THAT PIE and RIBBON...

"Learn to light a candle...be the light that lets others see; it is what gives life its deepest significance..." -Roy T. Bennett. (The Light in the Heart)

On Saturday, NOV 21, 1936 my mother and father married, in Victoria, B.C. She sewed her wedding dress from cream satin, used a remnant of tulle for the veil and held a bouquet of white carnations, wrapped in frail cream ribbon. My father wore his best suit and carried a hat. March 26, 1968 my father died, and twenty years later, to the day, March 26,1988, my mother passed away. I inherited her butter stained cookbooks, pie pans and The Ribbon from her bouquet....

In the 32 years they were married , my mother made a lot of pies. My father's  favourite was "That Pie", as he called it. Mincemeat and apple. Spicy, tangy raisin and rum, with thickened cream at the ready. Mince pies first appeared in a 1390 cookbook "The Forme of Cury" , labelled "Tartes of Flesshe". Ingredients used at this time: boiled pork, cheese, lard, wine, figs, raisins, pine kernels honey and spices.

By 1845 ox tongue and other meats were stuffed into crusts of lard, to be paraded out, during the holidays.  It was in Victorian times there was a choice: you could either make a pie mostly of meat, or just with apples, lemons, suet, currants, spices and sugar. That's the one my mother used to make at Christmas and Easter. I just happened to have a large jar of mincemeat ( no suet),that has been staring at me, ever since Christmas. So, here is my mother's Apple/Mincemeat pie...

BEST MARGARINE PASTRY   for 2 crust pie

 1/3 cup cold cold cold water, ½ pound margarine ( 1 cup),2 cups flour

 Cut in margarine into flour, till crumbly. Add water little by little. May need a bit more, to make it all come together. Makes enough for two pie shells. Roll into two velvety balls of dough, wrap in Cling free, and chill for at least an hour. (Makes buttery and flaky pastry.)

         Cut up as many apples as you wish, either Granny Smith, or whatever you have on hand. I go by sight, rather than amount. When I get tired of cutting up apples, then I'm done! Drizzle with lemon juice or lime juice to keep from browning. Open that jar of mincemeat to have ready!                

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line pie pan with rolled out pastry, score the pastry,  and blind bake for about 12 minutes to give the pie a head start. Keep an eye on it, as every oven is different. Once that's done, lower to 350, remove the pie pan from oven. It's time to fill it up! 

                                

Plop any amount of apples you have cut and peeled and sliced thinly, mixed with a 1/2 jar of mincemeat ( or the entire jar, if you wish to make a fat pie).The apples help the pie to be less rich.

Roll out other chilled ball of pastry, and cover over mincemeat filling. I took leftover pieces of pastry and rolled them out to slice into strips to twizzle over top. Brush with milk and sugar before popping into oven.

"You're meant to live a life full of passion, purpose, magic and miracles..." -Roy T. Bennett (The Light in the Heart)   

Place a piece of foil over top, to stop extra browning. When the is bubbling away, remove foil, and watch the filling burp its way out of the pastry. It baked about 35 minutes, then I added ten minutes, give or take, till it was brown and blurping juice from the edges.

                                           

My mother served this both at Easter and Christmas, warm from the oven, sometimes with custard, or with plain whipping cream...

And the net ribbon from her bouquet? I created a vintage wall quilt, which I add to as time goes by, complete with laces, beading, vintage jewelry, and The Ribbon,  (which is now 90 years old), wonderfully draped across it all. And I remember them...

 Photographs 2026: "We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody that it does.  Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining. They just shine..." -Dwight L.Moody

CHELSEA SCONES for EASTER (versatile).....

"Easter is the one morning in all of history where the dawn came twice; once on the eastern horizon and again in Eternity.." - Craig D. Lounsbrough

Every Easter it was a pan of Hot cross buns, with sticky icing crosses slathered over top of  candied peel, raisin buns. I used to lick off the frosting, pick out the peel and dispose of the bread to the birds outside.......These Chelsea Scones are way different. Made of tender dough, which can be rolled with anything you wish: make as  the recipe for something sweet,  or with cheese, ham, mushrooms, etc. Versatile...never fail scones. My mother/grandmother's recipe from the 1930's

MAKE the SCONE BATTER first: 2 cups  flour

½ cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, Pinch salt, ½ cup cold butter or margarine

1 egg, 2/3 cup milk ( I use Oat Milk instead, sometimes) and a splash more to make a soft dough. If your dough is stiff, the scones will be tough.

1. Prepare a 13x9 pan with veggie sprayed foil. Preheat oven to 450 F. Mix all dry ingredients together. Plop butter or margarine into this, blend with pastry cutter.

3.Dump egg into milk/cream/ oat milk or regular milk, and beat till blended.

4.Make a well in centre of mixture, pour liquid into this well. 

5. Combine with dry ingredients. Do NOT knead. The mixture should resemble pastry. Takes about 20 seconds. Work quickly, as if it were pastry.

The margarine/ butter should be incorporated loosely, as if it were puff pastry.  

