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Potato and Cheese Bake

While I struggle to get to grips with my sweet tooth and portion size following the Christmas, New Year, marriage separation anniversary and 4 birthdays cakes BLIP (so I actually have some weight-loss results to post on the blog) here is a tasty and simple recipe.

This no-fail recipe is bound to have the family kissing your feet (even if they are stinky) and pledging a life of devotion to your 1940’s cooking if you’ll “just-cook-some-more-of-that-again”..  It’s like some sort of cat nip for kids (they need it, they want it, they have to possess it…) except it calms and satisfies them and stops them demanding potato chips for at least 3 hours. This HAS to be a good thing.

It’s like some sort of cat-nip for kids…

This particular recipe is something I have just put together and is not out of any particular cook book however it does use my rations fairly wisely as well as lots of potato- the Ministry of Food would be so proud of me..

Potato and Cheese Bake

  • 3 large peeled potatoes per person (peelings can be used in a stew)
  • generous portion of butter or margarine (if rations allow)
  • 4 oz of strong cheese (use less if you are running low)
  • generous amounts of dried or fresh herbs (common herbs at the time would have been rosemary and thyme)
  • a little milk
  • salt and pepper.
  • Note: I used 12 large potatoes to serve 4 generously using a 10 x 8 inch pan for baking.

Method.

  1. Peel potatoes and wash.
  2. Cut into 1/2 inch chunks.
  3. Place into salted cold water and bring to boil on stove, simmering until chunks are tender.
  4. Drain well and return to saucepan.
  5. Add in a large blob of butter (the bigger the better if rations allow).
  6. Move around until melted.
  7. Thoroughly mash until smooth.
  8. Taste potatoes adding plenty of salt and pepper until you get the required taste.
  9. Add a little milk and mix with wooden spoon until you get the required consistency.
  10. Add into baking pan and spread out evenly.
  11. Rough top with a fork.
  12. Grate 4 oz of strong/sharp cheese.
  13. Sprinkle evenly over the top.
  14. Finally sprinkle generous quantities of herbs, lots of thyme and a little rosemary work well together. Don’t skimp!
  15. Place in pre-heated oven at 200 C for 25 minutes and finish off under a hot grill/broiler for 5 so the top browns.
  16. Remove, let stand for 5 minutes or so and then serve. Goes well with meat, veg and gravy.

Serves 4 generously!

And now you have your family subdued and totally under your spell it’s time to put your feet up, open a good book and savour the quietness of your home….

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Wartime Cheese Pudding

By the time I got in from work last night and picked up groceries it was 7 pm. It made me think how challenging it must have been for many women on the home-front during WWII who literally became single parents overnight while their husbands went to war. Many went out to work to keep essential industry rolling, as because of the war, much of the work force had departed. Many still had children at home that needed attending and feeding too in addition.

Among the many things that living on a 1940’s ration diet has taught me is that the 1940’s working housewife really could have done with convenience food… Preparing most main meals, everyday from scratch is incredibly time consuming.

As I arrived home last night immediately my youngest hobbit requested something “QUICK” for dinner. “Mum- can I just have some noodles, they’ll only take a few minutes”… But I remained firm for once and she sat there watching me cook a ‘Wartime Cheese Pudding and Carrot & Potato Mash’… “How long will that take” she demanded…

She watched with interest as I made the cheese pudding and as the smells seeped from the stove she decided she would have-a-bit-of-everything even though she initially wasn’t keen.

Proudly (I am always proud of any new dish I try as long as it doesn’t end up looking like poo!) I served up our frugal 1940s dinner and as she started to gobble down her meal she splurted, “Mum- this is really good, you should make this again sometime!”..

This was one little victory, one little step towards my child realizing that the preparation of food with basic ingredients maybe time consuming and challenging but it is indeed possible to make something tasty and nourishing out of practically nothing….

