Getting this Show on the Road

While I was making the sandwiches for his work lunch this morning my husband was scrounging around the cupboards looking for other goodies to tide him over through the day.  He picked up the lid to the cookie jar and peered into its depths, removing the last few lace cookies for himself and treating Turbo to his favourite - an oatmeal raisin.  The dog was thrilled; the man looked a little sad.  I knew that whatever was left in there was not fresh but I've been putting off baking more - it's December and the recipes that I will be pulling out next are way too tempting for my level of self denial.  If I bake butter tarts too early I will just have to do it all over again in another two weeks in order to have some for Christmas.  Timing is everything!

After he left for the day I decided to pull out my file box of family favourites and see if shopping was going to be necessary before I could begin - it will be, and I will probably head into town before noon.  Going through the battered (in more ways that one) recipe cards I have slipped into the nostalgic frame of mind that makes holiday baking so much more than just combining ingredients - all of the well-loved recipes have titles that remind me who shared them with me.  Baking all these goodies is always like spending the day with people whom I hold dear.

There is one from a friend who used to babysit my kids.  She lives in Toronto now and we never see each other, but every Christmas I pull out the card for her mincemeat bars and think of the long conversations we used to have over coffee in her kitchen.  I still remember the first time I tried one of these cookies - just to be polite because I am not a fan of mincemeat, but I was totally surprised at how good they were.  Mincemeat is such a rich taste that it over powers tarts and pie, but in these cookies, that are basically a mincemeat fig newton, the cookie part balances out the fruit filling.  I asked for the recipe that afternoon and have made them every year since.  And I think of Shirley when I do.

The one for poppycock I had to research on my own.  Back in my Postmaster days a few of our customers would bring us treats to keep our energy levels up during the crazy days of December.  One lady always brought a dish of poppycock.  I never thought to get her recipe at the time, but the first Christmas after she passed away I sure missed her treat.  I had to try a few different versions before I found one close to hers and it's a family favourite now.  It doesn't have Ethel's name on the card but it's her I think of, and I try to make enough to hand out to the girls at the post office - you know, just to carry on the tradition.

The pastry recipe for the pies and tarts is the standard one printed on the Tenderflake Lard package, but the goodies that go into the shells are family treasures.  My sister Sheila was the master baker of our family, taking over mom's title when she was gone.  Now these two loved ones spend their Christmases together in heaven and the best the rest of us can do is use their recipes and hope for the best.  Sheila's butter tarts were the best - or was it just the joy of sitting in her kitchen and sipping coffee and eating all her goodies that made them so special?  We all use her recipe and think of her when we do.

And, as it turns out that I don't have everything I need to make Granny's lemon cheese for Mom's puff pastry tarts I will go to town.  I cheat of course; mom used to make her own puff pastry - it was quite the fitness program rolling those layers of butter and pastry together over and over again.  I can buy it ready made, which while very convenient is not all that healthy.  It means I can churn out my very favourite Christmas treat by the hundreds without the workout to burn off the calories.  Every mouthful tastes of my childhood.

And while I'm in town I guess I'll pick out the tree and a turkey ... may as well get this show on the road!