so...

Well so as not to make this post a complete downer, I will just say that it's an anniversary that isn't one to celebrate. To go a bit further down this sad path, it was two years ago today that we said goodbye to the matriarch of the Morrison Clan. "Nanny" to me, Mom, sister....Theresa.

There is no one word that could sum up how we all feel about her, there just isn't one in any language that I know of to sum up what a truly remarkable person she was. I hate past tense, because to me she still is, she still is in the large family and her husband of 60+ years. She still "is", in the funny, happy stories that we all tell, in her large collection of recipes, In the tiny cottage that sits in a grassy field on Prince Edward Island, and in the hearts of everyone she met and became friends with.

So on this day, I have tried to push back the sad, melancholy feeling that has been sitting on my heart. Instead I will think on the lovely person she "IS", I will call my Grampa and ask him how the weather is on the island (PEI), try to tell him I love him without saying those words that will make us both cry. I will also make another of her recipes, a boil cake, that I can remember nibbling on at the tiny kitchen table, while drinking my fourth cup of tea and talking about nothing in particular.



This is a picture I took during my final year studying photography, it took some convincing to get her down the stairs and on to the stoop in her night dress, but not much. I would also like to share the recipe of hers I chose to make today, "Boil Cake", a lovely fall smelling dense cake, and it was also lovely that the copy of the recipe we have is in her writing.

Boil Cake

2 cups raisins (old dry ones are good for this)
1/2 cup shortening (I used veggie oil)
2 cups boiling water or tea (I used my fave British tea)
1 cup white sugar (I switched this with 1/3 cup honey)
1/2 tsp salt

Boil above 10 minutes, take off and add,

1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (fresh good too)
1/2 tsp ground clove
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp soda mixed in 1/4 cup tea (be careful here, the recipe didn't mention that there would be a chemical reaction and it all bubbled up, so make this in a biggish pot)

Let cool, add

2 eggs (I beat them slightly)
1 tsp baking powder
about 3 cups baking powder.

Quick tip: mix 2 cups of the flour with the baking powder so it wont clump up when added to wet mixture.

Bake at 350 for 1 hour (in a bunt pan...the one that one would make angle food cake in, I think it's called bunt)

Well I hope you try this, mine is in the oven so I will try and post a pic of it before we devour it! I posted last year around this time so if you are interested in a couple of other pics of my Nanny have a look here, I especially love the one of her and I in our curlers. Enjoy your day, and don't forget to squeeze the one you love.