Katie Munnik - The Heart Beats in Secret

I remembered Gran working hard and liking beautiful things. I imagined her readying this room. Standing here by the shelf, straightening the books and the photo frames. Maybe she caught her own eye in the mirror, too, and looked and wondered when, and then set things in order for me. Muriel said she knew I was coming. So, she knew she was going. And she made things ready.

My grandmother was tall, as was my grandfather. The height of the mirror was telling. As was the height of the bookshelves and the shelves where the boxes sat. Some were labelled in my grandmother’s precise script – what my mother would call ‘educated handwriting’: Photographs. Felicity’s letters. Recipes. Buttons. Then there were the boxes marked with Granddad’s scrawl: Pebbles. Scribbles & Poems. Feathers. Maybe.

I pulled out the desk chair and climbed up. Felicity would like the recipes. An easy to keep , I thought. The box held neat bundles of pale-blue index cards bound with sensible elastic bands and marked with white tags. Soups. Vegetable Sides. Game. Puddings. Sweet Treats.

My gran’s coconut macaroons were the most exotic objects in my childhood. And her golden cheesy fish, baked in a casserole and covered in breadcrumbs that crackled in the middle and bubbled at the sides. Chicken in mushroom sauce meant a whole chicken breast just for me, and a white napkin to spread across my lap. Water in a cut-glass tumbler. Margarine.

I leafed through the recipes, hungry for the familiar. But you can’t flick through memories like that. They don’t turn on like the lights. You need to kindle them and wait.

Sloe gin

1 lb sloes

8 oz white sugar

1¾ pint gin

Sterilize a good strong darning needle in a candle flame, then use it to prick the tough skins of the sloes all over.

Place sloes in large bottle and add sugar and gin.

Seal well and shake. Keep bottle in a cupboard and shake every second day for the first week. After that, shake once a week and gin will be ready to drink in two months. Lovely at Christmas.

Note – Muriel’s mother says to try this with brandy and blackberries.

To dry rosehips

Wash your rosehips, top and tail then finely dice and dry them on newspaper in the sun.

Tip the dried rubble into a metal sieve and shake gently to remove the tickly hairs. They will easily fall away, leaving you with clean dried rosehips, ready to be used for tea, jam or jelly. Good for preventing colds and as a treatment for stiffness.

Coconut macaroons

Line a sandwich tin with sweet pastry.

Mix in a bowl:

1 cup coconut

¾ cup sugar

1 switched egg

Smooth into tin and bake at 400˚ for about 25 minutes.

Sweet pastry Felicity likes

2 lbs plain flour

1¼ lbs margarine and lard (mixed)

½ lb sugar

2 eggs

Pinch of salt

Makes a lot so a child can play with extra as pie is readying.

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