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Rendered Fat and Income Tax
Oh, January. During the month of January I find myself thinking about getting our income tax stuff together. You know what I mean. I find myself digging through drawers looking for all of the receipts and slips. LOML clears out last year’s file folders and I am faced with a massive pile of bills paid, receipts received and the CD from last year’s online CRA filing. With every good intention, I set up a special space on the dining room table for the inevitable settling-of-the-score with our Federal Government. It’s tax time. I’m not any closer to being ready this year than I was last year, even though I promised myself I would be all over this like a cheap suit. It might have been one of my secret resolutions, to be more ready for taxtime.
With all of those good intentions on our minds, LOML and I set about poking through luggage, handbags, backpacks, wallets and dresser drawers for bits and pieces to add to the tax pile. Every year we are determined to file on-time and with a minimum of stress. Every year we have a thermos of hot coffee waiting for us to take a break and a timer set to remind us when we might need to stop. We always have a stash of holiday chocolates— as a reward—for the moment when we get it sorted and ready to input. This year isn’t any different and it looked as if, at one point, we were more ready than we’ve ever been in our 50-plus years together. And then?
Well, and then I found a loose page from a cookbook my mom received as a wedding gift, tucked into a ziplock bag with pharmacy receipts for tax-deductible prescriptions. And then, almost at the same moment, LOML finds a lapel pin from a Manitoba student exchange that probably happened in the 1980s, along with a Harvey’s receipt from 1997. We turn the timer off, pour the coffees, bust out the sweeties and sit down to talk about what we found. I don’t remember the Manitoba student exchange, or the Harvey’s cheeseburger of 1997. LOML probably wonders why I’d tuck a page from a cookbook which was printed in the 1930s (and I haven’t used since the 1970s) into a ziplock bag. Frankly, I wonder about some of the things I do, too. The official looking Province of Manitoba pin found its way to the back of the catch-all drawer in LOML’s tallboy. The Harvey’s receipt hit the recycling pile. In my mind, the cookbook page was a more complicated find. With that coffee in hand, I unshelved the original book and then spent the better part of the afternoon looking at the pictures and the recipes, which brought back great memories of my childhood.
Seriously, who (other than a restaurant professional or a food historian) wants to read three pages of “how to render and clarify fat”? I remember my mom doing that, though. Further in the book is a recipe for cookies. One of the ingredients is a half cup of rendered and clarified fat. Hmmmm. I think I understand why “today’s” cookies don’t taste the way “mother used to make them”. While I don’t remember Mom cooking Potted Pigeons or Savoury Reindeer with Vegetables, I do remember the Mincemeat Pies that had minced, lean beef and suet in it. Again, I think I understand why my mincemeat pies never tasted like Mom’s. And then?Well, and then I realize I know a lot more about cooking during the Depression, but we still have to gather and sort our income tax “stuff”.
While I’m hoping for more interesting finds, I’m also hoping we get our taxes filed on time this year. I am sure my attention won’t be diverted while rendering and clarifying fat. And, judging by the look on his face as I read the recipe aloud, LOML doesn’t want a batch of those cookies made with rendered beef fat.
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