1940s recipes

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Rock Buns

rockbuns

I had a real sweet tooth yesterday but now I live in a world without JUNK FOOD (the closest I get to junk food is wholewheat bread with jam!) my craving had to be cooked from scratch.. It was so worth the effort though…..only 30 minutes after weighing out the ingredients I was enjoying a couple of rock buns, with a blob of mock cream and strawberry jam and a couple of hot cups of British tea!

Rock Buns

  • 8 oz wholemeal/wholewheat flour
  • 4 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon mixed spice/all spice
  • 2 oz margarine
  • 2 oz sugar
  • 2 oz sultanas or dried mixed fruit
  • 1 egg or 1 reconstituted dried egg
  • milk
  • 2 teaspoons sugar for topping

Method

Sift the flour, baking powder and spice

Rub in the margarine

Add the sugar, dried fruit and the egg

Gradually add enough milk to make a sticky mixture

Put spoonful onto parchment paper on baking tray ( makes 12-14)

Sprinkle with the sugar

Cook in a hot oven for 12-15 minutes

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Mock cream recipe 1

mockcream1

I have noticed a number of mock cream recipes in my 1940’s recipe books so have decided to try them out and see if there really is something that can replicate fresh cream using ingredients available to the 1940’s housewife…

it cured my sweet tooth though!

This one looked pretty good and tasted OK but nothing like cream- guess the granulated sugar grittiness gave it away! Anyhow- I did enjoy a blob of it on some spiced rock buns I made earlier (recipe coming tomorrow for those) topped with a little strawberry jam- how decadent!

It did cure my sweet tooth though…

Mock cream recipe 1

  • 2 oz margarine
  • 2 oz fine granulated sugar
  • 1 tablespoon dried milk powder
  • 1 tablespoon milk

Cream the sugar and margarine together until light and fluffy

Add in the dried milk powder and milk and beat well until light and fluffy again

Chill and serve

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The lumpy BOOB!

I was feeling my boobs the other night (you should try it- feels nice….I mean feel your own not mine!) and immediately underneath I felt a strange lump that had never been there before. I poked around a bit and was disturbed to find that the lump was quite large and bumpy. Fleetingly thoughts of the tragic kind entered my head but only for a few seconds as a few further harder prods confirmed to me that infact I was discovering my own ribcage!

It was like finding a fossil that had been hidden for millions of years (Ok so I am exaggerating) but nevertheless it felt pretty good to find out that I did indeed possess one.

Looks like I’ll be discovering all sorts of new lumps and bumps as the months pass by!

C xx

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Wartime Cauliflower Cheese with Bacon

wartimecauliflowercheeseI NEVER thought I’d be able to enjoy

Cauliflower cheese during my 1940’s

Experiment. I guess this is because

when I normally prepare it, the sauce

has about 4 oz of cheese in it as does

the topping and with my cheese ration

being just 2 oz per week it just didn’t

seem doable, UNTIL I sat down and

worked out a way I could still have

this dish.

CLICK HERE FOR COSTS


My theory was to make a well

seasoned tasty sauce with NO

cheese and use my 2 oz cheese

ration on top and the dish I prepared would be enough to feed 4 people if

served with potatoes or other veggies.


I decided to use one weekly ration of bacon to make the dish REALLY tasty.

My theory was to make a well seasoned tasty sauce with NO cheese

Wartime Cauliflower Cheese with Bacon

  • 1 fresh cauliflower
  • 2 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1/2 pint milk
  • 1 onion or 1 leek
  • 2-4 oz (1/2 -1 weekly ration) of bacon
  • 2 oz cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • horseradish or mustard
  • knob of butter

Method

Steam or boil the cauliflower and then drain well

While it’s cooking make the sauce. Mix the cornstarch into a thick paste with a little of the milk, add the rest of the milk and add a knob of butter.

Place on heat and slowly bring to a simmer stirring all the time, lower heat and add in salt & pepper, a little horseradish or dried mustard

Fry onions or leeks and chopped bacon in a separate pan

When browned add to white sauce and mix in well

Place cauliflower piled up in overproof dish

Pre-heat grill/broiler to quite high

Pour THICK sauce over the top

Grate the 2 oz of STRONG cheddar over the top, sprinkle with salt and pepper

Place under grill until topping is nice and browned

Serves 4 if serving with large backed potato and veggies

THIS DISH is pretty frugal too. CLICK HERE to find out how much it will cost you!


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Why the weekend makes me happy..

calmThis weekend is a long weekend as Monday is labour day here in Canada.

