CHRISTMAS TEA and recipes

"Afternoon tea should be provided,, with thin bread and butter, fancy pastries, cakes, etc.  being brought in as other guests arrive...." 

-Mrs. Beeton (Jan 1, 1861)

It's not just about  treats at Christmas, it's what they represent, or rather,  WHO they represent. Moments in time.  Places we've been. People we've laughed and cheered with  and cried with. We're still walking with. All these years later. So many treats and pots of tea across the miles....here's a few of my favourites.....

1920's XMAS(Bethune) PUDDING: Double to make two. 1/4 lb flour, 1/4 lb br sugar, 1/3 cup crumbled marg (suet would have been used in last century), whole lotta raisins, 1/3 cup orange juice and ground up orange, 1/3 cup lemon juice,  cup of brandy, shredded apple and carrot, bunch of almonds,  1/2  tsp each cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves allspice. Enough MILK or sub to make a sloppy batter.  Pile into greased pudding bowl, lined with paper. Steam in a pot of water, or steam in a basin of water in oven, for about 6 hour.Add more water as needed. the scent is amazing! Freezes great. Sometimes I double this recipe. Serve with cold whipping cream or hard sauce. Just wonderful. My fav is the whipping cream. 

HARD SAUCE (Here is the CNR’s Canadian National Railway ....recipe for hard sauce, as given by dining car steward W.R.Hudson, Jr.)Combine ½ pound butter, ½ pound berry sugar, 8 drops vanilla and 8 drops almond flavouring. Add a few drops of yellow colouring to make the sauce a very delicate rich-cream colour. Keep all ingredients cool during mixing, and store in cool place. My dad got this recipe from one of the people he worked with on the trains.

MELOMAKARONA (Greek Honey Shortbread) (from my dear friend, from across the miles, Maria,  1998 St. Albert, Alberta)

3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 cup olive oil, ¼ cup sugar, ½ cup brandy, ¼ cup orange juice, 1 tbsp grated orange rind,1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1 tsp cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 350  Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda.

Combine oil, sugar, brandy, orange juice and orange rind. Gradually combine all together . Dough should be easy to knead. Roll out and cut into round or oval shapes about 2 ½-3 inches. Or roll by hand. Place on greased baking sheet and bake for about 20 mins till brown.

SYRUP INGREDIENTS: 1 cup honey, ½ cup sugar, 1 cup water boil for about 5 mins. Let cool.  Dip hot shortbread in cooled syrup, place in container or on serving plate and sprinkle with chopped walnuts and cinnamon. OR store shortbread without dipping in freezer. They are good without the syrup I think. 

                          

MY GRANDMOTHER'S SCONES (circa Bethune 1920) She pronounced it as "Scawns" 

Handle the mixture lightly. Do not over mix. Do not knead. Everyone seems to treat scone dough like it were  bread dough.It should look rather undermixed, then it will be  flaky and light. Be fast and quick.

2 cups  flour,  ½ cup sugar,  1 tbsp baking powder,  Pinch of coarse salt

½ cup cold butter or margarine,  1 egg, 2/3 cup cream plus a tad more if too dry. 

Mix all dry ingredients together Plop butter or margarine into this, blend with pastry cutter.

Dump egg into milk/cream and beat till blended. Make a well in center, pour liquid into this well. Mix quickly with fork and turn into a soft, dough ball…should feel like baby’s skin.  DO NOT KNEAD. It will come together in the baking.  

Divide into to dough balls. Plop each dough ball onto Silpat/Parchment lined pan and press down gently to make a circle. Don’t press down too hard….. Work quickly with your fingers to shape. Brush  a little milk on tops, with fingers, sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Cut into pie wedges. Bake at 425 degree oven for about 15 minutes. Start with 12 mins. Cover with foil if your oven is hot. Add time as needed. watch them or they can burn.  Serve with butter and honey if wished. My Uncle would travel from the snowed in farm in Bethune,Saskatchewan, to spend Christmas with us. Every breakfast he'd polish off the daily scones my mother made, with butter and honey, bacon and eggs, and a pot of coffee.

