The first submission I had published and received payment for, was an icecream recipe I sent to the Woman’s Day many years ago. WD came good again in recent years, when I noticed that the letter of the week would be paid $100. Just for fun, I scribbled a note about leaving the bush to work in the city, regardless of my lack of skills… a Just Do It letter. It took only the amount of time to write it, so it’s the highest pay per hour that I’ve ever received.
I often decide that I will go through my boxes of papers… letters, cards, recipes, memorabilia… of course I never finish, because I have to read everything… hours pass and it’s too late to finish, so it gets put back in the box/drawer/cupboard for another day.
In 1978 I left daughters Rosemary and Elizabeth with their father David and went on holiday by myself… I wrote a swag of recipes out for David so he would know how to cook, not having done any… I came across an interesting recipe to make custard – the sort you pour from a jug. Here is what I wrote on school exercise paper:
Custard: in steaming bowl break 2 eggs and beat with 1 large tble sugar and almost 1 pint milk (bowl 1/2 full?). Vanilla and nutmeg. Don’t vigorously boil or custard will become religious!
Religious? What did I mean… ??? I wonder if he ever made it…
Then I added, Make sure kids eat a few eggs each week – maybe you can make an egg flip occasionally!
I also wrote instructions for roasting chicken and lamb, and how to make basic cake, biscuits and pikelets. I don’t think I’ve seen a pikelet recipe for decades. I suppose it’s not trendy now, and we make crepes instead, or pancakes… or some people do. We still make fritters though, and corn fritters remain my favourite. I often tear attractive/simple recipes from the newspapers and put them in the bottom kitchen drawer… I haven’t made any of them…