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Recipes from Pine Lodge
In Memory of our Mother
“Lilla”
Elizabeth Jane (Elwood) Clarke
1915 to 1995
The recipes in this booklet remember two important influences in our family - Pine Lodge, our family home for many years, and our mother, Elizabeth (Lilla) Clarke.
Pine Lodge is located in the village of Port Sydney on Mary’s Lake in Muskoka. It was owned and operated by our family as a tourist resort for over 50 years. Our grandmother, Elizabeth Clarke, founded and operated Pine Lodge from about 1925 until our parents took over the operation of the lodge at the end of the second world war. Our mother and father, Elizabeth ( Lilla) and Bill Clarke, ran the lodge with their four children, Terry, Susan, Bill Jr. and Nancy until the mid 1970’s. Today, the lodge is owned and operated by the Carter family.
Our memories of our parents and our best family times always involved lots of good food. As a family-run operation, the Pine Lodge kitchen was always full of friends and family. Nearly all of our cousins passed through the kitchen at some time and many worked at the lodge during the summer. Our Aunt Bessie and Aunt Maudie also helped out in the kitchen and contributed to the lodge’s reputation for offering great homemade meals. But mostly, it was our parents who together kept the kitchen busy and kept the great food cooking. The guests at the lodge would often comment that we were having more fun in the kitchen, and probably we were.
Anyone who knew our mother, will remember her cooking and especially her desserts. Consequently, this booklet is mainly made up of dessert recipes. However, we have also included a number of other family favourites and “lodge” standards.
This book is our way of saying thank you to our parents for these great memories and for keeping our family together through thick and thin.
