1940sexperiment

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Attack of the fat arse knickers..

Seriously, it’s time to shrink the size of your bottom when your knickers are the size of t-shirts….

I know my knickers are the size of t-shirts because I regularly leave my fat arse knickers in my daughters clean clothes pile only for them to be returned with a familiar  ” Mum-this-isn’t-my-t-shirt-it’s-your-knickers”….. at least she doesn’t say ‘fat arse’.

The worst thing about these knickers are the fact that they are my NEW smaller ones. In comparison with the ones I was wearing at 315 lbs, they look like Barbie knickers…..almost

Although I find it shocking how large my knickers are I truly believe you have to laugh at life, one day these knickers WILL be a distant memory as I join the ‘thong brigade’…… (ha had ya- never, even if I had a butt as beautiful as Beyonce’s, would I wear one of those hideous underwear creations!)Fat arse knickers make great toy hammocks

The ‘fat arse’ knickers, because of the vast quantity of material used in their production, can be used for a variety of useful purposes.

  • toy hammock. Unfortunately all the big soft toys in the house wouldn’t fill my knickers so I had to use an 18 litre water container to fill the space (see photo)
  • dust cover for full size computer monitors. (see photo) You may need to stitch up the leg holes though to stop it peeking through. The good news is that there is enough spare material at the bottom to cover your keyboard too..
  • when your fat arse knickers are too big or too worn they make a huge amount of cleaning rags. By my calculations 25 precisely..


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Merry Christmas everyone!

Yeah- well I know this is a day later and it’s been two weeks since I’ve blogged here but nevertheless

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Did I lose 10 lbs before Christmas? Nah.. I think I set an unrealistic goal especially right before Christmas where it’s easy to occasionally succumb to temptation (in my case it has mostly just been a few episodes of speciality cheese and crackers brought into work by colleagues but apart from that and a little blip at my friend Margaret’s Christmas Brunch AND the FREE egg nog at the pub, I’ve been doing OK) That doesn’t really sound that good does it…?

However ,although I didn’t lose 10 lbs I did lose 4 lbs and weighed in on Christmas Eve at 279 lbs.  I do expect that to rise a little over the Christmas period as I am allowing myself alcohol and some treats!

Although my Christmas Day wasn’t exactly 1940’s my main meal really would have come as close as possible to an 1940’s English Christmas Dinner (except for the sparkling Australian wine)

I live in the country and have enough land to grown a large garden or raise poultry and even keep goats (if I so desired)…. infact before I moved to Canada I did this for several years. Country dwellers during WWII probably would have grown the majority of their own veggies and raised chickens and turkeys for the table (as well as pork etc). Infact even those living in the city may have reared back yard chickens for Christmas Day……people even clubbed together to raise pigs!

So my Christmas Day meal of

  • an 8 lb chicken raised by some farming friends (and given to me as a gift)
  • a huge ham gift from my employers at work
  • locally grown potatoes, sprouts, parsnips, peas & carrots
  • sausages wrapped in bacon
  • homemade bread stuffing

was absolutely a country dwellers 1940’s meal or someone in the city who had planned ahead well.

Did the stuffing contain cat nip?

The chicken was the best I have ever tasted this year, as was the perfectly cooked parsnips in a honey glaze AND the homemade stuffing. If I lived in the 1940’s during rationing I would have had to save up my butter as the stuffing contained a mound of the stuff!

My homemade stuffing this year however, was full of extra ingredients to help it along the way. I chopped up onions and celery and softened them in a cup of butter before adding 1/3rd of a loaf of wholemeal bread, cubed. I then added this mixture to the other 2/3rd in a big bowl and mixed. Then I added 1/2 cup of marmite broth. And then I started adding a mixture of herbs & spices…

I realized to my horror the secret ingredient to my culinary triumph. CAT-NIP!

First sage, then thyme, then a little parsley, a little dill, black pepper, extra salt, pinch of summer savoury……and then there was a un-labelled package of herbs in a clear plastic bag, languishing at the back of the cupboard that smelt vaguely familiar. I liked the smell of it so added a large pinch into the mix….

Cooked at 200 C for 40 mins (after dotting butter over the top) the stuffing came out wonderfully and it was the best stuffing I’d ever made..

And then last night after I’d sunk the last of the wine we’d had with dinner, I realized to my horror the secret ingredient to my culinary triumph. CAT-NIP! The same cat nip I had bought a few years back (because I like the smell of it and I was going to try and be clever to make our cat a cat nip treat).

As I lived to tell the tale (thank goodness my kids don’t read my blog) I guess cat-nip is safely consumed in small portions BUT please don’t go rushing out to buy CAT-NIP for your stuffing even tho it tastes damn good!

MERRY CHRISTMAS xxxxxx

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Cheese and Potato Dumplings

Here is a fabby recipe that I use quite frequently. You can add herbs and spices to your own taste. I also find these dumplings, once refrigerated, can even be used to take in to work for a midday snack in your lunch box as they firm up quite nicely!

