FOOD FEATURE

Fall Treats

When summer starts to cool off and the smell of fall and spiced pumpkin permeate the air, my heart turns to autumn aromas and hockey, Thanksgiving and Christmas menus. I love to cook for family and friends whom I love!

It Starts with Mom

Was your mother a wonderful cook who taught you everything she knew? You are lucky! My mom was a wonderful seamstress who taught me everything she knew about sewing. It got me in trouble at school because she also taught me shortcuts that we weren’t invited to use! Mom’s strength wasn’t in cooking because, let’s face it, when you have neither time (with six kids) nor money (she was a single mom most of the time), it’s difficult. I used to joke that I learned to eat fast because if there were six kids and seven pork chops, I always wanted the extra one. I was only partly joking. We were never allowed to invite a friend for supper because there wouldn’t be enough.

Enough to Share

I think that it was my dream as a child to always have enough to share and I vowed to learn to be a good cook and baker! Luckily, we’ve almost always had more than enough groceries to gladly encourage my boys’ friends to join us (sans hats at the table.) We’ve been privileged to share an extra room for lost boys, then foreign students, and now we billet Red Deer Rebels hockey

By Robin Armitage

players. We love having guests for dinner and it’s common at Thanksgiving to have 40 people or more gathered around the fully extended, hundred-yearold kitchen table, along with the large dining

room table and several other fold-up tables. Each is festively decorated for the season with real china and cutlery on the fabric tablecloth with matching napkins and floral and candle table centers. I love to make guests feel special - because they are to me! We (Murray, my husband, is a huge help) always have a turkey (with two dressings) and a ham, and several kinds of potatoes and vegetables and a few salads. On the side table is a plethora of pies (usually a couple of pumpkin, an apple, a pecan, bumbleberry, banana cream and whatever I’m in the mood for), a Skor bar trifle, a cheesecake or two (usually pumpkin or pistachio) and most everyone’s favourite, butter tarts! We all gather round first, and each says why they are thankful. This is my favourite part because sometimes it is very heartwarming, but sometimes, there are surprises and laughter. I think God (or to whomever we pray because some of our friends share other beliefs) thinks we are a little crazy. His fault, right?

Breaking Bread and Sharing Stories

I love some of the stories from our dinners. One of the Rebels who came to our house for

Thanksgiving, because his billets were away, filled his plate to heaping but all was brown and white. I asked him where his vegetables were, to which he replied, “I’ll get them next time.” Soon, he returned with yet another plate with boring colours. I told him, “Buddy, I don’t know if you know this but at my house pumpkin pie does not constitute a vegetable.” At this point he confessed that he really wasn’t crazy about vegetables. My only slightly taller musician son leaned over and advised, “You know you’ll never make the NHL if you don’t eat your vegetables.” Years later we went to a game with this Rebel, now playing in the NHL against the Flames in Calgary and while we were chatting he told us, “And, by the way, I’ve learned to like vegetables.”

I enjoy sending home-care package and having leftovers for my hockey players to snack on (although they aren’t to eat too much pie). My brother’s favourite was always pumpkin pie and on the rare occasion he got a break from dog shows and could make it, he always went home with one. This always seemed odd to me because I remember mom leaving the table when he was about four and him saying about the pie, “This looks like sh.. and it tastes like sh..!” Mom heard him and he was in so much trouble for swearing!

It Takes a Village

It is my belief that learning to cook takes a village. My first pie that I made for my husband was a chocolate pie with whipped cream and chocolate chips on top. I was a very young bride and my heart was crushed when he looked at it and said, “Who put the rabbit sh.. on the pie?” All his apologizing that he was just teasing didn’t make me any less determined to get extra good at baking pies! I learned from the cooks at Kresge’s, where my mom worked, to make an incredible strawberry pie from Mrs. Waldo. I got a recipe from a lovely lady named Rachel in Big River Saskatchewan and I learned to roll out pastry while working at Woodward’s on the lunch counter as an 18- yearold newlywed.

I am ever grateful to have learned from some amazing cooks and continue to educate myself because there are many new tastes and scents to conquer. I hope you enjoy my (in)famous butter tart recipe. Happy Cooking and

Happy Fall!

Robin’s Butter Tarts

Butter Tart Filling

Whip • 4 tbsp butter with • 1 packed cup brown sugar • Add one egg and beat in then add • 1 tsp vanilla • 2 tbsp cream, mix in and add • ¾ cup of soaked drained raisins

Whip together, you will need about 1 tbsp for each tart shell Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

Pastry for Tart Shells

5 cups of flour 1 tsp. salt

Mix together with fork Cut in 1 lb (500gm) of Tenderflake and two blobs (about 1 tbsp) of butter into the flour mixture till fairly fine with some bigger chunks Then

Beat one xlarge egg in bottom of 1 cup measuring cup , Add 1 tbsp of vinegar and fill the cup with very cold water to about a cup. Mix the liquid with the flour/ lard mixture till all damp. (I use my hands and DO NOT overmix) Flour the rolling surface and make round discs with the pastry mix and put on the surface. Flour and roll with rolling pin in quick short strokes in every direction. Cut circles to fit tart pans and place in carefully and fill to about 2/3 full with tart filling.

Bake for about 12 minutes. Let cool a few minutes and remove from pans carefully with a fork or thin sturdy spatula. (I use the Pampered Chef pans because they clean up so easily!!

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