Gillian Polack's Blog, page 14
December 19, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-12-19T20:49:00
It's a bit warm right now. It was, despite being warm, six degrees warmer in Melbourne and do-not-ask hot in Adelaide. And this is my excuse for not giving you an exciting post.
It's only an excuse, however. I read some pamphlets and books from the late 17th century and am slowly getting a handle on the problems of religion for my novel. I can't handle religion in a way that's accurate for the time, for that would make it entirely unreadable as a story. I can't skip over it lightly, for that would offend my inner historian. I'm contemplating approaches...
The particular set of problems reminds me of a conversation I had the other day. Someone just didn't want to accept that racism is as bad as it is right now and that it could separate like-minded people by giving them quite different life experiences. This person is operating in a safe bubble and so most of the side effects don't touch them and they want them to not exist and create the sense of racism not existing using the process of simple denial. It also reminds me of many recent conversations on how women in Australia have to take safety precautions that most men don't even notice. And of how minorities of many kinds lead slightly different lives, because dealing with bigotry and othering is an intrinsic part of daily existence. I am othered differently to my Muslim friends with the same level of religious practice, I've found, for I hide my identity from sight to avoid the everyday bigotry. The longer I am in Canberra the more I make compromises. And that's the key. Compromises. How do I assert the identities of all my characters while making the compromises that will make their religion and culture credible to an audience that is unlikely to get it. I need to avoid that strong negative reaction I had from the person with whom I discussed racism. The reaction was too strong: it would derail the story.
You've heard notions related to this before and you will again. This novel is going to address how to live a successful life while being compromised, where authenticity is only conditionally possible. The fact that this is also my life in a nutshell is more than somewhat bizarre.
Also bizarre is my realisation of yesterday that Secret Jewish Women's Business (the next novel to be released - watch this space) has more autobiographical elements than any of my previous novels. I said this to a friend who'd read a draft and they instantly named two scenes. Neither of them had happened to me. Obviously my life lacks credibility.
My work for tonight is a couple more religious books from the 17th century and to sort out the final for one sequence in the novel that doesn't quite work the way it should. I intend to just watch DVDs until outside drops to 25 degrees, though. Because.
It's only an excuse, however. I read some pamphlets and books from the late 17th century and am slowly getting a handle on the problems of religion for my novel. I can't handle religion in a way that's accurate for the time, for that would make it entirely unreadable as a story. I can't skip over it lightly, for that would offend my inner historian. I'm contemplating approaches...
The particular set of problems reminds me of a conversation I had the other day. Someone just didn't want to accept that racism is as bad as it is right now and that it could separate like-minded people by giving them quite different life experiences. This person is operating in a safe bubble and so most of the side effects don't touch them and they want them to not exist and create the sense of racism not existing using the process of simple denial. It also reminds me of many recent conversations on how women in Australia have to take safety precautions that most men don't even notice. And of how minorities of many kinds lead slightly different lives, because dealing with bigotry and othering is an intrinsic part of daily existence. I am othered differently to my Muslim friends with the same level of religious practice, I've found, for I hide my identity from sight to avoid the everyday bigotry. The longer I am in Canberra the more I make compromises. And that's the key. Compromises. How do I assert the identities of all my characters while making the compromises that will make their religion and culture credible to an audience that is unlikely to get it. I need to avoid that strong negative reaction I had from the person with whom I discussed racism. The reaction was too strong: it would derail the story.
You've heard notions related to this before and you will again. This novel is going to address how to live a successful life while being compromised, where authenticity is only conditionally possible. The fact that this is also my life in a nutshell is more than somewhat bizarre.
Also bizarre is my realisation of yesterday that Secret Jewish Women's Business (the next novel to be released - watch this space) has more autobiographical elements than any of my previous novels. I said this to a friend who'd read a draft and they instantly named two scenes. Neither of them had happened to me. Obviously my life lacks credibility.
My work for tonight is a couple more religious books from the 17th century and to sort out the final for one sequence in the novel that doesn't quite work the way it should. I intend to just watch DVDs until outside drops to 25 degrees, though. Because.