Cheese and Potato Dumplings

  • 2 lbs of potatoes peeled (set aside the peel to bake in the oven for another delicious snack)
  • 2 reconstituted dried eggs (or 2 fresh)
  • 3 to 4 oz strong grated cheese
  • salt and pepper
  • dried herbs such as thyme (optional)

Method

Cook the potatoes in boiling salted water

Set aside to drain in colander for 10 minutes

Mash potatoes, return to saucepan over low heat, add seasoning and herbs, mix well

Add eggs and half the cheese, mix well again and stir until potatoes firm up.

Once cooled a little form into 10 balls and roll in the remaining grated cheese

Place on greased baking tray and bake in a hot oven for 20 minutes or so until browned and crusty

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We are connected and 273 lb by Christmas.

No surfing- More reading!

We have lift off! These past 10 days have seemed like a life time but thanks to my ex-husband our network at home is now up and running again. Our home server crashed horribly, lost all it’s settings and went through a recovery. Everything had to be stripped down and installed again…quite the job.

I jumped on the scales this morning and things have slipped a little and I have a 3lb gain which is just horrible which isn’t a great start to trying to lose 10lbs before Christmas HOWEVER, I do not like defeat so I KNOW I can do it. So I start at 283 lb today..

And the simple changes I’ll make? Less bread (2 slices daily instead of several), smaller portions of oatmeal, more leafy veggies and lots more walking!

I’ll be back later today with my recipes updates!

Thanks for checking back- it’s great to be back

C xx

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What is your favourite wartime recipe?

applesmain

Candy Apples- A 1940’s Halloween Treat? CLICK HERE for recipe

I have a FREE weekend (so far…except for Halloween and grocery shopping)

This means I get to catch up on a whole lot of cooking with at LEAST a few different recipes as for every lb I lose I’ll re-create a wartime recipe on my blog.

Is there a wartime recipe you’d like to see re-created? If so please leave your suggestions as a comment and I’ll try to tackle a couple- see what they come out like!

And now for something non- 1940s BUT tomorrow is Halloween! At work we have been busy putting together some fabby recipes and crafts for a useful Halloween page. My friend Jana brought in some Frankenstein Cookies to work yesterday (I do admit to tearing an arm off to taste it- it was the tastiest arm I have ever gnawed on)…

You can see the Franken Cookies, Candy Apples, Ghosty Cakes, Orange Jack O Lanterns and soups by CLICKING HERE

I wonder what treats they had in the 1940’s for Halloween?

C xx

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A typical two day meal plan…

mealplan

Got a message a few days ago on Facebook

Hi Carolyn,
My name is C***** from Australia  and I have been following you on your website “1940’s Experiment”. I was just wondering what is your typical meal plan for the two days. I was thinking about doing what your doing too. It just sounds so much for better for you.
Thank you.
regards,
C*****

I am unorganized- I am sure the 1940’s housewife HAD to be very organized and would plan her meals out way in advance.. unfortunately, I don’t, so I do not have a typical two day meal plan as such but here is what I have eaten the past couple of days…

It may seem rather a lot, but I AM losing weight. I did read that for a 300 lb person to move around moderately throughout the day uses up 3000 calories so I guess I can eat more than say a 200 lb person and still lose weight.

The main thing I want to stress is that now I don’t pick at food in-between meals and I stick STRICTLY to my food ration- when I’ve used it up I do without..

So here is what I have eaten in the last two days and this is pretty typical..

BREAKFAST

2 slices of wholemeal (wholewheat) toast with margarine and marmalade or marmite

or large bowl of porridge oats (oatmeal) made with water, splash of milk and a little sugar or honey mixed in.

LUNCH

Oslo Meal- [Click here] + a piece of fruit

or I bring in to work with me a huge plate of steamed veggies such as broccoli, parsnips, potatoes, cabbage with a blob of butter on and seasoned. (sometimes with some meaty gravy [click here] over the top ) In addition to that I have a piece of fruit like an apple or a pear.

DINNER

By the time I get home and start cooking it’s between 6 and 7pm and by this time I am starving! I always eat a BIG meal.

Yesterday– Two large baked potatoes topped with a little bit of strong cheddar, generous serving of meaty gravy, a chunk of freshly baked wholemeal bread, a few spoonfuls of steamed carrots, big mound of steamed cabbage. For dessert I didn’t have anything cooked so had a pear.

Today– A big mound of mashed potato (a blob of marg and some thyme, salt & pepper for seasoning), served with large portions of cabbage and cauliflower and the remainder of the meaty gravy I made yesterday. For dessert I had two freshly baked Rock Buns [click here] and two steaming hot cups of tea!

SUPPER

I like to round off the day with a glass or two of milk- usually one small glass of cold milk and a cup of milky coffee. The amount I have depends on how much I have left to use!

Obviously my diet depends on what I have available or what recipes I have been re-creating. I quite often make veggies stews with beans and pulses in for extra protein..

Hope this helps!

C xx

PS: I am convinced that the diet industry has got it ALL wrong (actually that is an unfair generalization as things have really changed over the past 10 years)…BUT what I mean to say is

WE SHOULD ALL BE EATING MORE TO LOSE WEIGHT….seriously!

