After the rain

We have had 250ml or 10" of rain over the past two months and my garden has definitely benefited from it all. It is the best it has looked for many years.

Murphy's Law

Murphy's law........ The one week you actually get all your stuff done early for your Website the Internet decides to die the day before! And then when you finally get sick of waiting and 24 hours later you head off to the library to email everyone and let them know you'll be late listing this week, the phone rings just as you get there....Yep, they'd just fixed it!!!!

A bit of baking

Chocolate Cake

1 cup Self Raising Flour
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
Place all ingredients in a bowl and beat really hard for 3 minutes. It does make quite a ‘wet’ batter. Pour into a greased cake tin and bake in a moderate oven (180˚C/350˚F) for 30-40 minutes.
Allow to cool for a few minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely before icing.

I'm always on the lookout for simple but nice recipes and found this one in a very old cookbook at my Mum's. It was a recipe book made by a Primary school Mother's Club (as they were known back then) probably in the late 70's.
While I was flicking through the book I came across some other recipes I thought I would share. You may have seen them before or something like them anyway.


A recipe to make us Happy and Agreeable

1lb Good Temper               3lb of Unselfishness
2lb of Forbearance             1lb of Fun
1lb of Patience                   2lb of Cheerfulness
2lb of Contentment
Mix well with 2 parts of Human Kindness.
Dose:1 glass full first thing in the morning to be repeated as soon as the effects wear off.

Warm Children and Love

Take 5 or 6 children-sprinkle over a wide field. Add some water-a cooling babbling brook. Stir in some excitement. Add a generous portion of love and a pinch of laughter. Cover with a clear blue sky and allow to bake for several hours in the warm summer sun. When done and golden brown, wash and tuck into a soft bed.

Happiness Cake

Mix together thoroughly....1 cup of good thoughts, 1 cup of kind deeds, 1 cup of consideration for others, 2 cups of sacrifice, 2 cups of well beaten faults, 3 cups of forgiveness.
Add tears of joy, sorrow and sympathy. Flavour with Love and kindly service. Fold into daily life, bake well with the warmth of human kindness and serve with a smile any time.

And finally something that you wouldn't see published in a Cook Book now days even though it is intended as a joke. Preservation of wildlife is terribly important and what is done to Elephants for the sake of their tusks is intolerable. I hope you can  take this in the way it was intended...........

Elephant Stew

1 Elephant
2 Rabbits (optional)
Brown Gravy
Salt and Pepper

Cut Elephant into bite size pieces. This should take 2 months. Cook over a kerosene fire about 4 weeks at 405 degrees. This will serve approximately 4000 people. If more guests are expected 2 Rabbits may be added. Do this only if necessary as most people don't like hare in their stew.