Month: August 2009

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The Rations in my cupboard (part 1)

So I have been asked exactly what I can and can’t eat on 1940’s wartime rationing..

When rationing was introduced in England on January 8, 1940 (incidentally that is my birthday…the January 8 bit NOT the 1940!!) it was to ensure that food was distributed fairly and that the dwindling food supplies lasted. However, rationing did vary slightly month to month depending on the availability of foods increasing when it was plentiful and decreasing when it was in short supply..

Here is the weekly ration allowance for one adult in the 1940’s…

Weekly ration for 1 adult

  • Bacon & Ham 4 oz
  • Meat to the value of 1 shilling and sixpence (around about 1/2 lb minced beef)
  • Butter 2 oz
  • Cheese 2 oz
  • Margarine 4 oz
  • Cooking fat 4 oz
  • Milk 3 pints
  • Sugar 8 oz
  • Preserves 1 lb every 2 months
  • Tea 2 oz
  • Eggs 1 fresh egg per week
  • Sweets/Candy 12 oz every 4 weeks

In addition to this a points system was put in place which limited your purchase of tinned or imported goods. 16 points were available in your ration book for every 4 weeks and that 16 points would enable you to purchase for instance, 1 can of tinned fish or 2lbs of dried fruit or 8 lbs of split peas.

Does this sound a lot or little to you? When you try and produce all your own food from scratch using the above ingredients and realize just how precious or even how difficult it was at times to obtain other necessary food stuffs like flour, oats etc it really makes you appreciate how difficult and how IMPORTANT the role was of the 1940’s housewife to feed her family and keep them healthy. It was for sure a long and hard job..

So why the heck am I putting myself through this silliness? Because I have to know what it was really like, because I believe that we can learn a lot environmentally from this period of time, because I’m fat and because one day I’d like to get glammed up in 1940’s style just for the hell of it…..!

Coming in part 2– veggies

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Wartime Vegetable Turnovers

I am not sure whether there was a typo in the cook book for this one- it said serves 4 so I made 4 veggie turnovers out of the ingredients …they were each the size of 1/2 a dinner plate! BUT if Marguerite Patten tells me it feeds 4 then I will eat a whole one and I did just that last night and felt very greedy indeed (see that guilt thing again…!)

Each one was the size of 1/2 a dinner plate…!

So here is the recipe for a hungry man’s wartime veggie turnover- I was quite impressed!

                    

                                            See….it is monstrous!!!

 

Wartime Vegetable Turnover

Pastry

  • 12 oz of plain (wholewheat) flour with 3 teaspoons baking powder
  • large pinch of salt
  • 3 oz margarine (or dripping)
  • water

Filling

  • 10 oz scrubbed diced cooked potatoes (never remove the skins!)
  • 4 medium carrots diced
  • 1 large onion or 1 leek finely chopped (saute)
  • herbs, salt, pepper

Method

Sift the flour, salt and rub in the margarine

Bind with water

Cook carrots and potatoes until medium soft and then mix gently together in bowl with a little margarine, salt, pepper and herbs

Mix in the onions or leeks

Divide the pastry into 4 pieces and roll out each one into a round

Put mixture into centre of each round 

Wet the edges of pastry with water

Pull over one side to the other and press down edges

Prick top of pastry

Brush with a little milk

Bake in hot over (220 C) for 25-30 mins until crisp and brown

Serve hot or cold.

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Salad Dressing for immediate use

So, so very hot yesterday- especially my house which seems to enjoy sitting at 85 F most of the day if the sun comes out (great in winter, lousy in summer)..

Looking through my 1940’s cook books I just couldn’t bring myself to slave in the kitchen over a cooked meal so a big plate of salad leaves, cucumber and tomato was called for. But what to drizzle over it? In one of my books there was a recipe for a quick salad dressing and luckily I had all the ingredients to hand. Well the taste was interesting…wasn’t exactly horrible but wasn’t exactly nice either. However, it did the trick..

wasn’t exactly horrible but wasn’t exactly nice either..

Salad Dressing for immediate use

  • Blend 1 level tablespoon of household milk powder with 1 level tablespoon of dried egg powder (just don’t sniff the dried egg or you’ll never use it again..), 1/2 teaspoon salt, a little pepper and dried mustard powder
  • Add 1 tablespoon of water and 2 tablespoons of vinegar and mix until smooth and beat well until thickens a little
  • Place in fridge until chilled and then use

PS Weight loss photos– initial photo now uploaded. Keeping the really gruesome ones back until I have lost some more!!!

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Why did I get so fat Mr. Darcy?

I keep asking this myself….WHY & HOW did this seemingly happen so quickly. WHY did I let myself become 315 lbs and HOW come I haven’t succeeded in doing something about it permanently? I suck!

But weight loss and weight gain is a very personal thing….it really isn’t all about the food, that just happens to be something we turn to for comfort or to take our anger out on. And of course some of us really do just like FOOD!

And in an earlier blog when I spoke about Belgian Chocolates and Mr Darcy there was an underlying association of indulgent food with SEX! (but I guessed you picked that up already) Both give you enormous pleasure, the element of surprise (you don’t really know what you are going to get until you lick away the outer layers), fills you up, leaves you feeling a little guilty but still wanting MORE…

So far, there has been no chocolate  or Mr. Darcy in my 1940’s diet.

Please keep me from temptation……just for now!

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Eggless sponge gone wrong

A birthday party is never a proper birthday party without a cake! Unfortunately, I had just one egg to last me a whole week so I had to find a recipe that used NO eggs…Marguerite Patten came to the rescue (as always) and I found a suitable recipe to try so at least I could enjoy a 1940’s cake on Em’s birthday.

