I've decked my halls. I've checked my list, twice. Today I am delving into my holiday recipes.
After The Toll Road North was published, it occurred to me that I had missed the chance to recount a French-Canadian Christmas Eve celebration. Last year, I published a short story called Réveillon - the name of the tradition of families attending Midnight Mass then returning home to eat and drink until sunrise.
One of the staples of a French-Canadian Christmas table is tourtière, or pork pie. My mom, born in Waterville, Maine, in 1923, was of the generation that just knew the recipe - meaning she worked from memory and never had the family tourtière recipe written down. When my siblings and I realized this, we asked her to write it down for us. We tried the recipe....and it failed. Then we made it with her, and lo and behold, there were several steps and spices she never made note of. One of my fondest holiday memories is of this day, my house full of my relatives all working on making tourtière together.
You'll see in the photo the evolution of the recipe notes. We still don't have an amount marked for clove and allspice - so good luck if you choose to try this recipe!
I laugh every time I see my mother's note on the bottom of one version that starts "better." I have not and never will make it that way. I want my mother's tourtière - what could possibly be better?
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