It begins!

I wonder these days, how many people have in their possession, a piece of furniture or any other functional item that has served their family through various generations?

I have often thought of starting a blog - but what to write about? I dabble in a few things but put them down and pick them up at sometimes very irregular intervals.

I like to cook, quilt, sew and embroider, reading is a great escape and pottering about in the garden can be fun too, but genealogy has once again become a focus interest. As families we have so much to share about our life and experiences that we don't realise until it is too late to gather those stories from an earlier generation.

So, where does the "Dresser" come into it, you ask? The dresser belonged to my Nanna. I remember it in her kitchen when I was a child. Then, it was 3 shelves high, painted in white milk paint and had been hers since her marriage some 40 years earlier. White china plates adorned its shelves and plain serviceable cutlery filled one drawer while the other drawer held white damask tablecloths for daily use. Behind its doors were concealed all manner of homemade condiments...and so we come to the crunch.

I have inherited not only the dresser, but both my Nanna's and Grandma's handwritten cookbooks. In addition I also have my mother's book and my own. I would like to share these books with my sisters - we all cook for our families, and also pass on to the next generations, our family food heritage - a family collection of recipes that we have proven to be firm favourites, and have stood the test of time, with adaptions to today's tastes and lifestyles.

So here is the first of our family favourites.

Grandma's Chocolate Slice

 

The most recent batch of Grandma's Chocolate Slice

Ingredients:

• ¼ lb butter
• ¾ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 3 teaspoons cocoa
• pinch salt
• 1 cup mixed fruit or dates
• 1 cup SR Flour

Method:

1. Cream butter and sugar till sugar well dissolved
2. Beat in the egg and add vanilla if desired.
3. Sift together cocoa, salt, and SR Flour
4. Fold into the butter sugar and egg mixture.
5. Lastly fold in the fruit.
6. Spread into a paper lined slice tin. I don't spread it too thin as this quantity will only make about half a tray.
7. Bake in a moderate oven till cooked. Test with a skewer.
8. Allow to cool and ice with your favourite chocolate icing.
9. Cut into 5cm squares to serve.

If you are lucky it will keep about a week. (I put it into the fridge if the weather is hot.)