To make your own tourtiere for the holidays, just follow the pastry recipe on a box of Tenderflake lard – you’ll have enough for three double-crust pies, and the easy recipe works every time. For that many pies, you’ll need to make a lot of filling. Just sauté up a big chopped onion, three cloves of minced garlic and four stalks of celery, finely chopped (you can chop it all together in the food processor), with two pounds of ground pork and a pound of ground beef. When it’s all nicely browned, drain any excess fat, season with summer savoury, sage and a pinch of cinnamon and cloves, salt and pepper, then mix in three cups of hot mashed potatoes and a good handful of chopped parsley. Refrigerate the filling – it should be cold when you make your pies – and chill the pastry dough before rolling thinly, to fit three pie plates. Fill each pie crust with the cold filling, seal a second piece of pastry over top, then bake immediately or freeze the pies, unbaked. Thaw frozen pies in the refrigerator and bake as usual, at 375ºF for 30-40 minutes until the pastry is nicely browned and the filling is hot. Let the pies cool for 20 minutes before cutting to let the filling set up.

When you get back from church at midnight, or anytime you want a fast, comfortable meal, it’s easy as pie!