CHRISTMAS with MRS. BLISS

"The best gifts are the memories we make with the people we love..." -A. Boyarshinov

CHRISTMAS with Mrs. Bliss was  blissful.  She lived across the street with Mr. Bliss and their dog Gypsy.  They had oodles of grown children and grand children.  But it was their garden of which they were most proud.  Especially the Dahlias. Mrs. Bliss won  prize after prize every year.She would bring handfuls over,every September for my mother. She would stuff them into pails on the back porch. That way we could watch  ear wigs crawl out of the petals.  

Every Christmas she came over for Christmas tea. She would leave Mr. Bliss at home.She would toddle over with a big old xmas  card box that rattled when she walked in her orthopedic shoes.

The box was full of old halloween fudge that she'd made in the summer. It was dry and crunchy. We had quite a collection of her fudge.She would sit by the roaring fire. My mother would call her Mrs. Bliss, even though they had known each other 40 years. Mrs. Bliss would call my mother Nessie. And then she'd bring out the mincemeat pie,  tea things and sherry.

MINCEMEAT PIE ( the real thing)

CRUST: 2 ½ cup all-purpose flour,1 Tbsp sugar,1 tsp salt,3 Tbsp vegetable oil,1 cup cool unsalted butter, cut into pieces (does not have to be ice cold), ¼ cup cool water,2 tsp white vinegar or lemon juice

Mrs. Bliss  would, for the 40th year in a row, ask my mother to call her Elva. My mother had a hard time calling people by their first names. Even friends. So it was Mrs. Bliss for now and always. Mrs. Bliss sampled the sherry, and the tea and the shortbread and asked after the mincemeat pie...

Double Crust Fruit Pie Dough

1. Combine the flour, sugar and salt together. Add the oil and blend in using a pastry cutter, electric beaters or a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, until the flour looks evenly crumbly in texture.

2. Add the butter and cut in until rough and crumbly but small pieces of butter are still visible. Stir the water and vinegar (or lemon juice, if using) together and add all at once to the flour mixture, mixing just until the dough comes together. Shape the dough into 2 disks, wrap and chill until firm, at least an hour.

3. The dough can be made up to 2 days ahead and stored chilled, or can be frozen for up to 3 months, thawing in the fridge before rolling.

At some point Mr. Bliss would pop by with the cookies he had been making for his grand children; smarties falling off along the walk way as he toddled up to the front door. Mrs. Bliss did not cook. She only made jam for her jam business. And fudge.  Mr. Bliss never stayed.  But Mrs. Bliss did. There was pie coming. That famous pie of 40 years gone by.When my father died, they had me stay at their house for a few days, while my mother sorted things out. They were kind and gentle and Gypsy sat my my side while we watched cartoons.

Sometimes, Mr. Bliss would bring Gypsy over to visit. Very big German Shepherd. I was a little afraid of her. But she was good. And did tricks. Gypsy lived a long time, till I was a teenager.  She died. Well loved and well mourned.

Mrs. Bliss was quite famous in horticultural groups. She had a rose named after her, and a dahlia.  But she was more proud of her jams. "Bountiful Bliss Jams".  They were sticky and sweet and smacked of fruit.Every Christmas she brought my mother a jar of quince jam, besides the dried up fudge. Though, the past few years the quince jam had been one she had open in her fridge, traces of butter from a knife stirring around in the mix......

Mincemeat Filling

2 medium apples, peeled and coarsely grated,1 cup golden or Thompson raisins

1 cup dried currants,½ cup dried cranberries,

¼ cup finely diced candied ginger,½ cup packed dark brown sugar

⅓ cup honey,¼ cup brandy, optional,1 Tbsp finely grated orange zest

2 tsp finely grated lemon zest,2 Tbsp lemon juice,½ tsp ground allspice

½ tsp ground nutmeg,¼ tsp ground clove,¼ cup unsalted butter, melted

1 egg mixed with 2 Tbsp water, for brushing,Turbinado or granulated sugar, for sprinkling

Mincemeat Filling

1. Toss the grated apple, raisins, currants, dried cranberries and candied ginger with the brown sugar, honey, brandy, lemon juice, orange and lemon zests and spices. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours, up to 24 hours.

2. Preheat the oven to 400 F. Pull out the dough from the fridge 15-30 minutes before rolling. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the first disk of dough into a circle just less than ¼-inch thick. Dust a 9-inch pie plate with flour and line the plate with the pastry. Trim away the excess dough and pinch the edges to create a fluted design.

3. Stir the melted butter into the mincemeat filling and spoon this into the pie shell, spreading to level it. Roll out the second disk of dough and use a cookie cutter to cut out shapes of your choosing. Arrange the cut-outs over the mincemeat filling, placing them closely together over the entire surface of the pie. Brush the pastry with eggwash and sprinkle lightly with sugar.

4. Place the pie onto a parchment-lined baking tray and bake for 10 minutes at 400 F, then reduce the oven temperature to 375 F and then bake for about another 40 minutes, until the crust is golden brown

This was the moment Mrs. Bliss waited for, each year, when my mother would cut the hot pie before her very eyes.  It would crumble at the sides, the filling steaming like a dragon, as my mother slapped a generous piece into a flat bowl.

She would pour hot, scalding cream over the slice of mincemeat pie and watch it glide  amongst the pastry. Mrs. Bliss would oooh and ahhhh. 

Then would come the first bite, the heavenly scalding of the cream and mincemeat together. In perfect symmetry. And there would be no talking. Just the sound of the fire crackling wafting the aroma  of wood smoke and Mincemeat over the room.

And, as every Christmas, I would play violin for Mrs. Bliss. I would play while they savoured their hot Mincemeat pie and sherry and talk of the old days, and my dad,  and the days to come. Of Dahlias, and life and jams and how they looked forwards to summer again and whether there was enough pie to wrap up for Mrs. Bliss to take home to Mr. Bliss...Kind, gentle people, who just wrapped you up in their life and made you theirs.

Smokey 2017

"In the dark. In the night. Dreams disperse. And rains carve Christmas legends in the pines. And we cling. To the dreams . To the memories...." 

Spencer

Photographs 2020