Sample Demonstration — The Bennett Family
Family Recipes
Preserve The Family Favourites
From Mum, Dad, Grandma, Grandad, Nan, relatives and friends — preserve the recipes that fed your family for generations, with photos, voice, video and the love in every measure.
Rosa’s Sunday Ragu
Rosa Esposito — Great-Grandmother
Ingredients
- 2 kg ripe tomatoes, peeled (or 2 x 800g tins)
- 600 g beef shin or chuck, cut into chunks
- 4 pork ribs
- 1 large onion, finely chopped
- 2 carrots, grated
- 2 celery stalks, finely sliced
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 cup red wine
- Half a cup of olive oil (yes, half)
- Basil, salt, pepper — and patience
Method
- 1Heat the oil in the biggest pot you own over a gentle flame.
- 2Brown the beef and ribs slowly — never rush this part.
- 3Add onion, carrot and celery. Cook until soft and sweet, about 15 minutes.
- 4Pour in the wine and let it bubble away for a few minutes.
- 5Add the tomatoes, garlic and a good pinch of salt.
- 6Simmer on the lowest heat for three hours, stirring when you pass by. Mangia.
The Family Story
Rosa made this every Sunday from 1962 until 2019. It fed four generations, two weddings, one christening, and every lake-house summer. The recipe card is stained beyond saving — but the sauce never once failed.
Rosa Esposito’s Secret Tip
A pinch of sugar only if the tomatoes are sharp. Taste first, always.
Listen to Rosa
Nan Betty’s Anzac Biscuits
Betty Bennett — Thomas’s mother
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 1 cup plain flour
- 1 cup desiccated coconut
- 3⁄4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
- 125 g butter
- 2 tablespoons golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 2 tablespoons boiling water
Method
- 1Heat oven to 160°C. Grease two trays.
- 2Melt butter and golden syrup together, gently.
- 3Dissolve the soda in the boiling water, then stir it in — mind the foam.
- 4Combine the dry ingredients, pour over the butter mixture and mix well.
- 5Roll spoonfuls onto the trays and flatten slightly.
- 6Bake 18–20 minutes until golden. Cool on the tray — they crisp as they sit.
The Family Story
Betty baked these during the war, when eggs were scarce and a tin of golden syrup was worth its weight. She sent them in care parcels to her brother on the ships — hard biscuits that survived the long voyage. Every Anzac Day since, the Bennett kitchen smells of oats and syrup before dawn, and someone always burns the first tray.
Betty Bennett’s Secret Tip
Never crowd the tray — they spread. And always take the first tray out two minutes early.
Aunty Dot’s Pumpkin Scones
Dorothy “Dot” Bennett — Thomas’s sister
Ingredients
- 1 cup cold mashed pumpkin
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1 egg, beaten
- 2 cups self-raising flour
- Pinch of salt
Method
- 1Beat the pumpkin, butter, sugar and egg until smooth.
- 2Fold in the flour and salt until just combined — a light hand makes a light scone.
- 3Turn onto a floured board, pat to 2 cm thick, cut into rounds.
- 4Bake at 220°C for 12–15 minutes, until the tops blush gold.
- 5Serve warm, split, with a scrape of butter. Never say no to a second.
The Family Story
Dot ran the tea room at the Ballarat showgrounds for thirty years, and these scones won her the preserves-and-baking ribbon nine times running. She wrote the recipe on the back of a 1968 show programme, in pencil, with a butter stain through the middle. Thomas claimed the secret was the pumpkin; Dot insisted it was the light hand. The family still argues about it every winter.
Dorothy “Dot” Bennett’s Secret Tip
Leftover roast pumpkin works best — drier mash, richer flavour.