SHIRLEY MOORE’s XMAS CAKE ( 1997from Shirley Moore, Fredericton, New Brunswick. This is  a  lovely, light , pretty cake. )

 Shirley was a retired pastor's wife who lived a life of amazing service. A harmonious friend, who only saw  good in life. She passed away , only  a few years ago. When we first showed up in Fredericton she came over with oodles of pies, cookies, breads. She didn't want us to starve, while waiting for the moving truck. We were instant friends. She gave me one of her Xmas cakes and the recipe, before we moved the following year. Since then, for twenty years, we gabbed on the phone. When I make her cake, I think of her. Best cake ever

FRUIT:

3 cups golden raisin, 2 cups glazed fruit, 6 candied dried pineapple, 1/3 orange candied peel, 1/3 cup lemon peel, 2 cups green/red cherries, 3?4 cup dried apricots, 1 1/2 cups pecan halves, 1 1/2 cup chopped almonds. You can also soak fruit in a bottle of wine. Shirley never did that,or use orange juice instead.

BATTER: 1 pound butter, 2 cups white sugar, 10 large eggs, 1/2 cup lemon juice, 2 tsp almond extract, 1 tsp vanilla ext.,3-4 cups flour, pinch salt, 1 tsp b powder.

 Line  small loaf pans with greased parchment paper. You can find loaf pans in the section of the grocery store where they sell foil and cling wrap.

  Put all ingredients for “Combine Fruit in Bowl” list into  large bowl, mix together. Let sit for a day to let the flavours mellow.  

 From BATTER List, cream butter with sugar, add eggs 1 at a time. Add remaining ingredients.  When  batter is ready, pour in the fruit that has been standing. Mix well.

 Divide batter between pans. Bake at 300 degrees for about 1  ½ hours ( give or take. Sometimes it takes an hour). I kind of guesstimate the time, and check after 40 minutes by testing the centre.  You do not want to over bake the little loaf pans , so check often. It makes between 10 and 13 pans.

                            

VINEGAR TARTS ( 1940’s) My dad's favourite of all. He's sneak them in the middle of the night....... and hand one to me as well. My mother started to wonder why she was always making tarts.

(Basically a gooey type of butter tart, but without raisins. My grandmother  also  made these  ….)

 ¾ cup brown sugar,  1 large tablespoon of butter,

2 tablespoon of  red wine vinegar, or balsamic, or white vinegar

½ cup corn syrup,  2 eggs

 Beat all together, pour into frozen, store bought tart shells ( my mother used to make pastry shells herself. It's whatever is easiest for you!)  and bake at 350 till filling is set, about 18 minutes.  ( Makes about 14 tarts) You can cover with a lid if you wish. They are amazing.  My mother served these piping hot so the filling would dribble here and there.  

                                             

"The earth has grown old with its burden of care. But at Xmas it is always young. Its soul full of music, breaks the air, when the song of angels is sung..." - Phillip Brooks

Mum’s SCOTTISH SHORTBREAD (  from the 1940’s)

(This turns out great. Make sure you do NOT overwork the mix, so the shortbread remains buttery yet flaky. Mum’s old Scottish recipe)

 1 pound of butter, softened slightly.

1 cup  white sugar  ( not icing sugar)( I substitute brown sometimes)

4-4 ½ cups flour (the dough needs to be like pastry)

 

Combine the Butter, Sugar and flour. All at once. Mix like pastry, use a pastry cutter if you like. It should be crumbly in the bowl, not squashed together like regular cookie dough. It should actually LOOK like pie pastry. Less mixing is better. Do not mix into a ball of dough. It will lose  texture otherwise.

Pat Mixture  into  parchment lined  13 x 9 inch pan, using the heel of your hand.

Prick all over with fork. Sprinkle with a tablespoon or two of sugar.

 

Bake at 325 degrees till lightly browned. About 20 minutes. Add time if needed. The baked sheet  should feel fairly dry to the touch. And the edges ever so slightly browned a bit.  All over should be cream coloured for the most part.

 Take out from oven and immediately cut into rectangles. Slice with a sharp knife.

Let cool, then cut again in same indentations if you need to.

 Remove from parchment paper when cool. 

  **These freeze perfectly. Can be dipped into melted chocolate.

                                             

"Find yourself a cup of tea. Now tell me hundreds of things...." 

