Making Pasties with the Grandchildren

One of the things I found out about my husband's family when I started going out with him many years ago was that they loved pasties. It was always a special meal for them. I had never heard of pasties, but I loved them the first time I ate them. As time went on my mother-in-law taught me how to make pasties and I have taught my children to make them.

These photos show me teaching my grandson how to make pasties along with the help of my daughter and granddaughter.

One time I asked my mother-in-law how she made such great crust. She said she had a secret...then she took out a box of Betty Crocker pie crust mix. I had to laugh and thought great!! I hated making my own crust.

Pasties are basically a meat, potato, and onion pie that the early miners took down to the mines for their lunches. You can read about the history of the pastie here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty.

In our family pasties are a special meal. To make them you cut into cubes your choice of meat. We have used veal, pork, various cuts of beef or chicken. Save any fat to make a broth. Dice up potatoes, and onion and add to the meat. Season with salt and pepper. Make a pie crust dough. Take a small ball of dough and roll it out into a circle about 6-7 or so inches in diameter. Put a cup full of the meat mixture onto half of the dough and fold the other half over and pinch the edges closed. Some people put a pat of butter on top of the mixture before closing. Place on a cookie tray.  Bake at 350 for about an hour. I'm not giving amounts. Just put in what you like. While the pasties bake, add water, salt and pepper to the fat to make your broth. Throw the fat away when done. When we eat our pasties, we chop the top with our fork, pour a little broth on top and follow with ketchup. I'm getting hungry just telling you about them. The aroma is wonderful and your house will still smell great the next day.

There are many variations to what you put inside a pastie. My husband and I taught school in Australia for a couple of years right after we were married. Pasties were served at school for lunch. I can remember that they had carrots and other types of vegetables in theirs. They may think it is funny that pasties are such a special meal for us.

The Gifts of a Christmas Just Past

Before Christmas, I shared photos of the wordless book I was making for my granddaughter.
Here she is telling her own stories. She is 3 years old. She began each page with, "One daaaay, Cattie Caterpillar ..." She loves the book just like I hoped she would. I added a few more pages after my last post on the book, and also went back and put a different hat or swimming goggles, for the ocean scene, on the large storyteller caterpillar at the bottom of each page.

The other gift I made was the matching aprons for my daughter, granddaughter and doll.

The chair was given to my husband when he was
2 years old. My sister-in-law wove a new seat and
repainted it for our oldest daughter for Christmas
when she was little. Now it has been repainted and
given to our granddaughter. The chair is about 64 years old!

Our kitchen is being renovated, but we still managed to cook a great dinner together. I will tell you about it in my next post.