I love having pasties in the freezer. I have always baked them first. They heat up in the microwave just fine. Pasties Dough 4� C unbleached all pupose flour 1 Tabsp sugar � tsp salt 1 C shortening 1 C unsalted butter, cold, cut in pieces � C water 1 lg egg 1Tabsp vinegar In large bowl or food processor, combine dry ingrediens, cut in shortening and butter, to the size of small peas. Combine in a small bowl, water egg and vinegar, gradually add to flour mixture tossing to combine. Donot overwork. If it seems dry, gradually add more cold water, Tablespoon at a time. You need a firm dough, that is not sticky. If I am going to double the recipe, I make the dough in my food processor up thru cutting in the butter, in single batches, then empty the processor into a lg bowl, doubling the egg mixture and tossing it all together at once. Form dough into a disk shape and refridgerate until ready to use. Filling 2 Lbs coarsly ground beef 1 Lb coarsly ground pork Note: I have used different cuts of lean beef and pork, grinding it myself using the grinder of my KA. If you use a knife, mince it well, no larger than � inch pieces, smaller is better. 3 C finely chopped potatoes 2 C finely chopped rutabaga 1 C finely chopped carrots 2 med cooking onions, finely chopped 1 Tablsp minced garlic 1 tsp salt � tsp pepper butter, approx � C Combine all, EXCEPT butter, in a large bowl. I use a food prosessor on the vegetables, but be careful not to grind them too much. You want chunks. Preheat oven to 400� Roll out dough , leaving it a little thicker than you would for pie crust. Cut into 6-8 inch circles. HINT: I use the lid from an older 3 qt saucepan. It has a sharp enough edge to use like a giant cookie cutter. If you have to, use a lid and cut around it with a knife. Fill with about 1 cup of filling and dot with a teaspoon of butter. Fold in half and use a fork to press the cut egde to seal. You might want to moisten the cut edge with a pastry brush dipped in water to insure a good seal. You can also roll the edge a bit before using the fork if your pastry is uneven. Combine 1 egg and 1 Tabsp of water, brush top of pastie and with a small sharp knife, slash the top about 1 inch. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet, Bake 1 hour, or until a fork inserted through the slash meets no resistance, and pastry is golden. Special Gravy Brown 2 C of filling, in rendered fat or butter. You can use more or less depending on what you have left over, but I always save at least 2 C. When browned add 2 cups of water and simmer until vegetables are well cooked,about 15 min. Mash with a potato masher or tranfer to food processor bowl and pulse to smooth slightly. Return to pan,if you like lots of gravey, you can add etra beef stock or water at this point. Bring to a boil and thicken if needed with � C of flour mixed with � C of water. Add gradually to meat mixture, to desired gravy consistancy. Ladel over hot pastie or serve on the side. Salt and pepper to taste. You should get about 6-8 pasties from this recipe, depending on size and amount of filling you put in each one. I like to double or triple the recipe as they freeze very well, I freeze the gravey also, in small amounts. Nancy

Lyra, shoot an extra deer for me, will you? Rats on hooves, I just hate the darned things, they are just big vermin as far as I'm concerned. Of course, a vehicle was always my weapon of choice. I'm glad you're OK. Here the salmon as just starting their run, I might give that a shot next week. Thanks, Carol, delicata. I knew I'd seen them, so now I'll eat them first. gellchom, the turnips you can just dig around with your finger and find how big they are, they should be ready, I pulled most of mine a month or so ago. Parsnips need to stay in the ground for a couple of hard freezes to get sweet. Grandpa used to tell me to leave them in the ground all winter and dig as I needed them. That would work except it froze so hard I couldn't dig them until spring, when they were still sweet and firm. They have a taste that Elery says is like "ammonia" if they aren't allowed to sweeten with the cold. I had discounted this a bit, then I saw it on Alton Brown! LOL You can try digging the peppers and eggplant but I'm not optimistic, plants that big often don't like to be disturbed, especially when they are fruiting. Ann, the WonderWeiner also loved tomatoes, I just had to smile at the guilty look on that dog's face. (grin) Nice batch of onions, mine didn't do that well this year. I think too many kids walked on them, but I'm going to blame the weather anyway... Peppi, I've dug sage and collards right out of the snow. And here we have a tremendous apple crop, my store still has those $6.99 a bushel MacIntosh apples. It's a long darned drive to get apples though, LOL. Annie

DH is a Yupper....born in Houghton, MI......so we have rutabegas a lot. I chop them up in small pieces, pressure cook them and then puree them in the food processor. I add sugar to the cooking water, not salt. I make pasties, too but use an old recipe. It uses kidney beef suet and butter with flour and water for the crust and only has chopped potatoes, onions and top sirloin steak cut into cubes. I quit making them after DH had a six way bypass surgery a couple of years ago. Also, it is really difficult to find beef kidney suet around here.

I love it roasted. Do not know why it has such a bad reputation. Much sweeter than turnips, although the "nippy" part of turnips is what I like about them . . . Have yet to find a root vegetable that I don't like. Well . . . make that a vegetable period. I don't like too many onions, but even those I like when mixed in with other flavors. SD, your photo is very cool!