Reverend Anne Gajerski-Cauley’s contact with the Presbyterian Record starts with babysitting, in Winnipeg, and fruit cake.
In 1974, when Anne was 14 she baby sat two small boys. At Christmas Sheryl, the children’s mother, left Anne with a pan (9 x 11 inch) of her homemade fruit cake. “I’d slice it so thin, so it would last. I kept going back to it and couldn’t stop eating it and ate most of the cake.” recalls Anne, adding Sheryl is now her oldest friend.
And that’s how Anne was introduced to fruitcake. “Sheryl gave me the recipe for her Gala Fruitcake. It came from a Laura Secord cookbook,” Anne says. “And when I stopped babysitting, I started making the cake for myself. It was my Christmas ritual for decades and then we had a flood in the basement and I lost the typewritten recipe.”
Recently, Anne looked for the Laura Secord recipe, on line, and lo and behold, the Presbyterian Record’s Recipes and Memories blog popped up. And there it was: Gala Christmas Fruit Cake, posted November 19, 2012. Anne sent a message to the Presbyterian Record and then we got in touch with her. Now that she has the recipe, Anne, currently a member of Three Willow United Church in Guelph, is planning to bake mini- fruit cakes for her church’s Christmas bazaar.
But first a bit of Anne’s spiritual biography: Anne was born in WIinnipeg. Soon the family moved to Edmonton. Although Anne’s mother was an agnostic, she took seven-year-old Anne to a Lutheran church. When she was 9, another move took Anne’s family to Thunder Bay where the plucky Anne walked, all by herself on Sundays, down town to a local Lutheran church. At 11, Anne was back in Winnipeg and did attend any church until a high school friend introduced her to a fundamentalist Baptist church where she was baptised by full immersion. (Anne’s father worked on the railroad, so that accounts for all the moves and her peripatetic childhood.) Even today, Anne cannot explain why, from early childhood, she had a hunger for some sort of spiritual life.
Later at the University of Winnipeg Anne became involved with the United Church. This led to the University of Toronto where she graduated from Emmanuel College with her Master of Divinity degree. She continued her studies and also earned a Master of Sacred Theology degree in pastoral care and counselling. In 1995 Anne was ordained and settled in two congregations north of Winnipeg.
“Then I started having all these babies. One child is autistic, so I became a full-time mother,” says Anne, who home schools her four children. (Anne occasionally fills in, at a church, where a minister is needed.)
Meanwhile some ten years ago Anne’s husband, a physicist, accepted a position at the University of Guelph, hence the family moved to Ontario.
Back to culinary issues. Anne admits she’s not really a baker. She prefers to prepare meat dishes. She makes her own pates and usually takes a stew to potluck events. But Anne’s favourite dish originated in Italy. “In 1991 while living in Europe, while my husband worked on his PhD, I found a bookstore in Venice that carried a beautifully illustrated cookbook, in English, about traditional Venetian recipes.”
Anne fastened on a chicken recipe that dates back to 1200 A.D. when Venice was the centre of the spice trade and Marco Polo was an explorer. Anne’s Venetian Chicken, a simple but exotic recipe, calls for rose water, cinnamon and rosemary.
For the record, you will find Anne at Three Willows United Church working in the cafe, at the annual Christmas bazaar, on Saturday, December 6.
VENETIAN ROAST CHICKEN
Pre-heat oven to 350F. Prepare a covered roasting pan.
INGREDIENTS
I whole chicken
I fresh lemom, orange or pomegranate
Dried rosemary
2 tbsp rose water, 2 tbsp sugar or honey. Powdered cinnamon
METHOD: Squeeze the juice of the fruit on the chicken. Place the remains inside the bird’s cavity. Sprinkle rosemary all over the chicken.
Roast at 350 degrees, 20 minutes per pound.
Take out of oven and splash rosewater over the bird. Follow this with a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar (or honey) all over. Return to oven and roast, uncovered, another 15 minutes. Let the cooked chicken rest for 15 minutes before carving.
