Happy Holidays.