Month: March 2014

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Jane’s cabbage is a wet, soggy mess!

Sally is probably only 10 years old but she looks and sounds like she is 42.

Sally is a good girl. She knows how to cook her half of the cabbage. She shreds it and brings just a little bit of water to the boil, adds the cabbage and a sprinkle of salt and saves the cabbage water in a china tea cup to make gravy. Janes cabbage is however a wet, soggy mess.. and she is a murderer because “she drowned her cabbage in water…”

And look how good the girls are fussing over the boys who are doing nothing but sitting on their lazy arses looking disapprovingly at Janes soggy cabbage.

It’s OK, they fight over Sally’s cabbage because it’s MUCH tastier..

Oh look! Here comes grandma… she awards the boys horrid behaviour by giving them the cabbage off her plate.

Everyone is happy..

Told you CABBAGE ROCKS!

C xxxxx

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Vinegar Cake – Recipe No 130

1940svinegarcake

Apart from being a bit crumbly, the vinegar cake was quite delicious! It was lovely with warm custard!

The vinegar cake was one of the recipes I re-created for the photo-shoot that took place last Sunday but I had forgotten to take a photo until I saw Sue’s comment and request today so quickly took a photo of the few slices I had left to add it to the wartime recipe archives.

And YES the vinegar cake really does have vinegar in it!

Vinegar Cake

  • 6 oz self-raising flour
  • 3 oz margarine
  • 3 oz sugar
  • 1 tablespoon vinegar
  • 1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
  • 1/4 pint milk
  • 4 oz dried mixed fruit

Method

  1. Cream the margarine and sugar
  2. Sift the flour
  3. Pour milk into a basin and add the vinegar and bicarb of soda and the mixture will froth a bit
  4. Add this mixture and the sifted flour a bit at a time into the sugar/margarine mixture until all blended then add the dried fruit
  5. Pour into a greased and floured 1lb loaf tin and cook for about 45 minutes at 180C until golden brown all over.
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1940s leftovers

Had a great day yesterday..

Having cooked lots of 1940s ration book recipes on Saturday and Sunday, there has been no excuse not to stick to my wartime recipes.

Over the last few days I’ve eaten a whole Lord Woolton Pie, half a carrot roll, several Anzac biscuits and carrot cookies, some vinegar cake, some Brown Betty with custard and lots and lots of vegetables and I have carrot roll and cauliflower with gravy to take to work with me.

The ‘Murkey’ (mock turkey) I made smelled delicious but being a veggie, I just couldn’t have brought myself to taste it…oh but it DID smell good! So I had to test it out on someone. My partner (ooo it sounds rather fab saying that!) came over yesterday afternoon and he passed the initiation test by consuming a large plateful of 1940s ration book recipe leftovers including the mock turkey AND he ate the vinegar cake..

Life is good right now…

C xxxx

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Pancake Day – Wartime eggless pancakes

1940segglesspancakestext

I’m re-blogging this wartime recipe for eggless pancakes with it being Pancake Day tomorrow! If you like your pancakes big and fluffy this recipe isn’t for you but they do make quite tasty thinner pancakes and I guess with only 1 shell egg a week in your ration allowance, pancakes sometimes had to go without the egg…

I shan’t be cooking pancakes tomorrow as we have vinegar cake, Anzac biscuits and carrot cookies to eat up BUT I will enjoy having pancakes Wednesday night..

Eggless Pancakes

  • 4 tablespoons of flour (UK)- 5 tbls (US) – 60 ml (Europe)
  • pinch of sugar and salt
  • milk and water to bind (vegans use non dairy milk)
  • lard or dripping to fry (vegans use a vegetable shortening – palm oil friendly)

Method

  1. Mix the flour with the salt and sugar and add the water/milk to make a nice thick batter
  2. Heat the lard/dripping until smoking hot in the pan then lower the heat a little
  3. Pour in 1/4 of the mixture to make a medium sized pancake
  4. Cook until browned and then turn over and repeat
  5. Eat with jam, golden syrup or lemon juice (if being authentic)

Makes 4 pancakes

 

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Starting again – Weigh in, Day 1, March 3, 2014

My boyfriend made me the biggest and best Bakewell tart on the planet :)

My boyfriend made me the biggest and best Bakewell tart on the planet 🙂

I made a decision today to stop faffing about and get right back in to the 1940s saddle.. (Day in day out I’ll be living on wartime rations with the occasional deviation when its not practically possible or someone cooks me a meal etc)…partly because after several weeks without weighing scales I bought some accurate digital ones the other day and my weight has shot back up to 20st 10 lbs (according to the new scales- jeeez I had a little cry) and secondly, on Saturday I spent a day baking several iconic wartime recipes for a photo shoot at my new house yesterday.

I won’t say too much to jinx it but maybe, just maybe, the food will appear in a very well known British newspaper in the near future. I’m very, very happy about this as it promotes simple, cheap, nutritious food and I am passionate about this as you know. My heart goes out to people who struggle financially and find it hard to feed their kids. If anything I cook on here helps a few people have a go at making a few changes and saving a few pennies, it would make me happy.

I’m still trying to get my life in order, much paperwork still to do but I’m slowly getting there and people have been so very kind. My friends Caroline, Bertie and Ben at ‘Wrappler’ especially…

And there is so much happiness in my life right now. I’m still seeing the lovely, beardy, sparkly eyed man. I’ve waited a long time to let my heart open up fully to someone again. I’ve hit the jackpot culinary wise too as this man can cook. He brought me a giant Bakewell tart he had baked, and a red rose to my house the other night and we made vegetable curry together.

So

Today I’m back on rations and weighed in at 20 st 10 lbs

Today my daughter and I are going to go for a late afternoon walk for an hour and enjoy the sunshine

Today I vow to see this through until I get below 200 lbs (essentially 90 lbs to lose)

Thanks for your continuing support and sharing your thoughts and experiences and recipes. I’m sorry if I haven’t responded yet to some messages but am slowly catching up following the move. You rock… xxxxx