“You’re spoiling me, you know.I’m going to expect delicious baked goods every day for the rest of my life.”
She laughed.“I will do my very best to make that happen.”
“Are you making enough that I could have a couple for dessert with my lunch?”
“Of course!You always get first pick at my baked goods.You know that.”She cocked her head to one side.“I should actually send you to work with whatever I’m making for everyone the next day.You would be a great advertisement.”
He laughed.“Let’s not make my friends any more envious than they already are.”He watched as she stood, and using a slotted spoon, removed more of the donuts from the pot.“How many are you making?”
“I want to make a half dozen for each of my friends.Then another six or eight dozen for the store.I already have the bread in the oven.”She shook her head.“It’s hard work, but I love it, so it doesn’t seem so bad.”
She packed three meat pies into his lunch pail, and then used a layer of brown paper, before adding the donuts.“I don’t want you to not eat the meat pies because you have donuts.Real food first.”
He chuckled.“I love your meat pies too much to skip them.I’m going to be too fat to carry an ax before long.”
She giggled.“You could use a little fattening up.”And it was true.Whether it was because he worked off everything he ate, or because he ate so little when his only foods were jerky and hardtack, he was a slender man.He really could use a bit of bulking up.
“Just not too much,” he said with a grin.He kissed the top of her head as he headed out the door, musing that his life was so much better than it had been before she came.
As soon as the bread was out of the oven, Myrtle put meat pies in its place.She’d decided to only make two dozen meat pies because she wasn’t certain that savory foods would sell as well as sweets.
When she arrived at Maggie’s house for lunch, she told the others what she’d made for the day.“I’m hoping the men like my meat pies as much as they love the sweet treats.I’m always amazed at how quickly everything sells.”
Belle smiled.“I got two more deer yesterday with Lula’s help.If the meat pies go well, you can have that venison for your pies.”
“That would be wonderful!I feel like I’m using too much of our meat stores.”
Sally shook her head.“No, you’re not.There’s no more room in the two cold houses.If we don’t want meat to be wasted, we need to use it.There are still a couple of weeks of hunting to be done.”
“Really?”Myrtle asked, feeling excited.“And how is the whitefish coming, Agnes?”
“I have so much whitefish!I’m smoking most of it, but I can get you some for supper again tonight if you want,” Agnes replied.
“That would make my husband very happy.Does anyone have receipts for whitefish?Last time I just breaded it and fried it with some potatoes, and he was pleased, but I’d like a little variety.”
Belle shook her head.“I don’t.”
“I have a receipt for trout that I think you could easily adapt for whitefish,” Ella said.“It’s one my ma used to make all the time, and I love it.”
“Would you mind bringing me the receipt at lunch tomorrow?”Myrtle asked.
“I’d be happy to!”
“Then you can pick my dessert I make tomorrow,” Myrtle said.And she knew she’d make extra for Ella and her husband.
“I want fried pies.Apples if we have some.”
Myrtle looked at the others.Maggie shook her head.“Apples don’t grow well here.I’ve heard crabapple can grow here, but we don’t have any.We have lots and lots of berries though.”
Myrtle frowned.“I can make mixed berry fried pies!”
Ella nodded.“Mixed berry sounds wonderful.Will you sell some as well?”
“I will.I’ll make sure everyone here gets some, and I’ll sell some.My arms and shoulders are finally getting used to kneading all that dough!”
They all talked then of how they were adapting to their new work.
“I have a bruise on my shoulder from shooting,” Lula said.“Thankfully, we’ve switched to bows and arrows now that we have our bears.”
“Life is certainly harder here than I imagined it would be,” Josie said.
“Harder but infinitely better,” Belle said, smiling.“I wouldn’t go back for all the money in the world.”
