Newfie June - The Recipe

When I was growing up, my Mother's purse was sacred ground. You never touched it without her express permission….which was never granted! She would ask you to fetch the purse to her and she would get what you needed from it (usually money). To me, it was akin to Mary Poppin's carpetbag. You just never knew what was stashed away in the pockets and the folds of lining of Mom's purse.

Back in those days, women of our social standing had only one purse. You didn't worry about whether it matched your shoes or outfit…that was your purse and you used it until it was worn out and then you replaced it. I recall a few occasions throughout my youth when my Mother bought a new purse, or received one for a Christmas gift. She would then go about the task of emptying out her old purse, sifting through all of the contents, throwing out what was no longer needed and putting everything else carefully into her new handbag. This was always an "event" for me. It was like being told you could share in some really big secret!

She usually sat at the kitchen table for the task and would patiently haul out her wallet, a cluster of old shop receipts, a comb, a lipstick and a compact of face powder… all the usual accoutrements. What I loved was when she emptied out her wallet. It was stuffed with all manner of papers and mementos (not much money, that's for sure). She would unfold each piece of paper, decide if it needed to be kept and either throw it away or tuck it back into its compartment of the billfold. I remember she had a silver dollar tucked in there and I loved it when she let me admire it. It was the only one I had ever seen. It had been a gift from her best friends, Lizzie and Abe, one Christmas, years before. They were all quite poor but would try to exchange a small gift. Uncle Abe had given Mom the silver dollar and said to her, "Julie, now, no matter how poor we all get, you can never say you don't have a dollar to your name!" She never spent it and always smiled as she recalled the story.

There was also a faded, old, wallet-sized calendar that she kept tucked in beside her silver dollar. The calendar side showed the year of 1942 and on the back, in my Mother's handwriting, was a recipe. She figured she had been attending a baby or bridal shower at one time and admired a treat that one of the ladies had brought along. The lady knew the recipe by heart and Mom tried to write it down as the lady was rattling it off. As you know, there is not much space on a wallet-sized calendar, so the writing was small and everything was cramped together. She had listed all of the ingredients, followed by some very cursory instructions and at the bottom was written "bake for 1 hr.".…but no temperature was given. The recipe was obviously for a dessert of some kind but she hadn't written the name of it on there and she could no longer remember what it could be for, so it was the "mystery recipe".

Every time I saw it I would ask her to make it but she would just smile and put it back in her purse and say, "It's been in my wallet a long time, I guess it can stay in there a while longer. If I take it out I might misplace it so I'll just leave it there. One of these days I'll get around to making it and I'll know just where to find it." And so, it stayed in her wallet and she never did get to make it up and see what it would turn out to be.

When my Mother died, in 1993, one of my sisters found the recipe and decided to send it to me, as I liked to cook and bake. It was a bitter-sweet thing, holding that recipe…it brought back so many memories and just looking at Mom's writing made me miss her so much! I tucked it in my special recipe box and left it there. Every now and again I would be searching for a recipe for something else and would come across it. I would look at it and wonder what the heck it was for and promise myself that I would make it.

Well, today, I finally got around to it ….I made the recipe! As I was putting the last ingredients in the bowl it struck me that these sounded like the ingredients for a date/nut loaf. It was obvious that the recipe was made in the war years when eggs, butter and sugar were scarce. Anyway, I baked it for the 1 hour (I decided to try 350 degrees since that is the standard) and it turned out pretty good. I sure wish I could share a piece with my Mom. I thought that since I can't do that, maybe I would share it with you and you might enjoy a piece with your Mother. So, here it is:

Date Nut Loaf

2 cups flour
1 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. Baking powder
½ cup boiling water
2 tblsp. Butter
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup dates, chopped

Dissolve b. soda in hot water and our over dates. Let stand while mixing other ingredients. Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and then date mixture. Sift flour and baking powder together and add to other ingredients. May add walnuts or pecans, if desired. Add vanilla last (I don't know why but I did it that way anyway.)

Pour into well greased loaf pan and bake for 1 hour (I chose to try 350 degrees and it seemed to work).

Bon appetite!

© Newfie June




Send comments to: Newfie June

If you have any ideas how to make our country better - Send your comments to: Canadian Ideas
Thanks for your help
best regards
www.CanadianCulture.com

Get Involved!
Your Ideas are Important!
Content is contributed by various Canadians and does not necessarily reflect the views of canadianculture.com.