Giveaway for Followers

 

I re-read this book a couple of weeks ago, and whilst I found it interesting I do not think that I need to keep it.  It goes over so much of what I already know from my other books and most of the recipes in it have been lifted from other WWII cook books that I have on my shelves.

It is one woman's account of her and her husbands week living on rations, with the shopping list that they used and the recipes they followed.  There is also a chapter at the back including some Christmas recipes.

After reading it for the second time I don't really feel the need to keep it on my shelf, and giving this away will give me just a little bit more space on my main 'rationing book' shelf ... meaning that I will be able to slide the others out without having a tug of war every time.  😄

If you would like to be in with a chance of having it for yourself and you are a Follower of this blog, just leave a comment below and I will do a mini draw if there is more than one person interested.

Sue xx

Christmas on the Home Front

 

Driving home from Mum's yesterday afternoon we got to chatting about my life on rations and I mentioned to Alan that I had recently watched Carolyn's YouTube video making her Mock Turkey, or 'Murky' as it was often called.  I asked him if he fancied it for Christmas dinner this year?

And to my surprise he agreed.  😀

So now I need to watch the video again and perhaps have a practice run for myself.

https://youtu.be/iA3UhDYbJek?si=x7TV0euNQDTyTrIy

Obviously it can be made with real sausage-meat if that's what you like, but I will be making it with Carolyn's idea of plant-based sausages, and Alan is more than happy with this.

The recipe is taken from this book, page 230, although it is in many others too.

So, I think it's time for me to get the book in my top photo out ready for some Christmas inspiration ... and to stop writing the word Christmas when it's still September!!

Sue xx

Books, Coleslaw and Ready Meals

 

I shared this photo on the Facebook group the other day and it brought all the other book lovers out of the closet.  We had a brilliant time chatting about our rationing books and just books in general.  I only took it because I was sorting out my bookcase a bit and these all ended up on the floor.  Seeing the colours on the mustard coloured rug made me set them out a bit more artistically and take the photo.

My name is Sue and I am a bookaholic ... and I know I am not alone.  😀

In other non-booky news, I made some delicious coleslaw yesterday to go with my lunchtime jacket potato.  Using a couple of the inner leaves of my Savoy cabbage a grated carrot and some white onion and just a dollop of mayo, it was so tasty and very filling.

During the war years everyone was encouraged to have one raw or salad type meal.  As well as helping to improve health and make good use of non-rationed vegetables this saved on power as no cooking was involved.

And while I ate my lunch a big pan of vegetables was simmering away on the hob.

My tea last night was a simple bowl of vegetable stew, and if that looks small don't worry ... I came back for seconds.  😄

And after dishing up that second bowl I left everything else to cool off before it went into the fridge.  Another portion of stew, the filling for a pasty or pie and a large bowl of soup.  

It's nice to have some ready meals.

Sue xx

Memories, Old Photos and a Re-Jig

 

My posts on this blog seem to be bring out so many memories for so many people, myself included.  

I am just hoping that the majority of them are good, and that the bad ones at least make us realise just how far we have come in the past few years.  

Today I am just sharing a photo of the kitchen from The 1940s House. 

 I recently re-watched this and although I have the book I have never read right through it.  Perhaps I should as I do like to pore over photos like these, picking out the details remembering the versions of things that we had in our tiny little pantry-sized kitchen in my Nana's house growing up.

 I do have the large saucepan that is on the cooker and lots of other enamelware, which I absolutely love.  If I had more space in my tiny home I would love to get an original kitchen cabinet, my Nana had a beautiful cream coloured 1940's version, and then in the late sixties my Mum got one with a Formica worktop instead of the enamel as they used to be.

Now I need to go and weigh out next weeks rations.  

This will be the final week that I will be having these sort of rations before I have a re-jig the following week.  I have very luckily found a way to simplify things, well I think it will be simpler!!

It can't possibly get any more complicated ... can it?

Sue xx

My Weekly Rations - Week Four

 

Here are my weekly rations for this week.

 I don't really know if it's worth photographing them every week as the only thing changing at the moment seems to be the sweet ration.  But I guess it holds me accountable to myself, and I at least get to see what I have over from the previous week as I top up jars and dig things out from the cupboard, fridge and freezer.

So perhaps it is.

My usual sugar canister was too full for me to be able add this weeks 8oz to it, so I gave the sugar ration another jar as I topped it up from the bag of sugar in the cupboard.

The cheese was easy, it was the other half of last weeks Violife Extra Mature block.  This week I grated it rather than just leaving it as a block and it looks a lot more that way doesn't it.

There was a little smidge over as the scales reached the magical number ... so I just popped it into my mouth.  It wasn't big enough to save and there were no dogs to bee seen, so it was all mine. 😉

I weighed out this weeks combined butter/margarine ration straight into the butter dish.

The spread that was left over from last week and which was still in the tub, weighed in at exactly 4oz.  I think I will use this up today and make some scones and some pastry.  It feels like it's been ages since I've had a pie or pasty!

This weeks 2oz of olive oil that I am taking in place of lard, only just fitted into the little jar that I have been using, and the other jar is still in the food cupboard.  So I am ahead with the oil too.  Maybe some more pastry will need to be made to use it up.  😃

My sweet ration this week is slightly over on the scales, but I'm hoping the extra 3/8oz will vanish when the things are unwrapped, if not, well it doesn't really matter.  I would rather be using up what I already have in than going out buying little bits of sweets that will fit exactly into the right weights.

Talking of using up, this mornings breakfast was last week's egg ... it's like an action replay of last weeks happenings!! 

 It seems that one egg a week is just fine for me.  I might take away the extra half a dozen that I was going to allow myself to have each month in place of the dried egg ration and just buy half a dozen once a month, having one egg each week on the menu and the other two as spares, for baking or some other extra.

It's been really good over the last three full weeks of rationing.  I am slowly but surely getting used to having some limitations, while at the same time being quite amazed that I am not really touching too much of the things that were already in the cupboard and freezer from 'before rations'.  At this rate my supplies will be going down really slowly and there's nothing really to worry about.  👌

This week instead of reading recipe books and about the history of the wartime home front years, I decided to read the follow on to the television series Home Fires.

The first book in the set follows on exactly from where that second series so annoyingly left us, up in the air with so many loose ends just waiting to be tied off.  They never were, as despite the viewing figures being very impressive it just wasn't recommissioned for a third series.  I don't often read fiction but I am really enjoying this, and I managed to read over half of it while we were at the Welsh flat over the weekend.

Sue xx

The Ever So Famous Woolton Pie

 

I realised the other day that I hadn't show you my little individual Woolton Pie in all it's gravy covered glory.  

I showed you it the other day, naked in it's little enamelled dish, but not with it's pastry lid and ready for eating.

I rolled the lid out a little bit thinner to accommodate the piled up vegetables and once trimmed used those trimmings to make the letters for the top.

I've always found the best recipe for it is in this book, which is actually an amalgamation of three of Marguerite Pattern's wartime books - We'll Eat Again, The Victory Cookbook and Post-War Kitchen.  I'm guessing the Woolton Pie recipe will be in at least two of the three individual books.

It would be a HUGE pie if you used one pound each of your chosen vegetables so I always just use leftover vegetables when I making another dish.  It's a very basic and forgiving recipe, you just cook your vegetables and then assemble them in some sort of gravy or sauce under a pastry or mashed potato lid.  If you are a meat eater you could also add some leftover, chopped up cooked meat to the dish before covering it with pastry.

Simple and very tasty, and possibly one of the most famous of all wartime recipes.

Sue xx