Homemade Mincemeat Pie
by Jeannie Travis
I woke up this morning and looked out the window to a gray day…makes me wish I’d appreciated Sunday’s sunshine more than what I did. Oh well, when life hands you dreary Fall days…make soup! Plenty of beef in the freezer to simmer tender, then mix in some potatoes – cut like short french fries for some reason – a couple beef bouillon cubes for extra richness, some stir fry veggies , a pinch of dried carrot tops for fun, a few of my Ma’s white multiplying onions and we’ve eatin’ fine enough for the Squire! If hubby doesn’t object I add a can of diced tomatoes…then when I eat MY soup I add coffee creamer and a little milk, like my Mama did…Crusty cornbread goes mighty good with this, or soda crackers….
The Grand kids purely love my homemade soup, but they thought I’d flipped the time I served the soup and there was a big soup bone in it. Johnny said ” GANNY! You give me and Amber Sammy’s bone ?” I explained that it was a soup bone and gave it extra good flavor ..AND Sammy loved cooked bones. Then I ladled the soup stone out and he really began to wonder about my cooking! “Ganny! You feed me and Amber ROCKS ?” I told them it was an ancient Indian soup stone sent to me by a really old man in Utah.
While I ladled out the soup to cool a bit I told them the story as it was told to me….Old Fred’s granddaughter found this and other soup stones in an Indian cave high up on a cliff side out West. They just happened to notice the opening one afternoon late when they were hiking and the setting sun shone on the mouth of the cave. They went back the next day with ropes and climbed down into the cave. Found all sorts of seed sealed up in clay pots, etc….just like the owners walked off one day and didn’t come back…..And I told them how my elderly friend was still growing vegetables from these seed… including some HUGE dark red beans that vine almost like the one Jack climbed to get to the Giant’s castle. Yep…Eating soup at Granny’s house can be quite an adventure….Too bad they won’t remember stuff like this when they are grown. Guess I’ll have to write it all down, huh ?
I made a mincemeat pie to take to the family dinner and I made the mincemeat for it plus I canned several pints. I ‘m the only one I know of that makes it from scratch, and since I don’t have a recipe there is a LOT of tasting involved to get it just right. Basically you cook a lot of dried prunes, raisins, apricots, apples and peaches, and mash all but the raisins and mix it together then add some fatty type of pork that has had the fat and bones removed…I used neck bones. Also I added oranges and grated peel plus some juice. You cook it awhile then sweet sour it and add some allspice…Simple….NOT! I have to taste and taste and taste to get it right. I finally let the pan cool and refrigerated it overnight because all that tasting had sundered my taste buds! Verdict was that it tasted just like Mamas did…which is good enough for me…but then they don’t remember how hers tasted exactly. One man who’s 73 said he remembered tasting home made mincemeat once when he was a little boy. Guess it’s just one of those dying arts that is simple to make if you know how.
No family dinner is complete without a big bowl of soup beans in memory of the ones Mom did and some crusty cornbread to sop them up with…and the turnips Joyce brought were seasoned just right, and tasted great to someone who seldom thinks to cook these now expensive roots. Did you ever think you’d see plain old turnips selling for more than a dollar a pound? Sis was given these by a gardening friend, luckily. Oh we had meat too – chicken fixed a couple of ways….AND more desserts, AND baguettes of hot french bread….Sweet tea….coffee. I can assure you, nobody went home hungry. Matter of fact, theres a tiny dab of biscuit pudding left in my fridge and some of that fine coconut cake.