Pasties not PastRies!

Pasties. A meat pie. I believe they are welsh, or something. I'm too tired to research tonight, so I may be misinforming you. I know that they are a staple in our area because of the mines. Miners' wives could make these in the morning, wrap them and they would still be warm for lunch. Anyway, they are good. They are filling. They are a fall family tradition. They are a lot of work to make. I'll give you a run down. First, you prep and cut the fillings. In our house this includes venison-cubed, potatoes, onions, carrots, butternut squash, and blue hubbard squash. Throw in some seasoning- in this batch we used canadian steak seasoning. See my cute boys in the background? And check out those great garden pumpkins!

Then you make the dough: 2 c. flour, 2 T. baking powder, 1 T. salt, blended. Cut in 2/3 c. shortening. Add 1/2 cup hot water, 1 egg yolk unbeaten, and 1 T. lemon juice. This makes enough dough for about 4 large pasties.

Roll out the dough, or con your 3 1/2 year old into doing it. Kohen loves to roll, and he does a pretty fine job of it. Go fine motor skills!

The you simply put your filling on one side, fold it over, and pinch the edges together. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, then 350 for 15 more minutes, cool, wrap in aluminum foil, and freeze. When you need a good, filling, easy meal simply remove a couple from the freezer, bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes to an hour and you have a happy family. We eat ours with ketchup, and in Kohen's case lots of it. Some people eat them with gravy. They are sold at many places around here. Most of the purchased variety use ground beef, and contain rutabagas, not squash. Paul's Italian Market in Eveleth makes a great pasty which is a more round type. They bake them on Wednesdays and Fridays, and the smell will tempt you off the street. It took us three afternoons/evenings to finish, but we now have over 40 of these ready made meals in the freezer. Plus our advantium oven can speed cook one in 9 minutes. How's that for a quick, complete meal?