Wartime Cheese Pudding

  • 1/2 pint of milk (300 ml)
  • 1 oz margarine (25 g)
  • 3 slices of soft wholemeal bread
  • 1 fresh egg (or reconstituted dry egg )
  • 3 oz strong cheese grated (75 g)
  • salt and pepper (herbs optional)

Method

  1. Pour milk into saucepan and add margarine until the margarine melts over medium heat. Switch off
  2. Add breadcrumbs, stir and allow to stand for 15 minutes
  3. Whisk your egg and add to mixture. Add the cheese and seasoning and stir well
  4. Pre-heat oven to 190 C (375 F)
  5. Place mixture into a greased pan or 1 pint pie dish with non- shallow sides about 6 to 7 inch diameter.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes until golden brown and risen (it doesn’t rise much)
  7. Serve immediately with veggies!

Feeds 2 as main meal or 4 if served with meat and veg

PS: Are you interested in living frugally? Maybe you have a limited income and need to make ends meet? Fed up of rampant consumerism? Check out my other blog and save some pennies with me! CLICK HERE  C xx

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Carrot and Potato Mash

I have been busy in the kitchen and have a lot of recreated WWII recipes from the homefront to share with you over the next week or two- afterall I do have to photograph and post another 70 authentic recipes to keep to my end of the bargain before my years experiment ends…!

This particular recipe was shared with me many years ago when I lived in rural Norfolk in the UK… it is really very tasty indeed

Carrot and Potato Mash

  • 2 medium/large potatoes per person
  • 1 medium/large carrot per person
  • 1/2 oz butter per person
  • salt and pepper to taste

Method

Fill a large saucepan with salted water and heat

Chop potatoes into small pieces ( 1/2 inch chunks) and place in saucepan of hot water

Grate carrots and add to saucepan too

Bring to boil and then simmer for about 15 mins or so until potatoes are tender

Drain thoroughly

Add butter to saucepan and mash thoroughly

Add salt and pepper and stir thoroughly until satisfactory taste has been achieved.

Serve with a little knob of butter on top

PS: Click here and check out someone who has started a 1940s ration diet on UK TV – note the link to my wartime recipe page- yay!

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Will the real Carolyn Ekins please stand up…

Life is weird at the best of times.

Some people go through life with a goal, they know who they are, they know where they want to be and they stay right on track to get there. The majority of us bimble through life never truly knowing who we are or where we want to be and can either be satisfied with that and stay on the track we are already following or we decide to take the dirt road instead of the highway. The dirt road has many detours & dead ends, takes a long time to travel because it is never clearly signed, but ultimately has the most interesting scenery. You never really know where the road will take you but it seems better than following the other routes..

I have always taken the dirt road in life.

But sometimes you have to force a change to make things happen, have clear goals and stick with that one goal for a long time otherwise you keep taking detours and never will get to the end..

Inside every fat person…

Being super sized fat is not me. Inside my body Carolyn Ekins is screaming to get out- it’s been so long since I’ve seen her that I really have forgotten who she is but I know there isn’t one day that passes by where I don’t wonder what it would be like to be the real me again. That can make me sad. Has this happened to you?

To quote some very contrived lyrics from a 1980’s single from recording artist Toyah..

I wanna be me, I wanna be me..

So I guess it’s time to make sure that for once in my life, I stick to the highway, stay focussed on the road ahead, avoid all dangers, drive steadily, keep plenty of gas in the tank and above all check the mirror frequently as one day the real Carolyn Ekins will once again appear in it…

Thanks for listening

C xx

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Bread stuffing

I don’t suppose there was much meat to stuff during wartime 1940’s unless you were lucky enough to live in the country and raise your own animals BUT people did raise backyard chickens and turkeys as well as rabbits and I guess these would have been raised for special occasions like Christmas and thanksgiving..

Our thanksgiving this year was a very simple affair and consisted of pumpkin soup for starters, main dish and then apple crumble for dessert. I didn’t have a big turkey but we did have a small free range chicken. I live in the country so I guess in reality I would have raised my own poultry (and I did keep chickens, geese and ducks prior to moving to Canada!)