December 18, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-12-18T22:44:00
LJ keeps logging me out!
I have no teaching until sometime in February. I love research and writing and editing, but they're a bit solitary. Right now, they're not because my work has silly season punctuating it. In a week or so, though, this will not be the case.
I have two recent presents-from-friends. I don't go all-out hunting, but I have a slowly-increasing collection of historical games (board games, table-top games) and reproductions or reconstructions of games and friends who know this sometimes add to it. I have an old sewing machine case full, at this moment, with two recent acquisitions from particularly kind friends. I need to play with my toys, so if anyone wants a games afternoon or evening, I'd be willing. We can spin the teetotum or play Parcheesi, or I can bring out something medieval or Roman. We can even work out the seventeenth century rules for Tarot-the-card game. I've never played it because it's all in French. My 17th century French is fine - it's my card-playing French that's poor (less poor than it was - I know what a trump is, now). So many possibilities. None of them possible by oneself.
I have no teaching until sometime in February. I love research and writing and editing, but they're a bit solitary. Right now, they're not because my work has silly season punctuating it. In a week or so, though, this will not be the case.
I have two recent presents-from-friends. I don't go all-out hunting, but I have a slowly-increasing collection of historical games (board games, table-top games) and reproductions or reconstructions of games and friends who know this sometimes add to it. I have an old sewing machine case full, at this moment, with two recent acquisitions from particularly kind friends. I need to play with my toys, so if anyone wants a games afternoon or evening, I'd be willing. We can spin the teetotum or play Parcheesi, or I can bring out something medieval or Roman. We can even work out the seventeenth century rules for Tarot-the-card game. I've never played it because it's all in French. My 17th century French is fine - it's my card-playing French that's poor (less poor than it was - I know what a trump is, now). So many possibilities. None of them possible by oneself.
December 16, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-12-17T14:50:00
My last class for the year was all about teaching my students to listen to the stories told by traditional owners, and how not to explore artefacts as complete outsiders while considering oneself an insider. We talked about why. We did lots of listening. In fact, we spent nearly an hour and a half and only covered the first quarter of the exhibition we were using as our base. I need to go back to the National Museum sometime in the next month to see the rest. If anyone wants to join me, you are entirely welcome.
My homework for the next month (apart from editing and apart from researching and apart from writing) is to learn how to listen in a different way. I was paying attention to my students' reactions and I came back and watched some Time Team and I looked at my early map of St Ives (thanks to the kindness of the Norris Museum) and I realised that I still haven't allowed for time and place in my novel. No wonder I can't bring my characters to life yet! Every time I envisage a house, it's a late 17th century house. I've been infected by badly designed fantasy, I fear. All the houses are of a period. And I've been infected by movies where all the clothes are by the same designer.
In reality, we live in composite timescapes. I have no problems sorting this out for the Middle Ages, or for modern stuff, but the 17th century is still too fantastical for me and fantastical means a kind of cultural and temporal unity that are seldom reflected in reality, due to our cultural predispositions.
I knew this could be a problem. It's why I have maps and photos. I'm beginning to understand, though, why so many writers can't move beyond this stage and fall back on fantasy history. I find, though, that I'm not as canny at visualisation as I was thirty years ago. Our minds change. I have a way out of this small dead-end and of getting into a properly visualised place and time, but cannot seem to enact it. I need to juxtapose my maps with my photos with my records of museum pieces and come up with a complex reality.
I used to do this almost effortlessly. Minds change with age. If anyone wants to spend a few days this summer creating a mural on my floor or on my wall, we can create a more convincing 17th century using my data. Pay is chocolate and 17th century drinks. If none of you can visit, then (since I've tried to do it alone and failed) I'll work out another technique.
My big lesson of the week is a reminder why teaching and writing fiction work so very strongly together. If I hadn't taught my students close listening, I might have missed that I myself was not listening as closely as I should and that my learning style has changed over time.
