The Reindeer Keeper

I've always loved Autumn. September and October amaze me. Every thing about them The colors. The briskness. The breathtaking leaves. The way the clouds clump together over the fields. The cider and donuts and wearing sweaters and having hot cereal for supper. Candy corn. Those orange pumpkin shaped candies that make your teeth ache. More coffee. More homemade soups. More French goulash with corn muffins. More squash. Casseroles. Apples. Homemade applesauce and apple pies and apple pan dowdy. Cinnamon. Candles. Marvelous moons. Even rainbows.   Once September slides into October, my thoughts turn toward Halloween. I've always loved Halloween. Probably when I was a kid, candy was the reason. But as I grew older I realized my love of Halloween was all about Anticipation. Anticipation of getting out Halloween decorations, some homemade and some from dollar stores. Some, hand me downs. Anticipation of going trick or treating. That never grows old. I love trick or treating. And if ...

My grandmother would often make jam tarts out of leftover pie dough. I loved her tarts just as much as her pies. They were usually strawberry jam tarts. When she took them out of the oven, the tarts were a golden brown and some of the sizzling jam would be oozing out of the folded dough. The aroma of those piping hot jam tarts drifting through her farmhouse added to the anticipation when biting into one-or two of the tarts. That aroma remains with me today as does the aroma of plain brown donuts and donut holes made and enjoyed when my children were quite young. Using my grandmother's recipe for the plain donuts, I'd have the dough ready to go. The number of kids making donuts varied. Sometimes it was just my children. Other times it seemed like the entire neighborhood. Either way it was pretty well-organized. Each child had a job to do. There were those who rolled out the dough. There were those who cut out the donuts with the one and only donut-maker-cutter. It usually tu...