Baking and Remembering

Today I baked Gran's 'Raw Peanut Biscuits'.

These are the biscuits I remember eating at her house,

something we looked forward to when we visited.
I'm sure she baked other biscuits, but I don't remember them.

As a peanut-lover I couldn't get enough of the nutty flavour

and the dark crisp texture of the biscuits, 

and the peanut skins fascinated me.

Gran would send us out to the garden to eat them

and we would walk on the hard mown grass,

collecting jacaranda pods, 

imagining they were the soles off ladies' high-heeled shoes;

and spotting eggshells in the compost pile

and identifying carrot tops in the garden beds.

A few years back my aunt lent me Gran's old recipe book, 

full of handwritten recipes and recipes cut out from 

magazines and newspapers.

After some searching I found the recipe for my beloved biscuits,

and some raw peanuts still in their skins,

and recently I've converted them to fit my current diet better.

There are all sorts of recipes in here, older and newer.

The recipe above is for Pigs Cheeks Brawn.

How tastes have changed.

And just below it, another biscuit recipe.

This much-loved recipe book is barely holding together.

I always loved my Gran's handwriting,

though as a child it was hard for me to read.

I think I will have to try these Apple Orchard Cookies,

they sound delicious.

And I love this advertisement folded inside the book.

Laura baked today, also,

and did a brilliant job piping meringues.

 So afternoon tea was pretty good, here,

and full of memories.