In an interview the other week someone asked about the teaching of fiction and non-fiction (because some of my research definitely addresses boundary issues). It looks as if I'll still be teaching those border areas, because I need to learn them for my own fiction. I have the theory. But theory and practice are too far apart for comfort. What I need to factor in now is modes of learning and modes of thinking and how writers themselves work. And I need to do it for me, for my fiction, not for a scholarly paper. This means that fiction/non-fiction boundary will be a part of my teaching for a fair while to come. If someone asked me that interview question today, my answer would be very different to the one I gave a month ago.
My homework for the next month (apart from editing and apart from researching and apart from writing) is to learn how to listen in a different way. I was paying attention to my students' reactions and I came back and watched some Time Team and I looked at my early map of St Ives (thanks to the kindness of the Norris Museum) and I realised that I still haven't allowed for time and place in my novel. No wonder I can't bring my characters to life yet! Every time I envisage a house, it's a late 17th century house. I've been infected by badly designed fantasy, I fear. All the houses are of a period. And I've been infected by movies where all the clothes are by the same designer.
In reality, we live in composite timescapes. I have no problems sorting this out for the Middle Ages, or for modern stuff, but the 17th century is still too fantastical for me and fantastical means a kind of cultural and temporal unity that are seldom reflected in reality, due to our cultural predispositions.
I knew this could be a problem. It's why I have maps and photos. I'm beginning to understand, though, why so many writers can't move beyond this stage and fall back on fantasy history. I find, though, that I'm not as canny at visualisation as I was thirty years ago. Our minds change. I have a way out of this small dead-end and of getting into a properly visualised place and time, but cannot seem to enact it. I need to juxtapose my maps with my photos with my records of museum pieces and come up with a complex reality.
I used to do this almost effortlessly. Minds change with age. If anyone wants to spend a few days this summer creating a mural on my floor or on my wall, we can create a more convincing 17th century using my data. Pay is chocolate and 17th century drinks. If none of you can visit, then (since I've tried to do it alone and failed) I'll work out another technique.
My big lesson of the week is a reminder why teaching and writing fiction work so very strongly together. If I hadn't taught my students close listening, I might have missed that I myself was not listening as closely as I should and that my learning style has changed over time.
In an interview the other week someone asked about the teaching of fiction and non-fiction (because some of my research definitely addresses boundary issues). It looks as if I'll still be teaching those border areas, because I need to learn them for my own fiction. I have the theory. But theory and practice are too far apart for comfort. What I need to factor in now is modes of learning and modes of thinking and how writers themselves work. And I need to do it for me, for my fiction, not for a scholarly paper. This means that fiction/non-fiction boundary will be a part of my teaching for a fair while to come. If someone asked me that interview question today, my answer would be very different to the one I gave a month ago.
December 14, 2015
Chanukah last present for 2015
I'm a few hours late with this post, so Chanukah is actually finished in Australia. I'm making it up to you with two recipes. These are both favourites from the testing for the Conflux Regency banquet. Neither made it to the final menu. They're both highly suitable for celebration and end-of-year-foodism.
Windsor Syllabub
1 bottle of sweet sherry
6 dessert spoons (or less) white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon of cloves
1.2 l milk
300 ml cream
Whisk all ingredients except milk and cream. Add milk and cream. Mix well and serve.
The Grand Negus
Make a syrup by boiling for 5 minutes:
5 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups water
8 dozen whole cloves
12 sticks cinnamon
6 crushed nutmegs
Peel of 6 lemons, 4 oranges
Strain syrup. Add to it: 8 cups hot lemon or lime juice (preferably fresh)
Heat well and add: 8 bottles red wine, Madeira, port or sherry
Serve very hot with slices of: Lemon and pineapple
You can make a smaller amount, of course, but then the drink would lose the Star Trek joke, which would be a terrible pity.
Both of these recipes are for Donna Maree Hanson, for she was dreaming of Jane Austen today.
Windsor Syllabub
1 bottle of sweet sherry
6 dessert spoons (or less) white sugar
1 ½ teaspoons nutmeg
1 teaspoon of cloves
1.2 l milk
300 ml cream
Whisk all ingredients except milk and cream. Add milk and cream. Mix well and serve.