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Spam Spam Spam Spam- everybody loves Spam..

spamcan

The last time I ate Spam (and it has only been once until today) it was not a memorable experience. Infact I seen to remember I wretched as it slithered out of the can..

All that changes when you are HUNGRY and when your food choices are limited so for the sake of authenticity I decided to open the can of SPAM in the cupboard (which I bought 6 weeks ago) and cook with it as any good housewife would have done in the 1940’s.

Would SPAM still be ikky? Could I physically eat the stuff given my inaugural exeperience? And what about the ethics?

Would SPAM still be ikky…?

Putting all this stuff aside the can of Spam was tentatively opened and true to previous form slithered out of the can and I cut two slices from the block of processed luncheon meat with its jiggly, jelly coating. Into a pan I placed a little butter and heated until hot, sprinkled the spam slices with a little thyme and pepper and placed into the pan and slowly browned the slices, turning once, over medium heat.

Once cooked they actually looked OK!

An even bigger surprise when I tasted the offensive article…it actually tasted pretty good! It was quite salty but  quite yummy and an ideal accompaniment for a plate of rather bland cauliflower and potatoes.

Now I can see how the 1940’s housewife sang it’s praises…

SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM everybody loves SPAM!

spam1940

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Cynthia’s Eggless Sponge (gone right)

egglesssponge21940sBecause I ate my egg ration the other night, it means that anything that I now decide to cook, has to be egg free until I can use my ration book again on Friday to replenish the larder..

because I ate my egg ration, anything I cook this week has to be egg free..

BUT never despair, there are still lots of delicious things to make and I felt it was time to attempt an eggless sponge again.

Cynthia had shared her eggless sponge recipe with me on FACEBOOK and I liked the fact that the recipe called for leftover tea.

I cooked that very successfully this afternoon and have enjoyed a couple of big cups of tea and a couple of slices of Cynthia’s Sponge..

Here is the recipe..

Cynthia’s Eggless Sponge (gone right)

 

  • 1/2 pint of tea (without milk and tea leaves)
  • 3 oz butter/marg
  • 3 oz sugar
  • 3 oz sultanas
  • 10 oz wholewheat flour (add 3-4 teaspoons of baking powder)
  • 1 teaspoon all spice (mixed spice)
  • extra cinnamon if required

 

Method

Place the tea, butter, sugar and sultanas in a saucepan and heat gently until butter is melted, leave to cool.

Mix all the dry ingredients together.

Mix all the dry ingredients into the cooled liquid and mix well, give it a beat.

Put mixture into a greased and floured 7 inch cake tin

Cook on 180 degrees for around 45 minutes or more

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Carolyn’s ‘Everything IN’ wartime stew

everythinginstew1940s

I have to confess, I have never seen this recipe in any of my WWII cook books..

But HELL, you just didn’t waste ANYTHING in the 1940’s so I betcha that ‘Ruby Murray’ and her delightfully scruffy, scabby knee’d children would have had a meal like this now and again to use up rubbery veggies languishing in the pantry..

HELL, you didn’t waste ANYTHING in the 1940’s

Who is Ruby Murray? Lets just say you’ll see her soon. A nosey, time traveling alter ego from the 1940’s who occasionally appears in my kitchen to make long days even longer…

rubymurray

Click here to watch Ruby Murray back in 2006

Meanwhile- here is the recipe

Everything IN wartime stew

  • 1 lb of mince beef or a mixture of leftover meats
  • 1 small cabbage
  • 1 onion or 1 leek
  • Any veggies that need using up
  • Several soft tomatoes that are no good for anything else
  • Oxo and marmite (marmite is optional)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Water

Method

Brown the mince or leftover meats and onions

Chop up the remaining veg into smallish pieces

Chop up the soft tomatoes and add to meat and onions and then add water (about a 1000 ml)

Add the oxo and marmite and stir

Add the chopped veggies

Cook and occasionally stir adding salt, pepper and some dried herbs like thyme to your own taste

Cook on medium heat in the saucepan for about 20 further minutes

Enough for 8 served with mashed potatoes or bread and butter.

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Wartime Scotch Shortbread

scotchshortbread1940

Hurricane Bill is on his way and last night I couldn’t sleep, so instead, at 2 am, I got up, went to the kitchen and made some ‘Wartime Scotch Shortbread’..

The flour supplied to the public in the 1940’s, was a minimum of 85% wholewheat flour made from homegrown wheat (UK). It was said to have an unpopular grey appearance but I guess that really was all that was available and all recipes that called for flour would have been made out of this..

Wartime Scotch Shortbread

Melt 4 oz margarine, add 8 oz plain flour and 2 oz sugar, mix well and knead until the mixture bins together. If it is a little dry crumble it again and add a splash of milk and re knead. Put in an ungreased baking tin and press mixture down firmly so it is about 1/2 inch thick. Prick the surface and then cut into 10-12 portions.

Bake in centre of moderate oven for 30 + minutes.

Remove, sprinkle lightly with sugar

Serve.

“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”