Blogger: Wendy Lawton
Location: Books & Such Central Valley Office
Yesterday Janet talked about the importance of infusing your personality into your writing– even if we’re talking about cookbooks. I couldn’t agree more.
The cookbook I can’t do without at Christmastime is a three-ring binder that my mother made for us during the last decade of her life. It has all the family favorites along with bits of wit and wisdom. She even took photos of some of her creations, like our much-anticipated annual gingerbread house. Mom had a word processor and used her two finger method to type all this out for her children and grandchildren. To say we treasure this cookbook is an understatement.
I’ve taken one of the recipes from the book to share with you. It’s the recipe for Rocky Road Candy. My mother inherited this recipe from her mother-in-law, my grandmother. As a young woman in the early decades of the last century she was a chocolate dipper at Blum’s in San Francisco. Fancy chocolate dippers are the ones who dip the chocolates creating the distinctive swirl on the top that tells exactly what filling is inside. (Did you know you don’t have to bite your chocolate to find out? You simply read the chocolate swirl on the top of a fine candy.) My grandmother never lost her enthusiasm for making candy. Every Christmas she made Rocky Road. When she was gone, my mother took over. Each person in the family would get a tin of Rocky Road at Christmas. It didn’t hurt that by that time Keith and I owned a thirty acre almond orchard. We upped the almond quantity in the recipe. This is the second Christmas my mother’s been gone and it’s the second Christmas I’ve made the Rocky Road. We’ve simplified it over the years (no longer making our own chocolate) but it still tastes as good.
Here’s what you need for a 9 x 13 pan of Rocky Road:
- 5- 4.25 Oz. Hersheys Milk Chocolate bars
- 5- 4.25 Oz. Hersheys Chocolate & Almond bars
- A handful of chopped almonds
- A bag of marshmallows
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler stirring occasionally. Make sure not to overcook. You want the chocolate shiny and silky.
Line the baking dish with parchment or waxed paper. One by one dip the marshmallows into the melted chocolate and place close together on the waxed paper.
When the pan is filled sprinkle the extra almonds over the top, shaking the pan gently to work them into the crevices.
Pour the remaining melted chocolate over the top of the marshmallows, using a spatula to spread it. Shake the pan once more to make sure the chocolate seeps into all the crevices. Let cool. Refrigerate for a couple of hours to help set before cutting.
Cut into squares, cutting through the middle of each marshmallow. If you have an electric knife, it makes the job easier.
Store in a cool place.
So what does this have to do with writing or the business of being an agent? Nothing. And Everything. My mother created a book for us that will never be seen outside the family but it is a book that speaks to who we are and how we lived. Not all books are meant to be published.
In our quest to be published we have to remember to do the kind of writing that won’t be published but may mean far more than our books. Maybe it’s creating a scrapbook, keeping a journal, maintaining a Baby Book, writing Christmas letters, writing an article for the church newsletter, creating lessons for a Sunday School class, writing letters to elderly family members or… or… or…
What things have you written that will never be published?
I have maintained a children’s website for years that I have harbored a love/hate relationship with. But every time I think I should dump that thing because it is so time-consuming and “in the way” of what I would really rather be doing, I get the same nagging thought. What if there is even one kid out there who doesn’t have anything to do today? That mental argument sends me back every time.
And what a wonderful idea your mother had! There should be a program (called “the Mother’s Cookbook” or something) where other mothers could type in family favorites to make a cookbook to give to their children. What a keepsake! Can’t think of many families who wouldn’t treasure something like that.
Thank you for sharing the Rocky Road recipe, too. It looks wonderful and I’m going to try it this year.
Serious drooling here, Wendy. I have to make that candy! Yum!
I made my own binder for recipes. I clip them and tuck them into page protectors, and I write any changes I make. This book will never be published, but I can’t live without it.
Thanks for my newest recipe!
I’m not a marshmallow fan, but the rest of the recipe sounds yummy! I’ve made two big batches of cookies and three kinds of candy this week. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!
You pose an interesting question. I think my most significant unpublished writings are letters I wrote to both my grandmothers before they passed away. I shared special memories and character qualities that influenced me.
Years later, my parents chose to have one of these letters read aloud at my grandmother’s funeral. I was amazed–especially since no one had ever mentioned its receipt.
Sounds like a story in the making, doesn’t it? Maybe that “unpublished” part will take a someday twist. Thanks for the memory jog, and
Christmas blessings!
Well, I’m tempted to say every single thing I’ve written….
I love this recipe because it’s not only a great recipe (which I’ve now filed into my recipe file!) but because of the nostalgia associated with it. This is among my favorite type of writing–the stories that go with family recipes, the memories associated with them, and the feelings that such recipes evoke. I have tons of these kinds of stories filed away, so this week makes me smile.
Thanks so much for sharing your dear mama’s recipe and the photos. Love this!
I do love chocolate. I think I may have put on a couple of pounds just reading your description and looking at the pictures.