The Grand Negus
Make a syrup by boiling for 5 minutes:
5 cups sugar
2 1/2 cups water
8 dozen whole cloves
12 sticks cinnamon
6 crushed nutmegs
Peel of 6 lemons, 4 oranges
Strain syrup. Add to it: 8 cups hot lemon or lime juice (preferably fresh)
Heat well and add: 8 bottles red wine, Madeira, port or sherry
Serve very hot with slices of: Lemon and pineapple
You can make a smaller amount, of course, but then the drink would lose the Star Trek joke, which would be a terrible pity.
Both of these recipes are for Donna Maree Hanson, for she was dreaming of Jane Austen today.
December 12, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-12-13T10:47:00
I'm a bit foodie today, because friends are dropping in for Chanukah. I started the day by making yeast dough for bread, for Sephardi honey fritters (16th century style) and for doughnuts (which will have chocolate stuffing). I've brought out cheesecake and honey cake and those choc-cumquat inventions I was keeping hidden safely. There are crackers and dips and three types of cheese. There are vast amounts of pickles (less than there were, for both my house guest and I love our pickles and are snacking on them, but I had copious quantities and six varieties, so all is well). There will be latkes later and various things to stuff the bread rolls with (haloumi, cocktail sausages, salad vegies and various sauces and, for those like me who like their pickles, maybe more of the pickles). And there is much chocolate and many boiled lollies.
I think by this spread we know that Gillian's impossible health of a few years ago is a thing of the past. It's very nice to be able to walk up, make three types of dough, and not to feel like death warmed up.
My eye is still a pain, but it's noticeably getting better. The specialist was right - it's clearing. That means I only have a few more months of the fatigue. Knowing I can cook for others again and can do all my work even when things go pearshaped and that I have energy left to write a blogpost even after doing all this makes me very, very happy. I am, in fact, so happy that our coffee this morning is a Byron Bay arabica made espresso with proper cream. I have a bowl of truly excellent kalamata olives to match. All the things a purist wouldn't do, but that taste delightful on a Sunday morning.
I think by this spread we know that Gillian's impossible health of a few years ago is a thing of the past. It's very nice to be able to walk up, make three types of dough, and not to feel like death warmed up.
My eye is still a pain, but it's noticeably getting better. The specialist was right - it's clearing. That means I only have a few more months of the fatigue. Knowing I can cook for others again and can do all my work even when things go pearshaped and that I have energy left to write a blogpost even after doing all this makes me very, very happy. I am, in fact, so happy that our coffee this morning is a Byron Bay arabica made espresso with proper cream. I have a bowl of truly excellent kalamata olives to match. All the things a purist wouldn't do, but that taste delightful on a Sunday morning.
Chanukah Day 7 - chocolate almond/hazelnut cake
Today’s recipe is my mother’s flourless chocolate-but cake. Jewish tradition has a range of flourless recipes and my mother’s uncle was a coeliac so we knew quite a few of them and made them for every family occasion. I love this cake most when it’s topped with melted chocolate. It keeps well in an airtight container, just as long as no-one knows it’s there.
Ingredients:
8 huge eggs
1 cup sugar (c 200 g)
100 g grated chocolate
100 g ground almonds or hazelnuts (the finest grind possible without creating nut butter)
Method:
Beat egg whites with half the sugar until peaked, and egg yolks with the other half. Combine whites with yolks. Gently fold in nuts and chocolate, taking care to not overstir. Bake in a moderate oven until the cake draws away from the side of the pan.
Ingredients:
8 huge eggs
1 cup sugar (c 200 g)
100 g grated chocolate
100 g ground almonds or hazelnuts (the finest grind possible without creating nut butter)
Method:
Beat egg whites with half the sugar until peaked, and egg yolks with the other half. Combine whites with yolks. Gently fold in nuts and chocolate, taking care to not overstir. Bake in a moderate oven until the cake draws away from the side of the pan.
December 11, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-12-12T17:35:00
I'm emerging from a few rather trying days with a punch-drunk feeling, simmering emotions, and a tendency to doze off. I'm behind in one thing and one thing only which, considering the way life has run interference with everything since Wednesday, isn't that bad. That's not counting my email. I shall pretend my email doesn't exist until Tuesday afternoon, at which stage I shall catch up on everything.