                                            - Saki ( H.H.Munro, British writer)

Photographs 2023
 

Mincemeat and Ribbon...a short story

 "I want you to write in my album, something both bright and true, so that in the misty future my thoughts will come back to you..."
               --Nessie McConachie, (1936 wedding album)

 My mother loved Christmas. Loved baking for it. Loved having people sit by the fire. Even long after my father died in 1967. She still did it.As she got older it got harder for her. But she made everyone feel welcome and wanted. 

 They were married on Nov 21, 1936. On a rainy windy day. She sewed her own dress out of cream satin,made her own veil, and picked up a bouquet of mums and roses ..........

 She told me , years later, everything cost about  $6.72 . A great cost then.  The net ribbon for the flowers was special. Wide, gauzy fabric remnant.  My father  was handsome.  Desi Arnaz handsome. For years to come when I watched "I Love Lucy" I would imagine Desi Arnaz to be my dad.....

Davey and Nessie Nov 21, 1936

In 1988 , when I was going through things in the house, I found an old chest in the basement. My Mother's hope chest. It was kind of damp.  I found her autograph books,  remnants of once was a  wedding dress, now stained with mould and rust. Part of a crumbling veil. A few pressed roses. Paper thin. Dust unto dust. A muffin tin. Also rusted.  My mother never made muffins. She used them for  Mincemeat Tarts at Christmas. 

 And  that Net Ribbon. In a ball.Ripped, rusted, mostly ruined. Some of it  survived. I threw the ribbon into a shoe box. Twenty years later I finally made a quilt . That was about six years ago. Gold pearl collars from the 1950's,part of a lace  tablecloth we made together. And the Net ribbon. Draped like angel wings. 

That old muffin tin  got me thinking about mincemeat tarts. My mother used to create tarts with thick pastry shells.So thick you needed a knife and fork. Three times the size of regular ones....

 Filled with homemade mincemeat. Hers was rather dry and chewy. Lots of suet sticking out, like so many meal worms. Not a pretty sight. Eventually she used mincemeat from the store. She'd slog in a good glop of whiskey into the mincemeat, before ladling it into shells.

They could walk on water, she often said as she covered them with pastry "hats" and bake them to scalding .

 She served them to everyone who came calling. Whether they wanted one or not. She always kept a few, without pastry tops,  for my dad, I remember.A gentle man. He thought she was the living end. Many years later,when he was gone,  I saw her light a candle for him every Christmas, and put it in the window,  while she sat by it.Silent. Quiet.

 One Christmas, when I was a teenager,  we had a night with  company . My mother made  those mincemeat tarts. The kitchen smelled like a pub. Sherry soaked fruitcake and whiskey sodden tarts. She'd seal  them in Christmas tins, outside on the porch , in the cold. Mincemeat tarts were usually served hot with thick hot cream ladled over. Whether you wanted one or not......you got one.

  That night, warm mincemeat tarts had been taken out of the oven, and set  on the counter. Ready for later. Roast chicken sat beside the tarts. It was set to be carved. My Mother went back in to the living room to  visit a tad more.It was a jolly night. Everyone in good spirits.

 She  returned to the kitchen to start filling up plates. There was  our tabby cat, Mincemeat, sitting on the tray of warm tarts. Squishing them. Cat paw prints here and there. Shoved into the tarts. Pastry flicked off his tail.Mincemeat ( the cat) looked pleased.

 My mother was not.  She saw the golden brown roast chicken. A hunk taken out. And Mincemeat, the cat,  smiling. Happy. He licked the chicken. My mother  froze. Took a deep breath.......

 And came sailing back into the living room, Christmas tree glittering away. Friends laughing and happy. More Sherry? She filled glasses. That night they had had eggs, scones and fruitcake for dinner. It was as if they'd had a ten course meal in a fancy restaurant.Mincemeat, ( the cat) had chicken.

It took a few days before my mother remembered there were untouched mincemeat tarts in a tin,  on the porch, in the cold. 

 I think I understand my mother better now.  My dad I always understood. That net ribbon almost symbolic, the two of them being one. ...........and yes, the cat really did sit in the tarts and eat roast chicken 
( true story). He did it again a few years later, only then it was apple pie and turkey.......

 "The moon shines east. the moon shines West. But count on me. He makes the home brew best...."
-Davey McConachie (Sept 30 1930. S.S. Princess Norah)