O•S•C•A•R© Shop Your Local! - Old Ottawa South

Page 22 The th OSCAR - OUR 36 YEAR
DEC 2008
Tasty Tidbits from Trillium Bakery
By Jocelyn LeRoy
Twas the month before Christmas
and all through the house the
Baking Elves were a-stirring,”
and baking and decorating…
Good grief, it’s almost Christmas,
again already! Do you have any idea
what goes on behind the scenes?
While outside in the big city,
holiday lights are sprouting downtown,
and store windows are getting tarted
up to attract shoppers, inside our cozy
little bakery, the spirit of the season
has hatched!
Rows of home-made ruby-red
cranberry relishes of many variations,,
some of them spiked, are filling up the
shelves, after going “pop,” “pop” all
night long as the jars seal tight.
Extra boxes of currants, dates,
raisins, apricots, bags of flour, cartons
of eggs, are piling up.
The pastry fairies are rolling out
pie dough at a feverish rate. Flour is
being sifted and turned into cakes.
The sugarplum fairies are expected
on December 1 st for their annual
confection convention!
Gingerbread people, bears, and
Santa Clauses, dance the night away.
The gingerbread moose are transferred
into reindeers. They have so much
fun!
“Twas The Month Before Christmas ....”
Delicate shortbread cookies
tempt your taste buds and melt in your
mouth. And, oh, the aroma!
All that Christmas baking …
Aunt Gertrude’s famous
Christmas pudding steams itself into
a delicious indulgence – sans all the
old-fashioned badness – sugar, suet,
white flour begone! (We even have a
gluten-free version)
And how did we end up making
five kinds of fruit cake? So many
minuses. Some like them wheat-free.
Some can’t have milk. Some shun
alcohol in a cake. Many do not eat
sugar.
For years we have strived to satisfy
our customer’s individual needs. “Do
you have any no-carb cakes?” “How
many calories are there in two bites of
Christmas cake?”
Sometimes we have to draw the
line.
“Hello. Is this Trillium Bakery?
I want to order three tourtières for
Christmas. Hold the onions. Don’t put
any butter in the potatoes. And beef
gives me indigestion.”
Briiiingg…”Good morning.
Trillium Bakery, how may I help
you?”
A shaky voice in a beseeching
tone inquires, “Will you kindly
make me a tourtière for Christmas? I
Haibun By
Colin Morton
haven’t had one for years. I can’t eat
wheat. And I’m thinking of becoming
a vegetarian. Have you got any of that
fake meat? Spices give me heartburn,
but I can have onions. I’m good
with onions. Just one little one will
do. There’s only one of me to eat it,
alone”
Eek! This has gone too far. We’ve
narrowed down the thirty-seven
restricted diets to some really delicious
and satisfying items. Our customers
appreciate this. They can still enjoy
treats at this time of the year.
Many have created holiday
traditions. Good old-fashioned French
Canadian tourtière on Christmas Eve,
Sugarplums for a midnight treat,
Chelsea Buns (sticky gooey butterscotch
drizzle) for breakfast. And,
of course, a gingerbread reindeer for
Santa and his crew.
When the flurry of activity is over,
when the snow is quietly falling on
Christmas Eve, I lock the door after
the last late customers have trickled
out with arms full of good Christmas
treats.
Time for our annual visit to the
mission downtown.
I load up my car with every
last loaf, and things that would
be appreciated at the mission
– perishables, mincemeat tarts,
On his northern journey, haiku master Basho saw the
split-trunk pine of Takekuma celebrated in ancient verse,
though of its fall into the river, too, he knew from notquite-so-ancient
verse.
Many times fallen and replanted, the tree always
grew with a split, like the first, thanks to a slip of the
woodsman’s ax.
For myself, I undertake no pilgrimage but remain
year after year under the same white pine. Wind-riven,
spare and lean, a tree of the northern wild with roots
twisting deep into limestone beneath a handful of earth.
A few brush strokes on vellum:
craggy historian, lone
pine bent by the wind.
from The Local Cluster, by Colin Morton, Pecan Grove
Press, 2008.
Working .... Cont’d from page 23
would also be cheaper. Seeing how plugging a
modem into your phone jack and then into your
computer isn’t too hard, I decided to go with this
option.
One tool that helps keep communication
lines open with Ottawa is my Vonage phone that
we brought with us. It’s an IP phone that hooks
up over the internet. Bringing it to Africa and
plugging it in, I keep my Ottawa phone number.
I can call work and work can call me as if it’s
local.
It took me about a month and a half to finally
settle down with a permanent internet solution.
The connection isn’t as stable as you find in
Ottawa, and interacting with my remote desktop
and anything sweet. The residents
open my car doors with a flourish,
escort me down the dingy halls to
the kitchen, with so much ‘jolliness’
and exuberance I feel swarmed and
touched by their anticipation of the
goodies finally at their door.
I love that drive going home
along the canal, beside the late night
skaters. I love the quietude of the city.
The snowflakes on my windshield.
And the lights! They make the tree
branches look like dancers.
It’s Christmas once again.
It is a silent, holy night.
After six long weeks of hard work,
peace comes, and I finally get to spend
some time with my loved ones.
Peace, and Merry Christmas to all
of you too!
Trillium Recipe
For a good time
½ cup of cheer
½ cup goodwill
½ cup compromise
1 Tbs sweat
1 heaping tsp. humour (for
leavening)
a pinch of sweetness
Mix together and bake til happy.
Keeps well in your pocket. Use as
needed.
Better than chocolate!
Trillium Recipe
Trillium Recipe for
Hard Sauce
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 – 5 Tbs soft butter
1 tsp vanilla, or Rum, Sherry, or Brandy (more if you
wish)
Optional, 2 Tbs cream
Beat til smooth. Chill.
Spoon onto anything that can be called an excuse
to top with Hard Sauce.
Of course it is traditional to drop a spoonful atop
Christmas pudding, fruitcake, or anything ginger.
This decadent indulgence keeps well in your fridge
for months. Thank goodness!
is a bit more sluggish, but it lets me do my job
just fine. Getting setup was more complicated
than expected, but I think that had more to do
with my unrealistic expectations than anything
else. Now that things are running fine, it turns
out working remotely from SA isn’t any different
from working from home in Ottawa, other than
the time difference. Perhaps the most notable
difference is that instead of looking out the
window at the colourful falling leaves in Ottawa,
I’m looking at a bright, sunny South African
summer.