This one comes from a 1974 New Idea section named Tasty Meals on a Budget. It’s a rice bubble, banana, coffee and marshmallow delight. I can’t decided just how the filling would taste, although I do think it’s one for those who have a sweet tooth.
After watching Mum entertain family and friends for years and years I guess I’ve picked up a lot of her habits. One of the things she always like to do was to have everything prepared before people arrived and I’ve followed in her footsteps particularly with desserts. That’s one of the reasons that this recipe appeals to me. It can be made the day before and then just taken out of the fridge when you need it – marvellous.
This recipe comes from a 1990s, Australian Women’s Weekly supplement entitled Old Fashioned Family Favourites. For me, the ‘old fashioned’ ice cream that Mum used to make was one that used an evaporated milk and sugar mixture that was whipped, semi frozen and then rewhipped. To me it always seemed to be very icy, nothing like today’s smooth and creamy version. I’m inclined to think that this recipe has been ‘modernized’ to use thickened cream so I’m sure it would taste a lot better than the old fashioned version I remember.
This cutting from the Herald Sun Checkout cooking page says ‘any old trifle is dead easy, but a “great” trifle has mystique’. A trifle overdone perhaps, but a good trifle is a great summer dessert. These versions seem to have come from the inaugural ‘Great Trifle’ competition – unsurprisingly not a competition that’s around anymore. Equally I’m not quite sure of how these recipes would work today, but there’s some interesting combinations in them!!!!!
My husband would say that nothing you can add to rhubarb could make it taste any better, but Mum and Dad enjoyed a bowl of stewed rhubarb with custard or ice cream and she must have thought this recipe would be a nice change. Obviously she couldn’t find the scissors to cut it out, I think it’s just lucky she didn’t rip through through more of it.
I know a dessert with canned peaches is very old fashioned, but having just come back from the fruit shop where new season peaches were selling for $15 a kilo, I think sometimes you have no choice. At least using amaretti biscuits modernizes the recipe a bit.
I often make a large tub of potato bake to serve at barbecues, mine has brown onions, bacon and corn in it. This version with leeks looks good though and I might give it a go over the summer months.
I think the idea of pre-making a large batch of beef casserole, freezing it in batches and then jazzing it up when needed is a great one. This Diane-style version would be a quick way to make a tasty dish when you don’t have much time or energy left after a busy day.
To me there’s a couple of advantages with this recipe, a. it contains chocolate mousse and b. you can make it a week in advance. When you’re catering for a crowd the trick is to do as much pre-preparation as you can so that on the day/night of the party you aren’t stuck in the kitchen all the time. For that reason alone this recipe could be well worth trying out.
This dessert recipe from the New Idea is an interesting take on the old chocolate ripe cake from the ’60s. Not sure you’d get away with it only costing $3.50 to make these days, but it would still be an economical dessert for 6 people.
Beb's Recipe Drawer 