duchess_declutter

December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas!

Wishing all my bloggy friends a happy and safe Festive Season. It will be reasonably quiet for us this year - and relatively stressless which is always good. Off to lunch at rellies, so I'm off the hook! Though I have mananged to get cracking with some brandied fruit from my Mum's retro recipe book. It had to sit in the fridge for a month, but I 've bottled it up for presents and all looking (and smelling) great.

Enjoy the holiday break, stay safe and I look forward to powering on with some more interesting posts in 2016!

cheers for now
Wendy

December 2, 2015

Wordless Wednesday

....,. for so many reasons.

cheers for now
Wendy

November 9, 2015

What's happening - Rainy Day Flowers, Funghi and a Koala!

On a rainy day - a few flowers to brighten the place up a bit!

Lots of hippeastrum, agapanthus & day lillies coming along.

These toadstools come and go with the rain and seem to like it in the damp of the chook yard.

I spotted this chap in our back paddock when I was out and about in the rain. He has been very vocal the last few nights, so I knew he was not too far away.

He woke up a bit for one photo

but found it all a bit of an effort ....

That doesn't really look terribly comfortable though!

We are seeing fewer and few koalas every year. Plant a koala friendly tree if you can - if not in your own back yard, then on a community planting day. The amount of clearing of their habitat in our immediate area is disturbing. These guys are very vulnerable.

cheers for now
Wendy

October 23, 2015

1970's style recipe #1 - Simplicity Chocolate Cake (Good)

So I baked a cake recently using a recipe from my dear Mum's 1970's recipe book.

Just choosing radomly I found Simplicity Chocolate Cake.... and it certainly was simple~

Here is the original recipe in my Mum's handwriting:

and here it is in clear format~

Simplicity Chocolate Cake (Good)

from my Mum’s 1970’s recipe book

3 tablespoons Butter or Margarine (melt)

2 level tablespoons Cocoa

1 cup SR Flour

1 cup Sugar

½ cup Milk

2 Eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla or almond essence

=====

Melt Butter

Put all other ingredients into large bowl and pour melted butter over.

Beat really hard for three minutes.

Pour onto greased tin and bake in moderate oven.

(Be careful not to burn)

This will stay fresh for days.

duchess_declutter_Wendy

My comments - I used wholemeal SR flour because that is all I buy. It worked out fine, nicely chocolately, moist and dense. I cannot confirm that it stays fresh for days because it didn't last long in our household!

As oven temps were not given I cooked mine at 180 deg. for about 35 minutes, but I watched it carefully the last 5 minutes or so, being mindful of Mum's warning not to BURN! It may need a little longer than 35 minutes, but my oven tends to hot.

So I thought I would use some of my retro props which is likely to happen more often as I change the tempo somewhat with my little blog. Don't worry - I'm not going to morph into another Martha (or anyone of that ilk) but would like to incorporate more of a retro theme. So watch this space - more change is on the way!

Feel free to use this recipe, I'm sure Mum would not have been happy to share.