Salad dressings these days are many and varied. You can make them yourself or buy them in the supermarket, but in the 1950s you had no choice but to make it yourself. Mum always had a bottle of homemade mayonnaise in the fridge. Today this recipe seems a bit mundane, especially with the condensed milk, but it’s part of my family history and I’m guessing lots of others as well.
Sorting through Mum’s recipes all last year made me take a look at my own Recipe Folders and I decided that it really was time to update them. So over the Christmas break I sorted them and put them into new, clean folders. It took three days of hard work, but the reward was discovering lots of old favorites and especially old recipes passed down from Mum.
These Summer Onions are one of them. Mum loves onions and these are a version of pickled onions, the big difference is the onions you use. Salad onions are the best as they are large and have a softer texture. Also you don’t have to leave them weeks to mature, they can be used the next day. They are great on sandwiches and with cold meat and salads.
As the question marks indicate, you can adjust the sugar and salt to taste and over the years I’ve also added extra spices, just whatever I have in the cupboard. You really can’t go wrong.
Of the two Christmas treats, these always disappear first. They are quick and easy to make, especially if you buy the apricots already chopped. I always roll them in icing sugar as there is already heaps of coconut inside them.
Every Christmas I make these Chocolate Rum Truffles and the next recipe Apricot Coconut Balls. When my children were little I used to make them, put them in jars and give them to their teachers as a Christmas gift. I’ve kept making them ever year since. The recipe came from a newspaper cutting that I pasted into my folder years ago. As we don’t read the same newspaper I was really surprised to find the same cutting in Mum’s collection. I’m now wondering how I ended up with it, but I’m glad I did.
This time of year when you have to take a ‘plate’ to all sorts of Christmas functions White Christmas is another quick and easy copha recipe that can work quite well. It was something that Mum made every Christmas, put on a plate with a bit of tinsel or some sprigs of holly it looks really festive. It might be a bit old fashioned now, but it still tastes great. These are a couple of versions I found in Mum’s collection.
This recipe is from a Great Christmas Recipes – Just for Kids leaflet I found in Mum’s collection. They are all recipes using copha and I thought this classic Coconut Ice was one that you don’t see around much any more. I remember it being very sweet and really nice.
Copha seems to have gone out of favour in recent years, but around the 1970s it was used a lot for no-bake slices and especially for sweets. This recipe was published by The Australian Women’s Weekly in 1994, it’s a little more modern with White Melts and Mallow Bakes, but it’s still quick and easy to make. Great for adults and children alike.
Just for variety I thought this more biscuit style recipe might be worth trying. Mum cut it out from the Australian Women’s weekly back in March 2001. I haven’t calculated the cost to make them, but I think it would be a bit more than $1.50 these days.
I’m not sure I ever made one of Mum’s shortbread recipes. I found this one in an Australian Women’s Weekly 100 delicious Biscuits and Slices cookbook just after I got married and it’s the one I usually make. I like it because it is cooked in a tray and cut into fingers. The metric butter measurement is 220g.
As well as lots of handwritten recipes I found this one in the collection. It comes from the side of the Rice Flour packet.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 