A New Christmas Tradition

One of Bob's family's Christmas traditions is making Tukare - or meat pies. It's a French-Canadian recipe handed down from his dad's family. Their recipe uses ground pork and boiled and mashed potatoes, seasoned with spices not typically associated (in my mind) with meat: cinnamon, allspice, and cloves. Given the unusual combination of ingredients, meat pie is definitely an acquired taste. Even after 30 some years, none of our children have acquired it.
In years past, my mother-in-law and her sister set aside an evening and a day a few weeks before Christmas for assembling 12-18 pies. They froze them, then thawed and reheated them for Christmas morning. Any family and friends that were around were welcome to stop by for a piece. I found it interesting that my mother-in-law remained so committed to a tradition that had come from her husband's family - especially interesting that when she remarried the step family adopted it, too.
I attempted to make my first pies 10-15 years ago and have made them sporadically since then, more consistently since we moved away from family. I've never been quite as enamored of them as Bob and his family are, but I tried to play the good wife and acquiesce to the tradition. This  year, as I'm juggling three part-time jobs, it seemed only right that the one who is so committed to carrying on the tradition have a hand - if not his entire body - in seeing to it that there were meat pies in the Hagey home this year. To my surprise, he consented with little resistance. And so it was - that last weekend found Bob cooking, peeling, mashing, simmering, assembling, and baking the infamous tukare. I have a hunch he might just find these the best he's ever tasted! What a great tradition!