6. Drop onto floured silpat liner/clean counter and  pat out in a weird shaped rectangle. 

Don't worry if it looks unfinished. Don't roll with rolling pin or it gets overworked.( Less is more!)

7. Melt a 1/3 cup marg or butter, spread some of it over the scone dough. Sprinkle with fillings of YOUR choice:

Here I used a cup or raisins, handful of br sugar. You can add a smidge of cinnamon, or be creative and use cooked mushrooms, ham, cheese, whatever you wish. But nothing runny, or it adds too much moisture.

8. Roll up like jelly roll.

9. Tuck in the long and short ends, and pat down slightly.

10. Slice into 12 segments with a large, sharp knife . 

11. Place into prepared pan, brush with remaining melted marg/butter, sprinkle br. sugar over top if doing sweet version, or cheese if doing savoury version. or leave plain after brushing with marg.

12. Bake at 450 f for about 12 minutes. Add 10 minutes to bring to a nice brown on surface. Add 5 more minutes if needed. If you just shove the pan in the oven for 20 minutes the tops might be too brown. 

Let sit on a cooling rack or board. Pull apart and serve. The scone recipe, alone,  is also good molded into a ring, like round bread, cut into wedges, then baked, or cut into rounds or wedges, and baked in 450 F for about 16 minutes... 

“On Easter Day, the veil between time and eternity thins to gossamer.” —Douglas Horton

Photographs 2025

 

BUNNY CAKE

"The great gift of Easter is hope..." -Basil Hume

Day before Good Friday dawned  dull and boring. At least that’s how it started. My mother was working a half day. Making uniforms  for the Hotel. I won’t be gone long , she said, as she packed a thermos full of tea.

The tv blared away with Bugs Bunny running around like a mad thing, tormenting Elmer Fudd. I was only half watching. The rest of the time I watched the clock. Three hours to myself, I thought.

I was home with a cold  ( sort of).   She waggled her finger at me. “Don’t get into things,” she said. I grinned. I was 1O, I think. Something like that. I never got into things. Things  just kind of happened…..

  I was going to bake a Bunny cake, I had decided. For Easter. For Mrs. Bliss  from across the street. She was coming over later.

But first I was going to play.  So I took down the sheer curtains from the living room and fastened them  all around me like a huge wedding dress. I had done this on numerous occasions.  The sheers trailed behind me about 10 feet, as I paraded up and down the living room singing the bridal march, at the top of my voice.

I got bored of that. Time to teach school. I loved teaching school.

Then I set up my barbies and stuffed animals in rows, as if they were my students. Told them they were all in detention and they would have to learn their ABC’s. 

Then I  yelled at them that a storm was coming . They had to put on  toques and parkas. I yelled that it was now a tornado. Then I knocked them all over.

A knock . Tap tap tap. It came again. Tap tap tap.The living room looked like a tornado hit , my  curtains trailing behind me, I did something I had been told never to do. Open the door.

It was Mrs. Bliss from across the road. She saw me, saw the curtains, saw my dolls all over the floor. She asked after me.  Mrs. Bliss said my mother asked her to check up on me. 

“Just about to slay dragons, “ I chirped. “Ahhhh,” said Mrs. Bliss. “Slay away.  I will be back later.” She toddled back across the street.

I was bored again. So I got another idea. I would make the Bunny Cake this year.  

I got mixing bowls, a big spoon, flour, water and the bunny cake pan from my Easy Bake Oven. I loved that thing. Didn’t work. But I loved it.

I dutifully mixed flour and water, beating it till it was the consistency of pudding. Had to tuck up the train of my dress as it was sort of in the way when I walked over to the oven. Again, something else I had been told not to touch.

I turned on the inside light,  just like my Easy bake Oven. I plopped in the dough into my Bunny Pan and shoved it into the  oven.

Then I watched it.  I guess you had to turn on the oven. 

But no time for that now. My mother would be home soon. She was only gone a half day, before Easter weekend. The house was a mess, the Bunny Cake  looked like goo. I retrieved it, and the bowls of extra flour-pudding. Couldn’t decided what to do with them. I got an idea.I dumped all of the  flour dough down the toilet and flushed. It burped like a hippo  in the mud

I washed  bowls and the Bunny pan. Cleaned up my dolls, managed to get the curtains back up where they were supposed to be; had done it many times before. I just stood on the back of the antique chaise lounge and threaded them thru the curtain rod. Easy Peasy.

Then I sat down in front of the tv to watch the Young and the Restless. My mother came home right about then.

She noticed right away that the toilet was  goopy. She called a plumber. He said he’d be over within the hour. (Those were the days). My mother  pulled back the sheer curtains, ready  for Mrs. Bliss. My mother found goo on the curtains.  She yanked them down. I had to take them down to the laundry. The plumber came and fixed the toilet for $50. 

When Mrs. Bliss arrived, I let her in. It was tea time. It was Easter. It was as it always was . She would stay for a good long while and visit. She  handed me  a cake shaped like a Bunny.

 Then she winked at me, and asked  if maybe next time I could slay some dragons for her……

Photographs 2022