All went well and the cake smelled actually quite nice as it baked and I removed the tins and left them to cool when cooked. But then it came to removing the cakes from the tins and everything fell apart into a crumbly mound looking more like cous cous than a sweet delicious treat. It may have looked like a total disaster but the cake tasted really good and now being a modern day 1940’s cook with limited resources there was no way in hell I was going to throw it away…..so with no further delay here is the recipe

Eggless sponge gone wrong

  • 6 oz wholewheat flour
  • 3 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 2.5 oz margarine
  • 2 oz sugar
  • 1 level tablespoon of table syrup (or Lyons Golden Syrup)
  • 1/4 pint milk
  • sultanas optional
  • jam for filling optional

Method

Sift the flour and the baking powder together

Cream the margarine, sugar and syrup together until soft and light

Add a little flour and then a little liquid

Continue to do this until until you have a smooth mixture.

Grease and flour two 7 inch sandwich tins and divide mixture between them

Cook in centre of over at 200 celcius for 20-30 minutes.

Cool for 10 minutes before removing from tins

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Midnight Feast

 So what are you doing at 12:20 am….?? Dreaming of Mr. Darcy, Belgian Chocolates or maybe  a very interesting combination of the two? 

 As for me well it is the youngest Hobbit’s 12th birthday today and I am baking a lemon cake to  cool overnight so tomorrow morning (ermm that should be this morning in approximately 6  hours) I can decorate her birthday cake with Nutella & Smarties.

 This interesting combination of flavours will undoubtedly delight the palate of all three  Hobbits (I am here to do there bidding) HOWEVER Nutella & Smarties are not something I  will find on my 1940’s shopping list so not only am I cooking lemon cake but I am cooking an  ‘eggless sponge’ at this ungodly hour. 

 I am not convinced wholewheat flour & baking powder will produce something as delicious  as lemon, Nutella and Smarties but I guess only time will tell…

 Timers beeping….I’ll be back!

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Week 1 Weigh In

Despite my misgivings, despite the fish & chips on Friday night (yes they did have them in the 1940’s but I’ll only have them once every couple of months) and despite enjoying a big slice of bread pudding every night for the last 3 days I did have a significant weight loss at the end of this first week.

10 lb off and just 90 lb to go….

Yeah I know a 315 lb woman WILL lose a lot in the first week but this is still incredibly motivating for me.

Because I love analyzing stuff and because there maybe someone out there in the universe that maybe curious too, I will produce a full diet sheet of every single morsel that went in my mouth during this first week. It will be good to assess the nutritional content and see if any changes should be made. During my first attempt in 2006 a dietician was concerned that my diet was low in protein so that is one of the things that I will have to adjust too this time.

Today I am happy..

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Corned Beef Fritters

Corned Beef was a popular part of the meat ration due to it’s availability. As it was already cooked it could be eaten cold or used in a variety of recipes. In my 1940’s culinary journey (ha!) I will allow myself 1 can of corned beef (or spam) every 4-6 weeks so I can at least re- create some of the typical recipes of the time.

You can serve corned beef up, hot or cold, several different ways..

Here is the recipe I used the other night.

Corned Beef Fritters

  • 2 oz self raising flour or plain flour (I used wholemeal/wholewheat)
  • pinch salt
  • 1 egg (fresh or dried)
  • dash of milk
  • pinch of herbs (I used Thyme)
  • 2 teaspoons grated onion
  • 6 oz corned beef finely flaked
  • a little dripping or margarine (or cooking oil)

Method

Mix and blend the flour with the salt, beaten egg and dash of milk.

Beat until a smooth batter is achieved

Add corned beef, onions and herbs

Melt the dripping or fat in a frying pan

Drop in a spoonful of the mixture and press down to form a small patty (mixture should be enough to make 8)

Fry on either side until crisp and brown and serve with veggies or salad while warm.

Makes enough for 4 people

PS: Still freaking out about the scales tomorrow!

C xx

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Just over a day until first weigh in!

I ALMOST don’t want to write down what I have eaten this week….but I will (soon!)

Am a little apprehensive about weighing in on Wednesday morning simply because I feel like I have eaten really quite well and haven’t felt deprived. If anything it feels like I have eaten more than normal…

The two hardest aspects to this week so far have been

a) Not eating inbetween meals and rationing the food I have, to make it last all week

b) Not jumping on my weighing scales!!!

C xx

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Bread Pudding

Tonight I cooked a full 1940’s main course and dessert for myself, my youngest daughter Em AND my eldest daughters boyfriend. I cooked a simple meal of corned beef fritters fried in dripping, served with fresh green beans and carrots and for dessert a very satisfying bread pudding served with custard

Please Mum….can I have some more…?

All plates were empty and clean afterwards and I took this as a compliment…! Here is the recipe

Bread Pudding

  • 10 ounces of stale bread (you’ll have to use your kitchen scales!)
  • 2 ounces of margarine or butter
  • 1 ounce of sugar
  • 2 ounces of dried raisin sultanas
  • 1 egg (fresh or dried)
  • milk to mix
  • cinnamon
  • extra sugar for topping

Method

Put bread into a basin and add a little water. Leave for 10 minutes.

Squeeze bread out until fairly dry

Return bread to empty basin and add all the other ingredients (except spice) adding a little milk to make a sticky consistency

Add cinnamon a little at a time until your own taste

Place mixture into a greased pan (like a lasagna pan)

Cook at 160 degrees C for an hour or so until edges are browned and centre is hot

Sprinkle sugar on top 10 minutes before end of cooking

Allow to cool a little, slice and serve

Serves 8 to 10