There’s a recipe book that graces the shelves of many in Australia, The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits, and like, mine, I’m sure they are well used.
The Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits – Ever reliable recipes
When I was a child, my nana, Elvie McDonald, would bake up a storm, filling biscuit (cookie) tins with a variety of biscuits, to be gifted to each of her adult children’s families. We all had favourites, for me it was her melting moments, others loved her gingernuts, others, Anzacs, and so on, and it was a sad day when the last of your favourites had vanished from the tin. When the tin was empty, it would be returned to nana, and she would use it to store her baked goods in throughout the year, before beginning the cycle again. While I don’t have one of her large biscuit tins, I do have a smaller tin, and use it to, fittingly, store my biscuit cutters in.
Nana’s Biscuit Tin
Inside Nana’s Biscuit Tin
Nana’s Biscuit Tin
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My sister just turned 7 x 10, she did not really want to celebrate, but I asked if we could come for a visit anyway. We were so excited to be with her for her birthday!
I planned the trip, and we traveled two and a half hours to our son’s home, where our other sister, Sonnie, joined us. She, Gary, and I then traveled another four and a half hours to Jan’s home. The itinerary took us around Melbourne, not through, and across so many different, beautiful landscapes. It was so much nicer than battling city traffic – always a good thing as far as I’m concerned, and didn’t take much longer than if we had battled the city traffic.
Sonnie and I had prepared a special menu for Jan’s birthday meal – we based it around a comment that she had made about how much she had enjoyed the meals during her travels through Sri Lanka and the Middle East. We made lots of little dishes that could be re-heated (if necessary) upon our arrival, and served in the middle of the table for all to share. As is our way, there was always much more than we could eat!
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This recipe was shared by my beautiful sister, Sonnie, after she prepared the dish as part of a celebration meal we brought to the table to celebrate our other beautiful sister, Jan’s, special birthday meal.
"This is my dear Indian friends, Esther and Malcolm's, recipe, they serve it with curry, rice and other dishes.
My boys, when they were little, used to go over to Esther and Malcom's just to have Dahl, Rice and Tomato Sauce!" Sonya (Sonnie) Collins (my beautiful sister)
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1
tbsp
vegetable oil or ghee
-
1
brown onion
diced
-
1 - 1½
cups
of red lentils
-
4-5
cups
of water
-
1
teaspoon
Garam Masala
or less if you do not like to much spice
-
2
garlic cloves
-
½
teaspoon
turmeric
-
Salt
to taste
-
Heat a pan over medium heat.
-
Drizzle about 1 tablespoon of oil, or ghee, into the pan and add onions. Fry until you get some burnt edges (this adds to the flavour).
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Add the lentils, garlic, garam masala and turmeric, and stir well to combine with the onions, ensuring the everything is coated with the spices and oil/ghee.
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Add the water and bring to the boil.
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Cook until lentils are nice and soft.
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Esther & Malcolm’s Dahl, prepared by Sonnie.
Jan’s Birthday Dinner
I still remember Esther telling me that she managed to get John and David to eat Dahl by topping it with tomato sauce, and I smile every time I think about it.
If you have a moment, I would love to hear your thoughts on what you see on
this page – just pop a note in the comments box below.
With many thanks and kindness,
Julie.
Recently I spent the morning working with my pot plants just out the back door. I had sad tomato plants that needed to be potted up before I lost them, and a cucumber similarly needing potting. Soon enough I was spending the morning working with plants, repotting, weeding, tidying, even a little painting, and all the time I was with my family and friends! A storm was looming, due around lunch time, so I knew that my time was limited, but planned to work until driven indoors.
I spent time with my late mum via the beautiful yellow gerbera that she had given me eight years ago, and the lavender that I had dug from her garden after she passed, there’s even a juvenile lavender now growing in a large pot, home to a small mandarin tree.
Yellow Gerbera – a gift from mum -2016
Lavender dug up from mum’s garden.
Self sown lavender in the mandarin tree pot.
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I’m not quite sure why time seems to get away from me, but it does!
The lead up to Christmas was, as I recently said to someone, frantic! There were cooking classes/knowledge sharing sessions to deliver throughout the region, cooking for a local café to be done, trips to Melbourne for family gatherings, an unexpected medical issue, hampers to prepare and get into the post for family up north, gifts to purchase and our preparations for our contributions to the Christmas Day Family Feast!
This year in the Christmas hamper I included a few new items, coffee liqueur, flavour bombs/simmer pot pouches and a new biscuit (cookie). The coffee liqueur was a recipe given to me by a host at a B&B in central France, the flavour bombs/simmer pot pouches were made up of my dehydrated citrus, some spices and a little candied ginger (I think that I will dehydrate ginger for them in future), and the new biscuit is based on a commercially available biscuit available here in Aus, but made using a recipe from my mum’s recipe book.
Goodies packaged ready to boxed up and posted off…
Christmas baking…
Mulled Wine Simmer Pot Bags
Butternut Chocolate Cream Biscuits
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