Kia ora koutou,

My eyesight has got worse. I can still ses the print on this screen because its big, black type but this year at some stage I’ll have to switch to one of those voiced computer programmes which I am assured I will get used to and even like. In the meantime, to prolong the status quo, I’m going to get a bigger screen.

I still bake biscuits though. My system seems to work. I turn on the stove at the wall, turn on the oven, set the temperature, cover the oven shelves with baking paper – the shelves are black and the baking paper white, so that’s easy. I line up the flour, sugar, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, coconut, golden syrup, butter, along the bench, put the kettle on so as to have boiling water to slosh on the Anzac biscuit mixture at the end of mixing the other ingredients, then I get cracking. I only make two kinds of biscuits now. Anzac and Peanut Brownies. I make these two because they are the recipes I know off by heart. I should do. I’ve been making them once a week then once a fortnight, for over seventy years.

I have to peer at labels, I can’t read my old Edmunds book any more, ditto other recipe books, so its easier and less fraught if I stick to what I know. I bought biscuits for a while last year but they are not as good and as you’ve probably noticed, are getting smaller and smaller, with less in the packet, although the price stays up. And often increases. I buy an occasional packet of chocolate biscuits (chocolate is good for the brain) but prefer a piece from a block of chocolate.

So lining up my old friends along the bench then saying their names out loud as I put them in the bowl is the way to go now. I probably look like an old witch muttering to herself over the mixing bowl but I have found it is better to say the ingredient names out loud as I add them because I mentally tick them off that way. And if by some chance – hasn’t happened yet but one must be prepared – so if, for example, I peered at a packet or a bag and then said out loud, rat poison, I would probably know I was on the wrong track somewhere don’t you think?

I have an old timer, practically a museum piece, which I set for the correct baking time. Setting the temperature on the stove is a little fraught though but a bit of swearing seems to do the trick.

I have my trusty thick lined oven gloves and where once I might have grabbed a tea towel and used that to cover my hands now I stick firmly to the gloves. I have made it a habit to turn not only the oven and/or rings off but to turn the stove off at the wall too. I used to be a little casual about that but not now.

I make the Anzac biscuits first then the Peanut Brownies. I use bought salted peanuts for these. I used to roast my own but its easier (and quicker) to buy them now.

The timer buzzes, I open the oven, take out the biscuits on the top tray, leave the others in for a minute longer while I carefully lever each biscuit off with a stainless steel knife and place it on the rack which I’ve previously set in place on the bench. There they cool and are then transferred to airtight containers.

I have gone through the steps with you because I am so pleased I can still do this and I want you to feel pleased for me too. I am filled with a great sense of triumph when I sit down, all the bags, packets, tins, put back in the cupboard or fridge. Then, a sit down, a sip at a cup of hot dark tea and a munch on one of each biscuit. Quality control I think its called.

Cheers comrades…

Renée