Chapter 27 ~ December 25 Sugar and SpiceRita pulled the last pie from the oven and placed it among the other four on the kitchen table to cool. Two pumpkin, one apple, one rhubarb, one custard. Next up: butter tarts, from Mum’s family recipe. Everyone coveted Freda’s recipe, which she was infamously stingy about sharing, but Rita had managed to duplicate it perfectly. She never let on that she knew Freda’s secret of using butter-flavored Crisco instead of real butter. It made the crust perfectly flaky and unctuous with rich, oily flavor.
Rita blew out a sigh laden with memories and began sifting, measuring, folding, and rolling the dough. In the adjoining family room, Christmas music played softly on the stereo. Her mother-in-law was knitting by the fire, the quiet punctuated by her fathe
