The festive season started when we tucked into the fruit tart she made every year. After she was gone, we just wanted to recreate it – and feel like we had her with us again
Happy memories … Sarah and her grandmother at Christmas.hen you think of Christmas, which food springs to mind? Perhaps turkey, mince pies or mulled wine? For me, it’s the festive fruit tart my grandmother baked every year, to be eaten on Christmas Eve. When we settled down to eat dessert on 24 December, after all the hustle and bustle of festive preparations, journeys across the country and the tensions that often come with a family Christmas, the serving of the tart was a signal to relax.
That Christmas was brutal. Our celebrations were muted. Family members would dissolve into tears whenever Little Donkey, one of her favourite carols, played. Everywhere I looked, there were holes where Grandma should have been. She should have been sitting on her usual stool as we opened our presents. She should have been perched on the kitchen stairs while dinner was prepared, her offers of help being batted away.
Because of this, and as young people so often do, I thought I had more time with her. I didn’t always text her back, I didn’t call her as often as I should have and didn’t visit nearly enough. I didn’t ask her enough questions. I didn’t take enough photos of her. I didn’t preserve the sound of her voice. I didn’t ask her for her recipes.When my mother said the tart might have been a tarte tatin, the game changed.
I racked my brain: there were cranberries, I knew that. I could picture them, jewel-bright among the other fruit. Something soft. Pear, maybe? Apple? There was a crunch: pecans! I had something to work with.
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