If you count the worksheets and tests I have written, and add the missionary letters I sent home from Colombia, most of what I have written in my life is unpublished. I never kept an organized scrapbook of the classroom stuff, or I’ve lost copies as old technologies have lost their ability to be accessed. But when I run across old copies in going through boxes, it pleases me to examine them and realize they were well done. Today, I have several young adults who write me for advice, or with spiritual questions. On Thanksgiving Day, one of those youngsters was baptized. It was too far away for me to attend, but we had been writing for six years. I can’t imagine they will ever be published, but they are worth more to me than a best-seller.
That recipe & many others are a part of a legacy our Mom left for her children & grandchildren; a book of favorite family recipes that she took years to assemble. That is a legacy of love that will live on.
BTW – Wendy took that photo.
Thanks Wendy for sharing it.
Jim
Wow. If drool could be accounted for on this webpage, you wouldn’t be able to see the words of your post anymore. I’m with the other commenters here… that looks simply delicious!
I actually do the same thing Jill does (above) with a recipe binder, including writing down notes on the recipes!
I’m sure several of my children’s stories won’t be published, and probably a few of my articles. I also write in baby books, handwritten notes, etc. that are mainly just for the recipient and myself.
Thanks for sharing your mother’s cookbook story and this recipe!
My family will be so relieved now that I’ve discovered I don’t have to poke my thumb in the bottom of the chocolates to see what’s inside. 🙂
I’m thinking we usually have cheaper chocolates, though. I don’t recall different swirls. I’m going to look this Christmas.
A couple of things I’ve written in the past year have made me think that the most important writing I can do is to encourage others. I wrote to my pastor and listed the reasons I appreciated him, I spent half the night writing an email to encourage a young man in Finland who feels constantly pressed-upon and harassed because he’s so at odds with his family most of his countrymen, and I wrote a few emails encouraging a wonderful writer to finish a book when he was close to having to pay back his advance.
All of these men let me know that the encouragement helped them to keep going. They all have a circle of influence and by encouraging them, I have had an impact on everyone they touch. I didn’t write with the intent of influencing many, but I find it very satisfying to think that I am doing that by simply doing something I love–writing to people and telling them that God has gifted them and will use them according to his good pleasure.
Oh what a wonderful legacy your mother left you. Keep on treasuring and using that 3-ring binder. I personally think there’ll be a lot of cooking going on in Heaven.
Thank you everyone for your comments. Isn’t it interesting how some of our unpublished writing might actually make the most impact spiritually? One of my mother’s ninety-something Wisconsin cousins wrote in her Christmas letter, “One wish I have for Christmas is that I will get a letter from Wendy.” I wrote that letter last night.
I need to keep reminding myself how important this personal writing is.
Wendy, thanks for a great recipe. I’m actually planning to help my daughter complete a family cookbook taken for her generation to complement the one done 25 years ago by mine. I just can’t bear to discard the handwritten recipes from long ago –scanning to the rescue.
I am bragging. I got to see the pans full of rocky road and watched it being cut and bagged. cannot tell you how bad I wanted a piece but refrained—a real act of will and committment.
I have a lot of journals that will never be published. For years I refused to write in a journal, hearing frequently “all good writers keep journals.” Yeah right. I had failed at so many diaries when young, why would I want to set myself up for another failure. Until life got too heavy to deal with after our daughter died and a counselor finally convinced me to write Marie a letter. I did. then I wrote God a letter and told him exactly what I thought and felt about this, as if He didn’t know. and thus began my journal. oh BTW, one night after writing God the letter, I had been told to just write whatever came to my mind. I did. Three pages of “I love you.” The holy spirit took over my pen and I’ve never forgotten that. I am convinced beyond any doubt that God loves me.
pardon the tears. and blessed Christmas to us all.
What a treasure of a recipe! I’m drooling all over the keyboard.
I thought about the writing that will never get published when I wrote my annual Christmas letter. I have written one every year since 1984! Five years ago I photocopied and collected them into two binders for my kids (who no longer live at home). I made photo collage covers and titled the books ‘Our Story in Letters.’
I have also made binder recipe books for them. It’s so gratifying to go to my daughter’s house and see the stains on the pages of that book!
Eek! For all of you who copied the recipe– there was a mistake. I won’t say who I asked to check the size candy bar we used but he got it wrong. 🙂 One of my friends pointed out that if you used 16 oz. chocolate bars this pan of Rocky Road would cost $100.00.
Mea Culpa. You need the 4.25 oz bars! I’ve changed the recipe.
Love this post! Wendy, I also have a Rocky Road candy recipe from my mom, in her handwriting.
Etta, after my mom’s memorial service, my sister, sister-in-law, and I raided Mom’s recipe cards and took a bunch to Kinko’s. Some of them were in MY handPRINTing from a long, long time ago.
Three times a year I write a newsletter for 600+ parents of missionaries (nearly twice that if you count husbands and wives). Sometimes it’s hard to make time to do it; sometimes the difficulty is not wanting to engage again with the send-offs and separations these parents endure. But once the newsletter has gone out, the thank-yous come in. I don’t do this to receive thanks, but those heartfelt words from other parents tell me clearly that my own words do matter.