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Lori decides to give readers an oldie but a goodie What is with the weather? For the first time in 15 years, I decided to strap a pair of downhill skis to my feet and there is no snow. I broke the bank and purchased two new winter coats to keep me warm and cosy on those cold winter mornings and it's not cold! I've got all kinds of yummy winter meals floating around in my head, waiting to put in the paper for you, but the temperature is all wrong-- I'd be better off writing barbecue recipes. Of course, now that I have actually put fingers to keyboard on this particular topic, there will be a gigantic snowstorm before this edition hits the stands and you'll all wonder what the heck I'm talking about! So, since I have no idea what kind of weather we will have, I'm going to give you an all year round favourite-- butter tarts. Perfect for cosy winter nights by the fire with a cup of tea and just as perfect in the blazing sun on a blanket with a picnic. You will note in the filling portion of the recipe, there is a couple of tablespoons of flour listed as optional. Some people like really runny, drip-on-your-shirt type butter tarts. Others prefer a quite solid filling. I like them somewhere in Lori Gysel the middle. I have enough Gerry Kentner trouble not spilling my lunch on my blouse without a really runny butter tart to help, but I don't like them solid. So, this quantity of flour in the filling should give you a middle of the road filling. But adjust the filling to suit your needs-- more flour makes them more solid, less flour (or none) makes them runny. You must be very careful with butter tarts. You must only fill them two thirds of the way full, as the recipe says. If you fill them any fuller, the filling will boil over before the pastry cooks and you will be left with a pastry shell and only a dribble of filling left inside. You also have to be careful of the temperature. You don't want the oven so hot that the pastry burns on the edges before the entire tart is cooked. Also, cook them on the middle rack of the oven -- and for heaven's sake, put a baking sheet under the muffin What's cookin' tin, just in case you do get a boil over. You don't want to be cleaning the oven all night long! If you like a liqueur flavour to your food, you can soak the raisins in warmed-up rum, amaretto, cointreau or other liqueur of your choice instead of boiling water. If this is the case, once the raisins are soft, you must still drain them before putting them in the tart shells. What happens to the leftover liqueur at that point is at the discretion of the cook! The funny part about the butter tarts is that I had baked up a batch at work a couple of weeks ago for a class I was teaching and they looked so good I thought I should make some at home. But my catering days are never far behind me and I still have trouble cooking small quantities. I only know how to make big batches of food. So, I whipped up a few little tarts for the four of us. Well, okay, they weren't so little and there were 36 of them. So many, as a matter of fact that I ran out of raisins and had to start using pecans. Then I ran out of pecans and switched to cherries. Anyhow, I thought, never fear, I will take some over to the neighbour's house tomorrow. Well, tomorrow came and tomorrow went, but the tarts stayed. We ate all 36 in a few short days. Oops. So, you've got fair warning now-- if you make them-- they are highly addictive. It is impossible to eat only one and downright difficult to stop at two. Be careful! Have fun and keep cooking! See Butter Tarts recipe on pg. 27