Welcome to the page of things Celtic. Celtic herein refers to music, art, history, and cultural idioms related to or derived from the Celtic peoples of Britain and Ireland; the Scottish, the Irish, the Cornish, and the Welsh. Each of these groups developed its own variety of the Gaelic, or Celtish, languages, and their particular social and governmental order; but were/are united genetically and spiritually. Celts are mystic, pugilistic, stubborn, clannish. They are writers, musicians, craftsmen, and soldiers.

I am Irish/Scottish mostly, but my husband is pure 100% Cornish. His family, even when scattered around the Detroit area, maintained their own tight social identity, with an almost xenophobic regard for anyone not Cornish, or least Celtic/Anglo. "Scalded" (now called Cornish) cream stood on the back of the stove in the old days, and Saturday nights and picnics were traditionally meals of Cornish pasties, a type of turnover meat pie. Following is my husband's mother's recipe for Cornish pasties, and she was considered a master of the craft.

Make up a batch of rich pie pastry, enough for 4 nine inch crusts.

Roll out a quarter or less of the pastry, and cut into a circle by laying a dinner plate on the pastry and cutting around the edge. (You can make smaller pasties by using a smaller plate.)

Pile a coffee cup full of the meat/potato mix in the middle of the circle. Be sure to put a piece of meat (a piece of pork is nice if you have it) at each end of the pile, so the first and last bites will be meat, not just pastry and potato.

Moisten the edges, and fold the pastry over the filling to make a turnover. There is a peculiar twist the Cornish make to seal the pastry, but since we can't show it to you, just stick it together the way you would do a two-crust pie pastry edge.

Put a couple of slits in the top, and bake at 425 degrees until tops are slightly browned, turn down to 350 degrees and finish baking for a total of about 45 minutes baking time..

Serve with English Chow-Chow (available in most super markets), pickled onions, and a salad. Usually, pasties are picked up and eaten by hand. Tips: If you want to be really traditional, serve rice pudding for dessert. Also, never, never put carrots in a Cornish pasty--pork, kidneys, yes, --but never carrots!

Cornwall, the southwestern tip of Great Britain, is a jewel often missed by U.S. travelers. The state is bordered by high cliffs lashed by the sea, small hidden remotes sand beaches, and a 500 mile trail that follows the coast. Pirates hid their treasure in the little coves and caves tucked into in the cliffs, and King Arthur's castle, Tintagel, was supposedly perched on a nearly inaccessible sea-girt rock on the coast.

Go to Penzance, get a room in a bed and breakfast facing the sea, and explore. There is a long promenade along the sea to stroll on in the evening. Take the country paths to Mousehole (pronounced Mozel), a picturesque village tucked into a hillside a couple of miles from Penzance. Ride the bus to paths that cross country roads, get off the bus, and follow the footsteps of the years through purple heather fields, past prehistoric quoits and village sites, to the sea. On a sandy stretch you can picnic on the pasties you brought with you from a Penzance bakery, then stroll to a nearby tiny village tea shop for dessert, and catch another bus back to Penzance.

All art work, text, and page design © Ruth McIntyre-Williams 2001