Bring a Plate

Everyone stumbles with cultural differences when they settle in a new country. I am currently living in my sixth country, and even though it is English speaking I have made some serious bloopers.

The first was the misunderstanding of the word "supper". Where I come from it means a main meal. Not here; it means a drink with a piece of cake (or something similar). So I hadn't eaten a main meal when I arrived at 7.30pm at the house of my new friends. Needless to say, I was still hungry when I went to bed that night.

The other mistake was responding to the "bring a plate" request. Usually, this is mentioned for large gatherings, so I assumed it meant "bring your own crockery". It actually means bring a plate of food to share.

A book was published a few years ago called "Ladies, a plate" and features all the marvellous home baking recipes of NZ. I have just finished baking Afghans from it (these are biscuits which have NOTHING to do with Afghanistan).

So, here they are. I don't put the traditional chocolate icing and walnut topping on them - far too sweet for my taste. I highly recommend the book if you enjoy well tested recipes that work and don't involve exotic ingredients.