So yesterday we did enjoy chicken and we did enjoy homemade bread stuffing and here is the recipe and it is VERY FRUGAL on the rations..

Bread stuffing (for those special occasions)

Ingredients

  • Loaf of bread
  • 1 or 2 oz butter
  • dried or fresh herbs such as sage, thyme and parsley
  • onion
  • 500 ml of vegetable stock

Method

Get a large bowl and take all the slices of bread and tear them up into small pieces and place in bowl

Sprinkle on your herbs to your own taste (I like lots!) Add salt and pepper

Dot the butter/margarine over the top

Chop onion finely, saute in butter and then add to the bowl of bread and stir

Take the warm vegetable stock and pour a little of the stock over the bread to moisten it.

Stir until it starts to stick together (not too moist)

Place it in ovenproof dish or form into balls

Cook in oven at about 200 c for 30-40 mins until browned and turn once

Makes 16-20 balls or serves a LOT of people!

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Spam Hash

When I opened a can of spam a couple of weeks ago I managed to make it stretch for 5 meals  (2 main and 3 lunches)..

Here was a simple one using a small amount of spam but it nevertheless gave a nice flavour (spam is very salty)

Spam Hash Ingredients (for 1 person)

  • 2 largish potatoes
  • 1/2 onion
  • 1/4 can of spam
  • blob butter/margarine

Method

Wash potatoes

Cut into quarters and boil until firmly cooked, remove from water and cool

Chop onion

Chop up 1/4 can spam into chunks

Take large fying pan add in large blob of butter and heat

Add in onions and cook gently until nice and translucent

Take potatoes and chop them into smaller chunks

Add these and the spam chunks into the pan with the onions and continue to fry and stir

Turn down frying pan and cover if possible and continue to cook for another 5-10 minutes. At this stage you can add in some chopped tomato if you like. If the mixture is sticking too much add in a little bit of water and stir

Once cooked served with your favourite veggies!

Serves 1

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Week 8 weigh in

Start weight: 315 lbs (22 st 7 lb)

Last weeks weight: 291 lbs (20st 11 lb)

This weeks weight: 289 lbs (20st 09 lb)

Week 8 weight loss: 2lbs

TOTAL weight loss to date: 26lb (1 st 12 lb)

I am OVER THE MOON with another weight-loss this week despite shoveling it away during meal times!

I may cut back a little on bread next week simply because I am not sure whether the average 1940’s person would have eaten as much bread as I am doing! Eating more potatoes was encouraged instead…

Talking of bread I forgot to bring my lunch to work today so I am off to Tim’s to buy myself a carton of milk and a large freshly baked wholewheat bread roll with butter…

Dang it…Ok so I’ll start the bread thing tomorrow!

Cxx

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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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Return to the 1940s- Wartime Loaf

1940sbreadloaf

Here is the 1st of 100 recipes which will be recreated and photographed over the year of my blog…

Nothing Fancy Wartime Loaf

* 600 ml (1 pint) of warm water
* 5 teaspoons of quick rise yeast
* couple pinches of sugar
* 2 lb of wholewheat (wholemeal) flour
* 1.5 teaspoons salt
* 1 tablespoon rolled oats (for top)
* spoonful or butter or margarine (or a drizzle of vegetable oil)

Method

Place flour in large bowl
Mix in all dry ingredients except the rolled oats
Add fat (or drizzle in vegetable oil)
Pour in warm water
Mix thoroughly
When dough comes together knead for 10 minutes until dough is silky
Place back in bowl and cover
Let dough rise somewhere warm until doubled in size
Knead dough briefly again
Place dough into 4 x 1/2 lb tins (or 2 x 1 lb tins) that have been floured
Brush top with a little water and sprinkle on some rolled oats
Leave to rise for around 20 minutes
PLace in oven at 180 0C for around 30-40 mins (depending on the size of the loaf)
Remove from oven
Cool for at least 15 minutes before cutting

PS Note that the original recipe called for old fashioned yeast but I replaced with quick rise yeast (it simply is very hard to get hold of those little squares of yeast that would have been used)

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