My Father Maybe Many Things but...

he has never been known for his culinary skills.

Many year ago, while living in New Zealand, my Mother travelled to Sydney to visit her Mother, my Grandmother, for a week. This left Dad in charge of the house, and us kids. The household was run with military efficiency. We kids were lined up for parade duty at 6am, followed by Guantamo Bay style showers - minus the sexual abuse, and rushed off to school by 9am. Being at school was heaven compared to what we were to endure after school - and I'm just talking about the dinner! I'm not sure what recipe book Dad decided to gain inspiration from but I have yet to see Weetbix Stew repeated - although it certainly repeated on the household for the whole week. Cooking in bulk is efficient! When Mum arrived home 7 days later we rushed her to the kitchen and begged for some high sugar, low fibre cakes.

There is an exception to my Father's failure as a chef. He has always made the most amazing fudge. "He boils the crap out of it" so the rumour to his secret goes. The fudge comes out chalky and sweet and after eating it you won't want that sludge that the CWA makes. Whenever he visits a family member he is asked to make the fudge so when I was fortunate to have a visit from my parents I asked if he could make the fudge for me. Now the secret has been passed to me - however I wasn't very good at making it and actually burnt my hand with scolding hot fudge. Next time I will be better.

My Father's recipe actually comes from the most famous New Zealand cookbooks 'The Edmonds Cookery Book' with some modifications that I will not share with you.

A mixture of Coconut Ice and Fudge

Chocolate Fudge
2 cups of sugar
2 tablespoons cocoa
1/2 cup milk
25g butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence

Basically boil the stuff up and pour into a tin to set. Make sure you cut the mixture before it hardens.

Because I was in the sweet making mood I decided to make a childhood favourite, Coconut Ice. Although the colouring is a little pink my sweets turned out very tasty - enhanced with time. Again I got the recipe from the Edmonds Cookery Book.