A Real Old Treasure... My First Recipe Book...

I've had this recipe book since I was 18...

So it's 58 years old!

My mother made it for me to celebrate my engagement prior to being married.

She hand wrote all my favourite recipies that I had grown up with.

On the front she pasted.. . It was published in the Anglican Church, 

St Barnabas, Christchurch, magazine.

'Ten Commandments For Newly Weds'

Thou shalt ever love each  other with a love both deep and true...

Thou shalt ever do the best to see each other's point of view...

Thou shalt share things with thy partner, yet respect his private rights...

Thou shalt not resort to tantrums nor indulge in sulks and skites... 

Thou shalt have a sense of humour and enjoy a joke and laugh...

Thou shalt bear it without malice should it sometimes turn to chaff...

Thou shalt cherish one another both in sickness and in health...

Thou shalt regulate thy spending in accordance with thy wealth...

Thou shalt realise that marriage is a job of give and take...

Thou shalt ask the Lord to  help thee a success of it to make. 

Don't know if you can read these recipes...
They are all traditional flour, sugar, eggs recipies of the 1950's and 60's...
Some from Mum's friends...
You know how we swap our favourite recipes...
So some are very old.

You can see how much this book has been used...
Over and over...
It needs to be treated with care now...
I still use it.

Here's an old recipe I used to make with a girfriend when we were teenagers...
We had lots of fun.

MINTIES

2 tab golden syrup

1 oz butter

2 tab sugar

Boil together for exactly 12 minutes, take off stove & add 1 teasp peppermint essence.

Stir well & add 10 dessertspoons full cream dried milk powder.

Roll into strips & cut with scissors. 

Here's another even older recipe that originated with my Nanna Whyte...
She was my father's (who is now 94) grandmother.
I only vaguely remember visiting her as a very young child.
Remember that in those days self sufficiency was a necessary skill.
What people couldn't make they didn't have... Money and shop bought remedies were scarce.
This recipe is probably very effective and has no additives
or preservatives that todays' remedies are so full of.

IRISH MOSS

1/2 lb honey

1 stick licorice

6d aniseed (sixpence was the equivalent of 5cents)

1 cup vinegar

1 quart of water

Break licorice small & boil with water till dissolved.

Take off fire, add honey & vinegar.

When cold add aniseed.