After a tense day in the kitchen three women produce 45 meat pies just in time for Christmas.
E
very year for as long as I can remember the Poquette Family, or members there of have labored over a hot stove every pre Christmas season preparing an upper Michigan homespun treat called meat pies.
The family recipe which is not really a secret is treated as if it were handed down from scores of generations previous. It does contain a secret ingredient however, a spice which is hard to come by in this locale. It's true the conglomeration of meat, potatoes, and onions all ground to a fine texture and baked into a pie shell is not the same at all without the secret spice.
Daughters of Earl and Mary Poquette have carried on the tradition and assemble on a Saturday before every Christmas to fabricate the meat filled pastry rich in protein. Saturday December 8th was selected as the day of production for this years event. Judy Treml and Joanne Lade along with the Kat accepted the challenge this year to produce the pies.
Treml, giving out free tastes of pies last year has found herself in a quandary this year as her tasters put in orders for their very own pies. When the pie baking was complete 45 pies were assembled with Judy Treml laying claim to 42, the Kat with 3, and Joanne with 0. Lade the
oldest and hardest working of the three does not find meat pies necessarily tantalizing only wants the experience and comradery of the event to round out the Christmas season.
Lade's husband Tim also has no special place in his heart for the "stick to your ribs treat" so Joanne leaves her stake in the claim for the other two to fight over. The Kat, who since her barriatric surgery has only a small pouch in place of a full fledged stomach declines to eat the full helping of grease
and fat included with each piece of meat pie.
As for myself, one or two pieces a year is enough for me, the thought of a pastry shell housing a meat filling is a strange combination. You see the pie shell and your brain is thinking desert, you bite in and its the main course, I can't get used to it.
Although the older Poquette daughters are in charge of the production with the youngest as the helper and consumer of the end product, some of the other daughters have in the past baked the traditional protein confection themselves. Jean Poquette Hansen and Trixie Sobieck had created meat pie sacrilege and added carrots to the mix creating a contrast of flavor not recognizable to the traditional meat pie consumer.
Judy Treml
The fetching Mrs. Lade
Their meat pie experiment ended in disaster with no one coming near their concoctions ever again, they no longer even try to duplicate the upper Michigan delicacy but instead wait for others to abandon their helping on a chair or railing while they get coffee so they can conveniently snatch it and let it slide down into their gullet.
TIME SET FOR F C CHRISTMAS PARTY
As reported last week the Fat Club Christmas party will be held at the Sobieck Home on Saturday December 15th. The starting time for the event will be at 6:30 PM with dinner served abruptly after.
The party hosted by socialite Trixie Sobieck will feature dinner while her friend and former Wal-Mart colleague Snow Danforth plays the cello for background ambiance.
Sobieck has also decided that the gift exchange this
year will be the traditional white elephant exchange with participants exchanging unwanted but still attractive or functional items from their own home.
The evening will be capped off with over consumption of the alcohol of your choice accompanied by unrestrained cussing.
TB VIII DVD NEARS COMPLETION
Scott Treml announced this week that duplication of his master of the Turkey Bowl is underway and he expects to have all copies ready for Christmas eve.
Trixie Sobieck
Last year Treml was plagued by production problems and had trouble delivering the copies on Christmas eve, instead opting to play right off of his laptop and feeding video and audio directly from the computer to the TV. This year Scott reports that his masterpiece is complete and will be delivered on Christmas eve.
