Back in the 1980s we used to holiday with a group of friends every Easter. Everyone would take and make dishes which we would all share. One the the girls made this Tortellini salad, it was the first time we’ve ever tasted tortellini used this way and we all loved it. When we got home she shared the recipe with all of us.
On the same sheet as the American Potato Salad was this Italian Salad. This at least had pasta as it’s base, which does give it an Italian style. Using pasta in a salad was still fairly unusual when this was published in 1991 and I certainly don’t think Mum had ever made a pasta salad at that stage.
Potato Salad has been around for a long, long time, but I thought it interesting that Mum had this American Potato Salad in her collection. As far as I can see the main thing that is different from our home grown Australian versions is the dill pickles.
As my husband says, like mother like daughter, I scribbled this recipe down on a piece of paper one night after eating them at a friend’s house. Sadly he passed away recently, so in honor of a great fellow and a good cook here’s his recipe for Oven Dried Tomatoes.
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.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 