The evening meal began – as most things do – with a central theme. The theme in this instance (apart, that is, from Christmas Eve 2025) is one familiar to those of us who grew up with the influence of les Canadiennes françaises; that is, mother’s cooking! I speak of course of the tourtière pie. The model today is grâce à Hunter of the Almonte Butcher Shop in Almonte, Ontario. And may I say from the outset that the rendition was second to none!
Tourtière is a French Canadian meat pie dish originating from the province of Quebec, made with minced pork, veal or beef and potatoes. Wild game meat such as bear or venison is sometimes used. It is a traditional part of the Christmas réveillon and New Year’s Eve meal in Quebec. It is also popular in New Brunswick, and is sold in grocery stores across the rest of Canada all year long. The name “tourtière” is derived from its filling, but the “tourte”—the French name for the passenger pigeon now extinct in North America—has not been used as its filling since the end of the 19th century.
Distinguishing further was the promise to invoke the preamble to the trough with olives and bacon.
Bacon wrapped olives are one of those incredible combinations that require a lot of self control. Not in making them, but in eating them. Talk about addictive!
Les crudités were not limited to that.
Crudités are French appetizers consisting of sliced or whole raw vegetables which are typically dipped in a vinaigrette or other dipping sauce. Examples of crudités include celery sticks, carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, bell pepper strips, broccoli, cauliflower, radish, fennel, baby corn, and asparagus spears. Sauces used for dipping include bagna càuda and pinzimonio.
Crudités means “raw things”, from Middle French crudité (14c.), from Latin cruditatem (nominative cruditas), from crudus “rough; not cooked, raw, bloody”. The term was first used in English c. 1960.
Perched as we are overlooking the frozen river and snowy fields, with the late afternoon sunshine beaming almost parallel upon the winding white avenue, like two old crows on a wire (author: Denis Secundus), we and our guest congested ourselves in the modest withdrawing room to engage in an animated holiday discussion. Well into the gathering of intelligence and swapping of unsustainable Irish tales, it was revealed by entire coincidence that each of us in attendance had benefitted from an afternoon nap – the universal credential of authority for vigour among young and old alike. This energy afforded the confab a festive element though perhaps it also inspired an equally ornamental narrative. Nonetheless I have found after years of pertinacious analysis that there is invariably a derivative of meaning and depth from almost any exchange however spontaneous or superfluous it may appear to be if one is alert to the feasibility.
Here, dear Reader, might I be excused having to dilate upon the unfolding drama within our little conversation. There are naturally so many unanticipated repercussions, each with its own peculiar twist or distortion (for lack of a better word). But – if, as I say – I shall be permitted the exoneration in this case, I must defer to a more critical obligation than enlargement of my private vernacular. That necessity is the looming 83rd birthday of our dear friend Bobbie from nearby Maine (though we fully suspect at the moment that she and the “Doc” have absented themselves for the season to Longboat Key).
We cannot think of a more propitious enterprise – in this season of rampant birthday celebrations – than the acknowledgment of Bobbie’s 83rd on December 26th, 2025. This is a season for recognition of family and friends; and, our alliance goes back a number of years when first we were invited to dine with them (that is, Bobbie and her husband the “Doc”) on Longboat Key. We have preserved our Canadian/United States of America friendship notwithstanding the swirl of gravel about us. Unhesitatingly however we have each weathered the annoyance of the disturbance; and, to a degree, we have risen above the contaminating conjecture from both sides. Ours therefore is an ideal of propriety among neighbours. Accordingly it is our privilege to extend to Bobbie our best wishes for a Happy Birthday and many happy returns of the day!
Signed in absentia, Billy and Denis xoxo