Ridgetop
Herd Master
I have never had chocolate fruitcake. How did the glacee fruit combine with the chocolate? I think rum would be my liquor of choice to use for the chocolate variety.
My grandmother's recipe is traditional fruitcake from family recipe over 150 years old. Pounds of glacee fruit, almonds, walnuts, honey, applesauce, lots of liquor, and just enough flour to make a batter to stick everything together. Recipe calls for either brandy or muscatel wine. Line pans with buttered parchment and bake over water like custard. My grandmother used to save her coffee cans and use them. I use loaf pans because it is easier to cut and store. Wrap in cheesecloth soaked in liquor. Your choice of brandy or rum to soak. I have also made this recipe in fancy Christmas cupcake papers when I was running my boutique pickle and jam business.
I have some glacee fruit in the freezer. it is getting hard to find and very expensive. I do't use the chopped "fruitcake mix" but instead the individual glacee cherries pineapple, citron, orange and lemon peel, etc. that have to be cut up. Thank goodness yoi can buy the shelled nuts now n bulk. I can remember my grandfather sitting at the kitchen tabe with a hammer and his piece of wood and shelling the nuts for the Christmas baking. Occasionally he would sneak us kids a couple nuts. My grandmother would get after him when she caught him, and he would just wink at us. The piece of wood had a big dent in it from years of shelling nuts. As a child I thought it was made that way and was a special nut shelling block.
So many wonderful memories -like turning the crank on the old hand grinder that bolted to the kitchen table when my grandmother was making the stuffing for the turkey at holiday time. *'m sure she used it other times too but seeing that grinder clamped on the table meant that Thanksgiving or Christmas was actually here!
We lived with my grandparents, so I have those memories. My children and grandchildren didn't see me making Christmas cookies often since I found it easier to make them when they were in school and then freeze them. Otherwise I had to make twice as many due to theft.
And of course, I use a food processor to make the stuffing - how nostalgic is that?! 
But I do have the hand grinder put away along with great grandmother's washboard, and some other antique kitchen items. If electricity gets too expensive, I might have to get them out and start using them!
Today I am going to go through my kitchen cabinets and remove the items that I will bring to Texas next trip to store in the sheds. I have some kitchen crockery, along with the fancy pottery coffee cups, and other things that I don't use often. I have other stuff that I use more frequently, but they can be packed to bring to Texas and used there, OR I will offer the really pretty ones to my daughters and daughters-in-law. I have some really pretty large platters for parties too that can go to them. I will go to the thrift stores in Texas and pick up some Pyrex to cook with - the thrift stores always have lots of that stuff and I won't have to drag it with me. That glassware can be disinfected in the dishwasher easily. I can also get new cookware, knives, towels, and bedding at either Sam's club or Ross. I think they have both in Lindale so an all-day shopping trip once we are moved there will outfit the house nicely. I also have a complete set of bedding, curtains, and matching wallpaper in the Conex that I will bring that I really like. It is in very good condition and will look pretty in our bedroom (again). LOL As well as an almost new set of double bed sheets and comforter set from the spare bedroom that I stored when MJ died, and we converted the spare bedroom to our office. Even though I plan to install a Murphy bed in the spare room, I will need bedding when I pull it down for the wall for visitors.
So many plans. I hope they will be accomplished. Better get the moving boxes put together and the packing paper out. I keep the old moving boxes and packing papers that are in good condition and store them. My children have used them several times and I have stacks of them in the Conex and sheds. Time to start filling them with stuff to go to Texas. Also, will have to bring some boxes of reno & building materials, and the industrial shelving they are on as well. Oh yes and the wood stove. See comment about expense of electricity in Paragraph 3 above.
My grandmother's recipe is traditional fruitcake from family recipe over 150 years old. Pounds of glacee fruit, almonds, walnuts, honey, applesauce, lots of liquor, and just enough flour to make a batter to stick everything together. Recipe calls for either brandy or muscatel wine. Line pans with buttered parchment and bake over water like custard. My grandmother used to save her coffee cans and use them. I use loaf pans because it is easier to cut and store. Wrap in cheesecloth soaked in liquor. Your choice of brandy or rum to soak. I have also made this recipe in fancy Christmas cupcake papers when I was running my boutique pickle and jam business.
I have some glacee fruit in the freezer. it is getting hard to find and very expensive. I do't use the chopped "fruitcake mix" but instead the individual glacee cherries pineapple, citron, orange and lemon peel, etc. that have to be cut up. Thank goodness yoi can buy the shelled nuts now n bulk. I can remember my grandfather sitting at the kitchen tabe with a hammer and his piece of wood and shelling the nuts for the Christmas baking. Occasionally he would sneak us kids a couple nuts. My grandmother would get after him when she caught him, and he would just wink at us. The piece of wood had a big dent in it from years of shelling nuts. As a child I thought it was made that way and was a special nut shelling block.
So many wonderful memories -like turning the crank on the old hand grinder that bolted to the kitchen table when my grandmother was making the stuffing for the turkey at holiday time. *'m sure she used it other times too but seeing that grinder clamped on the table meant that Thanksgiving or Christmas was actually here! We lived with my grandparents, so I have those memories. My children and grandchildren didn't see me making Christmas cookies often since I found it easier to make them when they were in school and then freeze them. Otherwise I had to make twice as many due to theft.
And of course, I use a food processor to make the stuffing - how nostalgic is that?! But I do have the hand grinder put away along with great grandmother's washboard, and some other antique kitchen items. If electricity gets too expensive, I might have to get them out and start using them! Today I am going to go through my kitchen cabinets and remove the items that I will bring to Texas next trip to store in the sheds. I have some kitchen crockery, along with the fancy pottery coffee cups, and other things that I don't use often. I have other stuff that I use more frequently, but they can be packed to bring to Texas and used there, OR I will offer the really pretty ones to my daughters and daughters-in-law. I have some really pretty large platters for parties too that can go to them. I will go to the thrift stores in Texas and pick up some Pyrex to cook with - the thrift stores always have lots of that stuff and I won't have to drag it with me. That glassware can be disinfected in the dishwasher easily. I can also get new cookware, knives, towels, and bedding at either Sam's club or Ross. I think they have both in Lindale so an all-day shopping trip once we are moved there will outfit the house nicely. I also have a complete set of bedding, curtains, and matching wallpaper in the Conex that I will bring that I really like. It is in very good condition and will look pretty in our bedroom (again). LOL As well as an almost new set of double bed sheets and comforter set from the spare bedroom that I stored when MJ died, and we converted the spare bedroom to our office. Even though I plan to install a Murphy bed in the spare room, I will need bedding when I pull it down for the wall for visitors.
So many plans. I hope they will be accomplished. Better get the moving boxes put together and the packing paper out. I keep the old moving boxes and packing papers that are in good condition and store them. My children have used them several times and I have stacks of them in the Conex and sheds. Time to start filling them with stuff to go to Texas. Also, will have to bring some boxes of reno & building materials, and the industrial shelving they are on as well. Oh yes and the wood stove. See comment about expense of electricity in Paragraph 3 above.