Since so many things are all-to-pieces in my life (don't ask!) I shall spend the summer researching one novel, writing another and editing a third. From Wednesday I have no income until the middle of February and this means I am my own master, timewise. I'm collecting a lot of fun viewing (for why watch Christmas movies when I can watch SF?) because that will enable my evil writing/editing habit.
For those local (or visiting) I'll be having a splurge of good viewing on 26 December and on 1 January, and visitors are entirely welcome. The first visitors to invite themselves will get to choose what we see. If I know by this Tuesday, I can shop for appropriate food. My last shopping trip is next Tuesday, for I mucked up my shopping something bad this year - I have everything I need for Chanukah and not nearly enough for the month following. That's not true. I have much pickle and six large bottles of passata, and enough pasta to see me through. I really can't live on artichoke hearts and pickled cucumbers and passata, however, even though i would enjoy it. This Tuesday is all about the heavy shopping, so all that I need is milk and lettuce and fruit thereafter. This is the heavy shopping I thought I'd already done. I think my mind has been on novels rather than groceries.
I don't know why this errant mind of mine insists on working on two novels at once. But it does. And it's fun because I get to explore quite different concepts and take umbrage at quite different cultural constructs in them.
One novel is exploring the role of gendering. I started this in Cellophane (and most people don't realise, which I always find entertaining) and continued (in a subdued kind of what) in The Time of the Ghosts (for we gender heroes) and now it's time for gendering to be centre stage, with one of my characters being... well, you'll see, eventually.
The other novel is pushing my historiographical concepts further. I want to see what happens when one uses alternate timelines to understand how societies we know have developed. This has been done before, but almost always from a male view or from the view of Important People. I'm facing some real challenges in the world-building, for it turns out that most novels that use the late 17th century don't actually use the late 17th century: they use the view of the late 17th century as promulgated by a very few historians. This is why I'm so embedded in primary sources. I need to tools to evaluate the secondary one for myself, since there are an awful lot of trite novels out there, and I do not see the need to add one more to the pile. The other things I'm doing is adding peoples' pasts, and this is ... not easy. People who lived in 1682 had complex personal histories. There are no choices in this. A woman who has survived a civil war and all those religious differences and cultural changes has a Past. It's not a matter of one character having a Past, therefore, but of every single one of them. It's so easy to see why most writers describe an almost-fairytale England under Charles. Or stick to court intrigue. It's so much easier than daily life!
I have to decide very soon if I want a modern narrative to match the historical one. I was originally going to have one, but... I don't know. It may be one intellectual component too many and it may interfere with story. I have now got 300 primary sources left to read, so I'll work it out while I read them.
I was talking with Andrew Lynch a few weeks ago and I've decided to be open about the other experimental side of the novel. I want this story to be one that's based on research done using a computer ie ebooks. This will make it directly comparable with Illuminations, which was researched entirely using printed matter. I want to see for myself if researching using ebooks creates a different type of story to printed matter. This is why I wanted a modern narrative alongside the main narrative. My modern narrative in Illuminations helped explain what was happening, research-wise and what it meant to historians. If I end up with a modern narrative, it will be a historian looking at that time and proving insight. I don't think it will have as much of a plot as Rose does in Illuminations, for they're very much not the same book - just exploring some of the same underlying possibilities. Eventually you will be able to line a group of my novels up in a row and use them to explore concepts of history and fiction. But only if you want to. The story always comes first. This is why I haven't made up my mind about the modern character yet: I need to see how the 17th century characters shape up, first. I don't want them to be undermined.
Since so many things are all-to-pieces in my life (don't ask!) I shall spend the summer researching one novel, writing another and editing a third. From Wednesday I have no income until the middle of February and this means I am my own master, timewise. I'm collecting a lot of fun viewing (for why watch Christmas movies when I can watch SF?) because that will enable my evil writing/editing habit.
