Tag: Marion’s Recipes

Letters from the Front

Uncle Bobby WW1 1918
Bobby, aged 20, a year later

Nearly 100 years ago, aged just 19, my father’s eldest brother, Lionel Reid Hall – Bobby to his family and friends, Uncle Bobby to my sister, brother and me, Grandpa/Grandpop to the Jacksons, Whitlocks and Constantines – was posted to France on 25th February 1917.

Cold, wet, and at first often bored, and missing his family and many friends, he wrote regularly and reassuringly from the trenches to his loving and obviously anxious family living in Lichfield. Continue reading Letters from the Front

Bring Back Black Forest Gateaux!

Exposed by a Lifetime’s Recipe Collection…

Applying the ‘sparks joy’ criteria has continued overtime throughout the weekend. I am still decluttering, obsessively, focussing for the minute on a lifetime’s worth of ‘favourite’ recipes – see bird’s eye view below of a tiny selection. I am sure even Marie Kondo would be slightly impressed.

A lifetime of recipes Continue reading Bring Back Black Forest Gateaux!

A Gluten-Free Delight:

Almond and Coconut Flourless Cake

At last! This is another very special recipe, from my secret stash of delicious maximum impact/minimum effort trusted favourite recipes. I have been promising to put it up for weeks, ever since it won 1st Prize at the Parwich Bake Off!  (Don’t inquire too hard about how many entrants there were.)

I am a fan of the Australian Women’s Weekly magazine, and cut this recipe out on one of our trips to Australia to see our daughter Sara and her family, husband Derek and their son Tom. I was interested merely because it was advertised as both delicious and easy to make. The fact that it is gluten free has proved an added bonus… Continue reading A Gluten-Free Delight:

Bridge Dainties

No, these are simply delicious biscuits – in fact Prize-winners as you can see – and not even particularly dainty; in spite of the name you do not need to be a bridge player, or indeed even a bridge-learner, to enjoy them…

The recipe for the so-named Bridge Dainties was given to my sister, Ruth Cragg (nee Hall) in about 1955 or 56 by the mother of one of her day girl friends. We were boarders at St Peter’s Diocesan School for Girls in Bulawayo, now Zimbabwe, then Southern Rhodesia. Ruth has never, ever played bridge, in case you’re wondering. Continue reading Bridge Dainties

Maximum Effect with Minimum Effort…

Pesto Chicken with Cheesy Dumplings The aim to achieve the maximum effect with the minimum of effort has always been a useful mantra for me, at least in the kitchen department. One has to assume, naturally, that it’s a wholly positive, good effect that one is striving for.

In my experience a perfect cheese or a fish soufflé is easy (honestly!) but whenever I produce one everybody falls off their chairs with amazed admiration – I assume it’s not surprise. It’s the same funnily enough with meringues which, again, I find could hardly be easier… Continue reading Maximum Effect with Minimum Effort…