Jacque’s Award Winning Pasty Recipe

My mom was named Jacque.

She was an AMAZING cook.

So good, fact that when she was a Junior in High School she won a trip to Washington D.C.

for making the best pasties in the U.P. (Michigan’s Upper Peninsula)

That’s a HUGE achievement, as almost ALL pasties come from the U.P.

They were daily lunchbox fare for the men working in the mines, oh which my Great-Grandpa was one.

This recipe is a family secret and I’ve prayed long and hard about sharing it with you.

Promise me you won’t start a business selling this pasty, because I dream to one day.

“Jackie’s Pasties” has a ring to it, don’t you think?

I’m going to share, and he’s why.

When my mom and dad died, you may know, it was in a tornado and there was almost nothing left behind.

BUT, we DID find a number of kitchen items from Mom, as a I pulled them from the debris, I felt like my mom was saying to me, “This is how you will keep us alive.  Set the table. Make the food, and when you do, tell the story of who we were.”

So-

Here’s who she was: She was the kind of woman who arrived in D.C. on that trip as a social justice activist. Her first stop was the Lincoln Memorial where there was a KKK protest.

She, at 16 years old, walked right up to the Klan and said, “How dare you? Don’t you know it was Lincoln who freed the slaves?” to which they responded “and we have the hard-earned right to protest anywhere we want. This is public land”

That’s the story she always told as she baked these perfect pasties:

So as you make and enjoy them, thanks to my mom for the inspiration in so very many ways.

The Crust:

3 cups flour (Mom used white and I used wheat)
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup shortening or 1 cup lard

3/4 cup of ice water

1 table-spoon of white vinegar

Directions:

1
Mix dry ingredients in mixing bowl.
2
Cut in shortening  until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
3
Add ice water a little at a time, tossing with a fork to make a pastry-like dough.
4
Add a bit more water and the vinegar until the dough holds together.

5
Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface (or on top of a piece of plastic wrap which can easily be folded over and then peeled off once the pasty ingredients are loaded).
6
Edges of pasty should be brushed with a smidgen of water and then crimped VERY firmly with a fork (and I fold them and crimp again — so none of the liquid seeps out).
7
Brush tops of finished pasties with egg.
8
NOTE: Like pastry dough, pasty dough should be handled as LITTLE as possible to ensure flakiness. So, *handle with care* !

FAMILY SECRET ALERT!!!

When you roll this dough out, use a pie tin as your guide. Place rolled dough in the pie tin and fill half with the filling, THEN fold over, crimp edges and more to cookie sheet!

Filling:

What I used: (health nut that I am)

1 Package of ground chicken

2 large Potatoes diced

1/2 a large yellow onion diced

salt and pepper

When MOM used:

1 package of ground chuck

2 large potatoes diced

1/2 a large yellow onion diced

1 rutabaga diced

salt and pepper

Fill the crust with RAW ingredients and bake at 400 for about 40 minutes.

Serve with catsup.

There you have it friends! PLEASE tell me if you try this and how WONDERFUL it was. I’m thinking heaven smells just divine!

P.S.

My Great Grandma Kay’s last words were, “Pasties. Pasties for all the men.”

the alchemy of christmas cookies

 the ladies of st. barbara’s catholic church of vulcan, michigan put out a cookbook each year.

i’ve always loved the thing. the book, with notes from my mother actually lived through a tornado which took mom home. when i found in in the rubble, i swear i heard the voice of my mother say, “this is how you will keep us alive. set the table. cook the food and when you do, tell you children the story of who we were.”

it’s a true story, but it’s not a story for today.

suffice to say, they recipes are sturdy stock, made of things like “oleo and eagle brand”

 be 5 recipes for “hot dish”

you’d get one from the pollocks, like the opolkas

one from the swedes and finn, who always want to coat things with catsup and bake it,

the italians, like the spinetti’s and vacellios  who’s recipe we be just like the pollocks, but always seemed to taste better.

they must have had a secret.

 

recipes for things snacks gone for generations now-like “chow chow” and kanadele.  

it was “make due with what ya got, kind food”

 from miners and immigrants .

in this hole-punched treasure is the recipe or angel candy from jean vecellio.

aaron vecellio was in my class.

he was tall and pimply and his parents own the furniture store on 14.

this is his grandma’s recipe:

1 1/2 sugar

1/4 corn syrup

3 t baking soda

1/4c  hot instant coffee

cook till 310 degrees. pour on sheet. cool. break. may be dropped in melted chocolate (which it always was)

there is real magic in the process, the ritual of the christmas cookie. it brings out the best in us.

something about the crisco seems to smooth things over.

when the ladies and their familys bring the confections in tins to the church for the swap-the sugar in the air softens the blow of hurts from the year passing. the time your kid did this or that to mine, or your husband gave my husband the business at work.

it crumbles like-well-like cookies.

everyone has their favorite. mine’s the truffle. it’s not in the st. baraba’s cook book. the recipe is one i found online and it’s prefect and simple.

dark chocolate pieces

cocoa powder

cream.

done.

my hubby and kids love the peanut butter ones with the kisses and joseph (although he forgets until their on the table) is 100% partial to the russian tea cake.

my great grandma k was a diabetic. a diagnosis which she rebuked and ignored.

bon bons were he favorite.

she kept a stash of them on the breeze way of my grandmas house.

she must have trusted me, becasue i saw her pull the tin and scraf a few several times a day at christmas time.

the aunt’s would talk about the skandle in the kitchen over bubbling pasta sauce.

i didn’t like them much. thought they were to sweet, still each year i roll them up.

i could make them in my sleep. they’re in my blood, i think. funny how that happens. but it doesn’t just happen. that’s why each year i call my kids to the kitchen when it’s time to make “grandma’s bon bons.”

funny too, how someday-i will be the “grandma” behind the bons bons.

life is to short to hold a grudge-or even a secret recipe.

i’ll let you in on a little secret.

i’m sure it’s okay.

it’s amazing how flavors are caught in time.

they way they suspend like baked meringues.

there’s something about it the binds us together.

merry christmas!