For those local (or visiting) I'll be having a splurge of good viewing on 26 December and on 1 January, and visitors are entirely welcome. The first visitors to invite themselves will get to choose what we see. If I know by this Tuesday, I can shop for appropriate food. My last shopping trip is next Tuesday, for I mucked up my shopping something bad this year - I have everything I need for Chanukah and not nearly enough for the month following. That's not true. I have much pickle and six large bottles of passata, and enough pasta to see me through. I really can't live on artichoke hearts and pickled cucumbers and passata, however, even though i would enjoy it. This Tuesday is all about the heavy shopping, so all that I need is milk and lettuce and fruit thereafter. This is the heavy shopping I thought I'd already done. I think my mind has been on novels rather than groceries.
I don't know why this errant mind of mine insists on working on two novels at once. But it does. And it's fun because I get to explore quite different concepts and take umbrage at quite different cultural constructs in them.
One novel is exploring the role of gendering. I started this in Cellophane (and most people don't realise, which I always find entertaining) and continued (in a subdued kind of what) in The Time of the Ghosts (for we gender heroes) and now it's time for gendering to be centre stage, with one of my characters being... well, you'll see, eventually.
The other novel is pushing my historiographical concepts further. I want to see what happens when one uses alternate timelines to understand how societies we know have developed. This has been done before, but almost always from a male view or from the view of Important People. I'm facing some real challenges in the world-building, for it turns out that most novels that use the late 17th century don't actually use the late 17th century: they use the view of the late 17th century as promulgated by a very few historians. This is why I'm so embedded in primary sources. I need to tools to evaluate the secondary one for myself, since there are an awful lot of trite novels out there, and I do not see the need to add one more to the pile. The other things I'm doing is adding peoples' pasts, and this is ... not easy. People who lived in 1682 had complex personal histories. There are no choices in this. A woman who has survived a civil war and all those religious differences and cultural changes has a Past. It's not a matter of one character having a Past, therefore, but of every single one of them. It's so easy to see why most writers describe an almost-fairytale England under Charles. Or stick to court intrigue. It's so much easier than daily life!
I have to decide very soon if I want a modern narrative to match the historical one. I was originally going to have one, but... I don't know. It may be one intellectual component too many and it may interfere with story. I have now got 300 primary sources left to read, so I'll work it out while I read them.
I was talking with Andrew Lynch a few weeks ago and I've decided to be open about the other experimental side of the novel. I want this story to be one that's based on research done using a computer ie ebooks. This will make it directly comparable with Illuminations, which was researched entirely using printed matter. I want to see for myself if researching using ebooks creates a different type of story to printed matter. This is why I wanted a modern narrative alongside the main narrative. My modern narrative in Illuminations helped explain what was happening, research-wise and what it meant to historians. If I end up with a modern narrative, it will be a historian looking at that time and proving insight. I don't think it will have as much of a plot as Rose does in Illuminations, for they're very much not the same book - just exploring some of the same underlying possibilities. Eventually you will be able to line a group of my novels up in a row and use them to explore concepts of history and fiction. But only if you want to. The story always comes first. This is why I haven't made up my mind about the modern character yet: I need to see how the 17th century characters shape up, first. I don't want them to be undermined.
Chanukah day 6 - Cheesecake
Several people have asked me about my cheesecake recipe, so that's your recipe for today. It's a pre-war Central European recipe.
Auntie Uschi's Cheese Cake
Pastry
3 oz butter
2 oz sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 oz plain flour
pinch salt
1/2 level tsp baking powder
Melt butter. Add sugar, egg, other ingredients. Chill in refrigerator. Roll to fit 8″ tin.
Cake
1/2 lbs creamed cottage cheese (the smooth stuff, not the grainy)
1/2 cup sour cream
2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 lemon (juice and rind)
1 drop vanilla
1 tbs plain flour
1 tb SR flour
Cream cheese with sugar. Add eggs. Beat well. Add other ingredients and beat together. Pour into pastry shell. Use extra pastry to decorate top of cake. Bake 1 - 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.
Auntie Uschi's Cheese Cake
Pastry
3 oz butter
2 oz sugar
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla
6 oz plain flour
pinch salt
1/2 level tsp baking powder
Melt butter. Add sugar, egg, other ingredients. Chill in refrigerator. Roll to fit 8″ tin.
