go back to days of yore

trafalgar_2

 i think I'll wait for 160 to come back to explain her method then before I try it in the slow cooker .

Probably best as I don't have a slow-cooker I don't know if you add stock or not :-/ answer was more about whether to brown the sausages or not originally anyway ;D ;D

scrimperjan

Caterina's story reminds me of one of my own favourites - this one is quoted from 'Timeless Simplicity' by John Lane:

The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking his pipe.

- Why aren't you fishing?, said the industrialist.

- Because I have caught enough fish for the day.

- Why don't you catch some more?

- What would I do with them?

- Earn more money. Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish. That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money. Soon you would have enough to buy two boats...even a fleet of boats. Then you could be rich like me.

- What would I do then?

- Then you could sit back and enjoy life!

- What do you think I'm doing now?

vanoonoo

Caterina's story reminds me of one of my own favourites - this one is quoted from 'Timeless Simplicity' by John Lane:

The industrialist was horrified to find the fisherman lying beside his boat, smoking his pipe.

- Why aren't you fishing?, said the industrialist.

- Because I have caught enough fish for the day.

- Why don't you catch some more?

- What would I do with them?

- Earn more money.  Then you could have a motor fixed to your boat and go into deeper waters and catch more fish.  That would bring you money to buy nylon nets, so more fish, more money.  Soon you would have enough to buy two boats...even a fleet of boats.  Then you could be rich like me.

- What would I do then?

- Then you could sit back and enjoy life!

- What do you think I'm doing now?

excellent - and something I totally empathise with!

Caterina

True story:

Many years ago while on holiday in Crete, in a - then - small fishing village that now is a big resort (Elounda), I went into a tiny cafe just out of the centre of the village. It only served ouzo, retsina, greek coffee and a few more traditional greek drinks, delightfully accompanied by fresh slices of tomato and cucumber and bits of feta cheese.

I started speaking with the owner, who was an old man. I asked why he is not modernising the cafe and introduce more products such as coca cola, ice creams and stuff like that (I was still young and hadn't reached frugality Nirvana yet ) as surely as the resort developed more he could make a lot more money! He replied that he was already making more than enough for a decent living and had no intention of working any harder just to make moeny that he did not really need.

I wish I had taken notice of this very interesting life lesson then, all of 20+ years ago, rather than struggle through so much of my life with a fear of poverty and need to do more and more and more, only to realise many years later how I was killing myself with unnecessary fatigue and what a stupid thing I was doing, and so I changed my ways!

Caterina

scrimperjan

'Frugality nirvana'....you have a wonderful way with words, Caterina. I know exactly what you mean - I get a real buzz out of being frugal, never happier than when I'm making something out of nothing. Recently we've moved house and had to go through a bit of a spending phase, and in a perverse sort of way I'm kind of glad to get back to normal (well, normal for me) - watching the pennies is such a habit now that spending large amounts of money makes me really uneasy.....maybe I'm strange, but I actually enjoy the challenge of managing on less.

Murtle

cathy wrote:

also, simple puds like jelly and ice cream, apple crumble
and nothing nicer than a jam butty after your tea save a fortune and go down a storm,

no need to go mad with cheescakes etc that cost a fortune, bread and butter pud is lovely and couldnt be easier.

---

Back in 1946, just after the SecondWorld War there were many food shortages. People were only allowed so much ofsome particularly scarce foods.


Food had to be shared out as equally as possiblethe way this was done was through a system called rationing. Every member of every family would have had a ration book and it gave precise details of the amounts of certain types of food that you were allowed during one week. Some of the amounts were;

---

>

Bacon andham: 4oz (100g)
Meat: To the value of 1s.2d (6p today).Sausages were not rationed but difficult to obtain; offal was originallyunrationed but sometimes formed part of the meat ration.
Cheese: 2oz(50g) sometimes it went up to 4oz (100g) and even up to 8oz (225g).
Margarine: 4oz (100g)
Butter: 2oz (50g).
Milk: 3 pints(1800ml) occasionally dropping to 2 pints (1200ml). Household milk (skimmed ordried) was available : 1 packet per four weeks.
Sugar: 8oz (225g).
Jam: 1lb (450g) every two months.
Tea:2oz (50g).
Eggs: 1fresh egg a week if available but often only one every two weeks. Dried eggs 1packet every four weeks.
Sweets: 12oz (350g) every four weeks
Canyou imagine living for a week on these amounts of food? Compare the amount ofsweets in weight that you eat in a week with the amount allowed people in 1946for four weeks 12oz (350g).

http://www.allthatwomenwant.com/wartimerecipes.htm

was this the full amount of food allowed, or were there other things you could have "free quantities" of, like veggies and fruit???

Juat wondering what I could cook on this....and if I could swap my meat for some more modern veg??!!!

georgiasmum

This is an excellent thread esp since I'm just doing my shopping list!! I'm going to keep popping back here!

[Deleted User]

culpepper wrote:

The Woolton pie from the we'll eat again book was lovely.
We did a week of rationing when the kids were doing WWII for their history.They enjoyed it and hubby managed to stick to it too(dont know if he cheated at work though:))
We even built an airraid shelter in the garden out of corrugated iron.We didnt sleep in it though.
There is a book in our library 'Rag time to Wartime' which has the menu for a coronation tea party laid out in detail.The kids got bread and Jam ,cake and tea .Cant imagine kids of today being happy with that.

As someone who had to eat Woolton pie I remember it with horror. There was a lot of food during and after the war that wasn't pleseant but it was a case of eat it or go hungry
If we dared to turn our noses up at anything my Mum would say O/K/ you can have a fresh air sandwich and a glass of adams ale (water0 and see if you want to eat your food up then. The fact that the men on the merchant ships were risking their lives to put food on the plates of ungrateful kids was enough to get my Mum quite steamed up. So it meant you had to eat it or go hungry.
So we ate condesed milk on bread , bread and dripping toast,and she had 1001 winning ways with mince . If it grew in the ground you ate it . Mind you I loved Spam fritters. there was very little sugar about and virtually none of the orange squash that kids seem to live on today. Sweets were few and far between,as the youngest I was a little luckier as my dad always eseemed to find an extra coupon or two for me. But everything was shared out equally amonst me and my two older brothers.
My Aunt sent my Mum a food parcel in 1948 from the USA and in it there were some tins of Heinz pureed apple baby food .I got on my high horse and said I am far too old to eat baby food .I got a thick ear, and was told to spread it on the bread and pretend it was apple jam. make do and mend was the order of the day as there were no companies working to make goods for the shops anyway. My brothers jumpers were unpicked and re-knitted several times into something else. Clothes were often made from curtains and my dad managed to get some parashute silk that my Mum made some nice underwear and a blouse out of . It din't do us any harm though and we survived which was the main thing.

SueRob_2

I still cook Woolton Pie regularly, it's a great favourite with my kids.
Sue

zarazara

:jI like this thread