Sometimes the old ways are the easy way :]

As I was rummaging through my dad’s things while myself and my brother Percy were sorting out stuff at our now passed away dad’s place. I happened upon a few old recipes that he had cut out of newspapers and magazines after reading all the notes he had made here and there, I found a keeper that I wanted to share with any of you bakers out there in blogger land.

A simple yet very easy way to make (one of Calvin’s favourites) Christmas (Fruit) Cake – the simple way. This recipe had been cut out of a newspaper that has long disappeared, from a time nearly forgotten to most – from the 1960’s.

What you need:

550g mixed fruit

1 tin condensed milk

½ c water

1 egg, beaten

¾ c walnuts, chopped

¾ c flour

½ tsp baking soda

How to make it:

Boil the fruit in the water for 1 minute (yes you read that correctly), stirring all the time. Let cool. Add the condensed milk, egg and nuts. Sift and stir in the flour and soda.

Pour into a greased paper lined 18 to 20cm tin and bake at 135 degrees Celsius for 1 hour then reduce to 125 degrees Celsius for another hour (so two hours in total). Cool in tin.

This makes one medium sized cake that is yummy for all of the lovers of Fruit Cake. Oddly I am not one of those people; Calvin on the other hand is.

MJ

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Can the USA handle one more visit from Mabel & Calvin?

Once more for good measure? Isn’t that the old saying? Well that’s what I am thinking when it comes to us (Mabel & Calvin) returning to the good old USA. We went over for a month a few years back and travelled Route 66 (in reverse LA to Chicago) then back to LA via the Virginia’s, the Carolina’s, Florida, Texas, and Arizona. We had the most wonderful time and both of us found people in America to be so lovely and kind. We had such a wonderful time, so much that we have decided to return next year and do another epic road trip.

This time round we have decided that since we are going sometime in March, we will be able to take a RV; as the last trip over we went in the middle of their winter (our summer) and snow was a tad of a factor, so the RV was taken out of the equation.

With the start of any trip the destination and the route is the first place to start the planning. The picture above is the first draft and what we hope to take on, yes looks like a lot to take on? Well we are actually use to this amount of travel, and the last road trip over there was about the same (if not longer) again we are planning on taking one month to complete this trip as well.

Over the next few months I hope to share our plans, the how, when, where and with whom etc for our trip. This trip we may have an extra person, my older brother Percy has said he would be interested in tagging along with us this time round. At this stage we will plan for just the two of us and when my brother confirms Yay or Nay for his part then we can adjust to accommodate for the extra person. It won’t be that hard to change at a later stage.

I am going to start again finding places to visit and people to meet J. I have added a new Category called “USA 2014”, this is where I will put everything regarding this trip, including pre, during and post trip.

Can’t wait for 2014!

MJ

Where does one start?

Where does one start once you have set one of these up?  A blog I mean, once you have set everything up you are all dead keen to get in there and start to write your little heart out and you find you have no idea just where to start!

One would think that the hardest part would be setting up the blog.  Really it only took me a massive 15 minutes to get everything done to the stage that I could start writing.  The most of that 15 minutes, if I admit it was trying to pick the theme, which I am sure that will change a few times over the next week or so until I find one I instantly fall in love with (that is).

Over the next few days I will post on things that are happening to myself and Calvin.  We are just about to buy a new car, and even more exciting we have decided to go back to the USA for our holiday next year.  So loads to plan for both events.

MJ