I now have 3 glorious days planned doing all sorts of things (except mowing the lawn which hasn’t been cut once this summer- I just can’t face spending two days doing this when I have other things to catch up on!) and my list goes like this

Clean kitchen, clean upstairs generally, do grocery list, clean window in sitting room (as can no longer see the view), once house is hygienic (in parts) again proceed to visit local store to buy groceries and finally avoid any thoughts of doing the lawn.. 

And once that is all over and done with WE COOK!

The most exciting thing I came across this week was ‘banana essence’… apparently during the war kids went bananas over mock banana sandwiches. This is one thing I will be trying out this weekend and I intend to test it out on my children (the one thing I will forget to tell them is that the banana sandwich will infact be made from mushy parsnips).. will they be able to tell the difference? My video camera is poised and ready for action…

one thing I will forget to tell them is that the banana sandwich will infact be made from mushy parsnips…

Talking about video cameras, my eldest daughter decided it would be fun to catch me on camera cooking my curried carrots last week and insisted on filming the moment when I took my first proper mouthful. I will upload the video later to share the daily strangeness in our household.

Other culinary delights (grin) will be a different recipe for eggless sponge (shared with me by Cynthia on facebook) and making a batch of carrot jam…I have my jars poised and I believe my kids thought it would be absolutely hilarious to film Mom again and fall about laughing watching it afterwards… I am glad they find me so amusing.

I don’t think they will be laughing so much when they taste my mock banana sandwiches..

Mom 1 kids 0

C xx

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5 dishes from 1 recipe – pancakes

pancakes1940

And after the curried carrots last night I was STILL hungry so I used my egg ration (1 egg per week) to make a batter which Marguerite Patten (she who knows ALL about 1940’s cuisine) tells me in her book, can be used for 5 different dishes..

So the batter was made up within seconds and just a minute or two later some wonderful mini pancakes found their way onto my plate and I still have enough batter left over for several more (or a batter pudding which I may try later today)

In ‘We’ll Eat Again’ it tells me that jam should be spread on the pancake and then rolled up- I did that with one and drizzled syrup on the other…..oh my gosh I had died and gone to heaven I swear.

Pancakes

  • 1 egg
  • 4 oz of wholewheat flour
  • pinch salt
  • 1/2 pint of milk and water mixed

Mix dry ingredients together

Mix wet ingredients together

Add wet ingredients slowly to dry ingredients to make a stiff batter and then continue adding the rest, beating well until smooth

Add a little margarine into a pan until bubbling

Pour in batter and cook both sides until browned

Serve with jam, syrup or a sprinkling of sugar

Makes 6-10 pancakes

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The Oslo Meal

theoslomeal

The Oslo Meal was originally given as an EXPERIMENT to school children during WWII. This very nutritious but basic quick meal vastly improved the development and the health of the nations children. Many families began using it as a main meal on occasions because of it’s simplicity and this was very appealing to busy housewives..

it vastly improved the development and health of the nations children..

The last few days have been very busy for me and there have been occasions that once I have fed everyone else that I am too tired to cook a special 1940’s dish right at that moment for myself, so I have relied on an Oslo Meal.

The Oslo Meal

  • 2 slices of wholewheat bread spread with a little margarine or butter
  • small block of cheese grated and placed over salad if wished
  • fresh lettuce leaves
  • other salad items like carrot, cucumber or tomato
  • glass of cold milk

I know how DIFFICULT it would be to get kids to eat school lunches like this again (I am laughing my ass off trying to imagine mine doing so ) but if we as Mom’s DID do just that our purses would be heavier (with all the money we would be saving) and our kids would be healthier.

As I say- there is a LOT we can learn from this period of time..

C xx

“This post is part of Twinkl’s VE Day Campaign, and is featured in their Best Wartime Recipes to Celebrate VE Day from Home post”

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Week 2 Weigh In

Start weight 315 lbs ( 22st 7lb )

Week 2 weight 302 lbs (21st 8lbs )

Total weight loss 13 lb

I am quite beside myself…

Despite having a sleepless night or two over eating two 1/2 plate sized vegetable turnovers over two days and enjoying eggless sponge quite frequently I STILL lost 3lbs.

Some of my work colleagues found out about my crazy diet today.

Work Colleague: How much did you lose so far?

1940’s crazy person: Ermmm 13lbs in just two weeks..!

Work Colleague: BITCH!

Trust me- that was very, very funny!

So today I am happy (once again!)