Mummu's Pasty: Page 159 Irene Harma

Long ago, in mining towns in Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, wives would wrap the leftover meat and vegetables from the evening meal in pie crusts and then in foil and send that to work with their husbands the next day for their lunch.  When the men got to work they would put those packets on the tops of the hot mining machines as they dug out the ore.  By lunchtime, the pasties were cooked and ready to eat.  Our dear friend, Irene, who is now 90, grew up in one of those towns and passed this recipe onto us.   While they were cooking in the oven tonight, I could almost imagine I was one of those miners, anxiously waiting for the noon bell so I could dig into the delight I was smelling.  To reduce the calories of my portions, I give chunks of the crust to Skittles.  She loves it, especially if she gets a piece that is covered with the ketchup I use liberally with this.  Jonathan does the same and tonight made the comment, "This is my favorite thing to eat ketchup with."  I heartily agree.  Ketchup adds just the right spice to zest up this dish.  Mary eats it without ketchup, but you will never see her eating anything with any kind of condiment - no mayo,  no mustard, no tartar sauce, no Arby's sauce, no BBQ sauce, etc. - so her opinion doesn't count.  This food was much better than last Monday's dinner which, as you may recall, was nothing because we went to see "The Help" instead of helping ourselves to dinner.  One last interesting note:  The pasty shows up in Shakespeare's  "Merry Wives of Windsor" (1600),  and even earlier in some Robin Hood ballads of the 1300's.  Eat a pasty; enjoy some literary history.