What's for Dinner, Sat., May 2, 2015
Here's my proposed menu, but I am sure it will be changed around by the RG:
Rosemary/garlic pork chops in creamy Dijon mustard sauce
Persian cucumber salad
Tossed romaine and garden greens salad
Rosti with garnet yams (Indian style) (I'm going to ask him to make it this time, just to see what his version would taste like)
Dessert: cheese fruit plate. I'd like to get pears and have the RG choose a cheese that would be good with it.
I know he will choose some terrific wines to go with, particularly dessert wines.
We have a good movie to watch for later, but we might dine outside first, as it is beautiful in NJ today.
Cher
= new reply since forum marked as read
A recipe handed down through the family for the last couple hundred years. Our family were tin miners in Cornwall who came to the states in the 1860's to work in the mines in the Sierras.
No actual written recipe, just handed down by experience; my grandmother taught my wife.
Probably have a beer with them. 
She'll dictate to me soon as we get the chance.
I know that cubed beef, turnips, parsley, potatoes, are part of the mix.
I think you and I spoke about this some years ago but I fell down on my end. I promise I will get it to you in the next couple of days.
These are delicious, and doubly so the next day when they are cold.
This is our family recipe:
Dough
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
1/2+ cup water
Filling
1 lb. round steak, cut in bite-sized pieces
3 medium potatoes, cut in bite-size pieces
2 small, white turnips, chopped into small pieces
1 medium onion, chopped small
1/2 bunch parsley, chopped fine
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon butter per pastie
Baste
1/2 butter, 1/2 water (melted)
Mix dough and roll out into 6"+ diameter circles
Put 1/2 cup filling on each circle, with 1/2 teaspoon butter
Fold over and crimp (she does the crimping with her fingers, no tool involved)
Cut two slashes into one side of each pasty
Bake @425* for 15 minutes
Turn oven down to 350*, Baste with 1 Tablespoon basting liquid through slits in each pastie
Bake 15 minutes
Baste again
Bake 15 minutes
.....................................................
She said that she is generous with the basting, but to be careful because it is easy to get too much in there and make them a bit soggy. Wish I could be more helpful than that. The crimping is also fairly solid, as it served as the "handle" for eating the thing with dirty hands when you were down in the mine.
My wife said that my grandmother told her that she had modernized something from the original way the recipe was passed down to her, but was never specific about what it was that she modernized. She thinks it was either substituting baking powder for baking soda, or replacing lard with shortening (or both). I suppose it could also have had something to do with the type of butter used. She was born in 1896, and lived to be 96. My wife learned from her shortly before we got married in the mid-70's, and she was pushing 80 at that point, so there's no telling.
Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll pass them on.
Nota bene: Any errors in ingredients or method are solely the responsibility of the amanuensis (that would be me). 
ON EDIT: I should have thought to take a photo of the finished product. I found this shot on the internet. Hers look pretty much like that except that they aren't quite as dark (usually) and they would have two slits on the top side.
[URL=https://imageshack.com/i/f0Dye5QLj][IMG]
[/IMG][/URL]
It's run through the veggie stock day. 
Your supper sounds divine! yumyumyum