Cake
1/2 lbs creamed cottage cheese (the smooth stuff, not the grainy)
1/2 cup sour cream
2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 lemon (juice and rind)
1 drop vanilla
1 tbs plain flour
1 tb SR flour
Cream cheese with sugar. Add eggs. Beat well. Add other ingredients and beat together. Pour into pastry shell. Use extra pastry to decorate top of cake. Bake 1 - 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees F.
December 10, 2015
Tia Maria liqueur
My Auntie Joan gave me a Tia Maria recipe and the pun (a recipe named after an aunt made by an aunt) means you get a second recipe today. Also, it means I've made up for the missing day!
I'm the holder of many family recipes. Auntie Joan gave me so many of hers because I was talking about my grandmother's with her. This means I have a lovely repertoire of traditional dishes from one side of the family. This includes all those home made liqueurs I'm guilty of making, which are definitely ancestral and which I was taught by Auntie Joan. And it includes this Tia Maria recipe. I've no idea when Auntie Joan collected it, or where she got it from, but it's definitely an Australian version. I admit, I use real coffee instead of instant, so mine is a bit different to Auntie Joan's. I should make some, shouldn't I? Soon...
Years ago I dated her recipe as from before 1966, but less than ninety years old in its current form. The measurements are pre-metric and cup sizes are old-fashioned ie one cup of sugar is 6 ounces which is c 210 g, if you trust my calculations, which I wouldn't! This recipe may not have been only my aunt's. I know she made it (*for I drank it at her place) but the actual recipe I found in Claire Polack's notebook.
Tia Maria Liqueur
2 oz instant coffee
1/2 vanilla bean
4 cups sugar
2 cups boiling water
1 pint brandy
Pour boiling water over sugar - dissolve. Add other ingredients then add vanilla bean. Tightly cork. Let stand 30 days.
I'm the holder of many family recipes. Auntie Joan gave me so many of hers because I was talking about my grandmother's with her. This means I have a lovely repertoire of traditional dishes from one side of the family. This includes all those home made liqueurs I'm guilty of making, which are definitely ancestral and which I was taught by Auntie Joan. And it includes this Tia Maria recipe. I've no idea when Auntie Joan collected it, or where she got it from, but it's definitely an Australian version. I admit, I use real coffee instead of instant, so mine is a bit different to Auntie Joan's. I should make some, shouldn't I? Soon...
Years ago I dated her recipe as from before 1966, but less than ninety years old in its current form. The measurements are pre-metric and cup sizes are old-fashioned ie one cup of sugar is 6 ounces which is c 210 g, if you trust my calculations, which I wouldn't! This recipe may not have been only my aunt's. I know she made it (*for I drank it at her place) but the actual recipe I found in Claire Polack's notebook.
Tia Maria Liqueur
2 oz instant coffee
1/2 vanilla bean
4 cups sugar
2 cups boiling water
1 pint brandy
Pour boiling water over sugar - dissolve. Add other ingredients then add vanilla bean. Tightly cork. Let stand 30 days.
Brownies
Today's been a bit challenging, so it's taken me until now to get you a recipe. Sweet recipes I promised you and, if possible, family recipes. Today's recipe isn't from family, but from a friend I haven't seen in years. It's warming in winter and cheering in summer and I haven't made it in a long time, which is daft of me, for whenever I make it, it disappears in an instant. Measurements are Canadian, for it was a Canadian friend who taught me.
THE BROWNIES
Ingredients:
3 tbs. butter
100 g cooking chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 medium or 3 large eggs
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup flour
2 tsp. vanilla
Method:
Melt butter and chocolate together. Add other ingredients. Grease pan well and bake at 325°F for 30 minutes.
THE BROWNIES
Ingredients:
3 tbs. butter
100 g cooking chocolate
2 cups sugar
4 medium or 3 large eggs
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup flour
2 tsp. vanilla
Method:
Melt butter and chocolate together. Add other ingredients. Grease pan well and bake at 325°F for 30 minutes.
