The recipe box...

I am sitting here with a gale blowing outside and rain pelting down outside my window. My dogs are very unhappy as it was walk day but now they are trapped inside because I am not negotiating with their pleading looks...no no no...too cold, too windy too wet! My mind is turning to a warm fire, hot chocolate and brownies.

I am sure we all have a recipe file filled with recipes sent to us by family and friends or collected over the years of homemaking, yes?

I have a recipe box that I started 22 years ago and it holds some special memories. Inside it is Aunty Joy's hot milk sponge cake recipe. She has now gone to be with her Saviour, Jesus, but every time I make a birthday cake and use this recipe I think of standing in her kitchen planning my wedding cake with her.

I have a recipe for Boston Beans given to me by a faraway friend living on a farm outside Ladybrand which I dug out and made last week. I thought of her long distance love and missed her terribly.

There is a butter and condensed milk cookie recipe in here too from a once upon a time friend who is now in New Zealand. She came alongside me as a new mom and was a never ending source of help and encouragement.

Today I am longing for Beth's Brownies. Beth is now in the USA and a mommy of 8 kiddies. She used this recipe to bake batch upon batch of brownies to sell to a home bake shop 21 years ago when they were still in Cape Town. Beth was my very first Christian mentor and prayer partner. Her brownies paid for two return tickets to the UK back then for her and her husband to have a holiday as he was in Bible school and they lived off her income.

Special memories open up in my mind every time I open up the recipe box.

Here is Beth's brownie recipe:

Mix together 100g self raising flour and 250g of sugar
Melt 1 00g of butter with 6 squares of dark chocolate
Mix together 3 eggs (well beaten) and 1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Combine all of the above and add 250g chocolate chips.

Put it into a greased baking tin and bake at 180 deg C for 20 30 minutes until the tester comes out clean.

Don't wait too long to eat them with your family....remember sharing is caring :)