really old style living?

modern_millie_2

Mardatha, Monica Dickens used to be one of my favourite authors. As well as One Pair of Feet, she also wrote One Pair of Hands, about her experiences of domestic service in the 1930s - really funny and an insight into life 'below stairs' in those days. She was really a 'deb' but wanted a bit of life experience. Most of the jobs she had were pure hard work! Think I'll have to start re reading now. My Grandma would have been in service just a few years before this, makes me wonder how her life compared.

prepareathome

Now that is what I call quick, ordered We'll Eat Again from a seller in Amazon Marketplace for a 1p plus the usual postage and it arrived this morning. Mine is the 1997 reprint. So over next few days I hope to go through the books I have now and work out a list of ingredients and then see what I have in and what I need to buy and see if we can live on rations for a week. Granddaughter will be here from 2pm so told her we will be doing baking, if health food shop has managed to get me the egg substitute will try some of the war recipes.

modern_millie_2

Prepareathome, that sounds like a really interesting experiment, let us know how you get on.
Mardatha, hope you get your stove fixed, that
,s an awful lot to spend on coal.

Just paid to have the lawnmower put to rights, and now OH tells me the firebrick at the back of the woodburner is cracked. Is there someone out there sabotaging stuff? Just had the chimney swept a couple of months ago too.
Cooking veg stew today with choc pudding for afters - yum. I've got good stocks of most things in atm, so going to try to manage just with fruit and veg,milk and bread top ups until the end of the month - budgeting £10pw, any leftover cash for sweeties (just to give me an incentive).

rosieben

prepareathome wrote: »

... So over next few days I hope to go through the books I have now and work out a list of ingredients and then see what I have in and what I need to buy and see if we can live on rations for a week. ...

I'm really looking forward to reading about your experiment, I'm hoping you'll update us often please?

I enjoyed Thriftlady's wartime experiment thread too - linkie for anyone who hasn't seen it

not sure I'd be brave enough to try it myself though

eta I just found an old 'wartime' thread that I hadn't seen before - with a link to an interesting article on wartime thrift

eta - wouldn't it have been good if I'd remember to actually post the link :doh:

mardatha

I don't mind the cost of coal, it keeps the whole house warm and we have constant hot water. I was thinking about that other Monica Dickens book, One Pair of Hands but couldnt think what it was about, will maybe buy that one too - thanks for that

prepareathome

Had planned on making meat and mushroom suet pud in SC today so going to try the tip in We'll Eat again and grate in some raw potato instead of some of the suet ( 2oz suet - I use vegetable as find the ordinary to heavy, and 2 oz pototoes). I forgot the book was actually only 1p from Amazon Marketplace, I am a Prime member as I buy from them not just for me but a friend who doesn't have a pc and always wanting books and DVDs and this seller has Amazon send their items so it was covered by my Prime membership - debated long and hard whether I should pay it, but the normal free delivery was taking sometime 2 weeks to arrive thanks to our hopeless sorting office, but after Kindle didn't turn up and both Amazon and I contacted the Royal Mail to find out where it was and it was found to be lurking on a shelf in local sorting office, where they had put it plus other parcels for me to be delivered sometime when they felt there were enough to bring them all ( I live half a mile from sorting office, on edge of city) also was a lot of letters. Royal Mail gave me the sorting offices phone number, called and within 10 mins a van was outside mine with all the parcels and letters, driver told me they are short handed so boss tells them to put some customers mail in a pile to be delivered every 2 -3 weeks, I had wondered why so many letters were turning up 2 -3 weeks after they were sent causing missed appointments among other things. So after this decided I would pay the extra for Prime, after taking the free month and now everything comes next day and rarely using RM, so to me worth the extra, not a pound a week and no more wanting something urgently and wondering whether I should pay the extra for next day delivery.

Right I better go and see if that rump steak is defrosted, took it out of freezer last night and put in fridge but was still rock solid this morning as recipe book says 5 -6 hrs on high. I hope to eat around 8pm after granddaughter has been to hairdressers at 6pm - she is going with her parents to a family engagement party in London, tomorrow so has to be beautiful, we are not going as we couldn't make it to our own sons engagement last month - hubby was away and I had a really bad day so cannot justify going to my nephews son would never forgive me but Fibromyalgia /MS or not I have to go to his wedding in Melbourne in 2014 - he would disown me if I did. Oh yes rump steak was from whoopsies last Saturday at SM 500gs marked down to 1.22, they had 3 packs so bought them all, then cut them steak in half and froze it, will bulk the pud out with vegetables, think that can still be classed as allowed - I will pretend I am in WW2 and just had a good harvest ( hopefully this will be true next year as planning to grow my own - true as to plenty of vegetables not being in a war:rotfl:) Oh gosh just remembered never took the mushrooms out the freezer earlier, so will have to run them under cold water to defrost quickly, head like a sieve me, everything I should remember goes in and falls straight through the holes.:rotfl::rotfl: Right better go and put my pinny on - well a towel at moment just bought my first sewing machine and I want to make a pinny when I get some material - just to get into the correct mood.

Phoned healthfood shop the egg substitute arrived this morning in their delivery, not sure what it will cost, forgot to ask, but will be using it instead of dried eggs - tried them years ago vile, but been told egg substitute if not to bad.

westcoastscot

Good afternoon Guys,
Well my toastie iron arrived, for making toasties on the open fire - a huge success! lovely toasties really quickly. I've decided to go further and buy a cast iron dutch oven for the fire - shall only use it when i'm home, but it should save electricity - I've had a pot of soup on the hob for two hours this morning! Toastie tasted doubly nice knowing I was beating the hydro-board!
WCS

elona

DD has been dropping hints about me making fruit cake now we have an new oven that actually works. After three addresses in one year stuff has got mislaid and I could find everything but my fruit cake recipe.

Found a Bero home baking booklet that looks at least 60 years old which had various recipes for cakes and had a go with the currant cake recipe but used dried mixed fruit instead. Apart from taking it out of the tin too soon -oops! It turned out quite well.

I agree about sheepskin being warm - went to the Hotters shoes outlet in Castleford and got "3 for 2" as well as reduction of £30 a pair. Ended up with two pairs of shoes and a pair of sheepskin Shetland slippers with the total cost being the same as the original price of one pair of shoes :j

Usually my feet are freezing whatever the weather but now they feel really cosy.

The booklet has some recipes for buns and meat pies as well as large cakes so might try one thing a week from it as a project. DH likes the idea of proper old fashioned food and DDs might be a bit pickier but more willing to try baked stuff. They positively drooled watching the great british bake off on tv.

mardatha

Bero recipes always work, great recipes. WCS I have always wanted a DO, but he won't let me get one

born_blonde

I'm starting a collection of old cookbooks and have a couple of Bero ones from the thirty's.

I don't bake but the other day made the easiest truffles, Melt 250 gms choc, stir in 7 tablespoons of double cream, chill. When firm make into balls (I used two teaspoons ) roll in grated chocolate and chill.

As I don't eat them my friend in the next village sent her husband over to collect 12 and 5 are in the fridge for my dh.