Thriftlady's wartime experiment

Frugal_Fox

redmandarin wrote: »

Oh, thriftlady, american pinwheels and choc fudge cake - mmm! I've been on a diet for 6 weeks, (and lost no weight at all during the last two weeks, despite hard effort) but even when not dieting I never bake (or buy) pastry or cake (I'd eat the lot)!

Can I come for tea? :rotfl:

And Frugal Fox - I can smell that sponge! :drool:

So can I .... However the sponge is for my friend! It's her birthday tomorrow, so I've baked her a birthday cake - its going to be in the shape of a box of chocolates so I may be completely stressed by 7pm tonight. I do pity the children - the kitchen is now a No Go Zone!

Errata

Recipes !

Bellyfull
Mix plain flour with water and a pinch of salt to a stiff consistency
Shape to the size of a fishcake
Fry !
Both sides !
Serve with anything you fancy really

Butter

Add small knob of butter to unadulterated milk
Place in watertight container
Fix container to treadling equipment
(First make treadling equipment from old sewing machine, or borrow the neighbours)
Treadle until milk and butter are churned into butter
Keep in cold, damp air raid shelter until needed

Triker

How about 'dock pudding',

article and recipe here

http://www.calderdale-online.org/html/community/life5.html

never tried it myself but I would like to.

tinkerbelluk

Considering everyone's looking back I thought these might be interesting for people to see. My grandfather brought both of these back when he came home. Apparently they were all given one each to read.

Triker

Hey Tinkerbell you may want to adjust your photos as they are showing your name and access to other photos, that man looks familiar btw.:rotfl:

thriftlady_2

Thanks for that Tinkerbell :T Anyone else enjoy watching Band Of Brothers ? A fantastic mini series about Easy Company of the 101st Airborne division of the US army (paras) and their part in the war from D-Day to their capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest. One of the soldiers read the letter from Eisenhower out in the first episode.

Errata

Crikey - this is turning into "All Our Yesterdays"

malvena_2

I am addicted to this thread already. Another vote for thread of the month.JackieO your stories made me smile - especially mention the liberty bodice. My mum can spend hours grumbling about having to wear one.Men in those days seemed so much more romantic (and masculine), or do I just pick the wrong ones. We have a photo of my Grandad which he sent to my nan while he was away during the war. It's really faint but it says" To my darling Phyliss. I love you so much. Lots of love Wilf". It makes my heart melt every time I read it. Such difficult days, but beautiful ones too!I wish my grandparents were still around today, just to be able to listen to there stories as a grown up would have meant so much. Ah well....

oops_a_daisy

brilliant thread and I am particularily enjoying reading all of the memories that are being posted. I wont be joining you for this one Thriftylady but do wish you all the best of luck

thriftlady_2

Menu today

Breakfast -porridge, toast and orange juice

Kid's lunches - ham and tomato sandwiches, raisins, American Pinwheels
My lunch -beetroot soup, cheese sandwich, apple or raisins

Tea -vegetable curry and rice. There are quite a lot of curry recipes from wartime but I won't follow one as such. I shall use leftover cooked potatoes, peas, cauliflower, carrots and mushrooms and some cooked dried beans for protein. I'll add some tinned tomatoes and curry spices. No creamed coconut or yogurt which I usually put in.
Pudding -rhubarb and orange jelly


The rations are holding up pretty well. We have one packet of butter left. I'm using it for sandwiches, toast, some cooking and baking, but we are going to have to be careful with it over the weekend, and I shall certainly make a cake of some description. There's plenty of sugar, 7 oz of bacon but the ham has gone, and there is about 8 oz cheese. I'm planning a cheesey meal on Sunday. I'm confident the milk will last as we actually get a bit more on our ration than we usually buy. I should say I have dried millk in for cooking with.

I have no meat ration left as we had a 3 ½ lb joint on Sunday, but I'm planning a sausage meal tomorrow, they weren't rationed.

I'm just contemplating how to spend my meat ration next week (starting from Monday). The problem is, that I already have a freezer full of meat. There are 4 chickens and quite a lot of chicken breasts and thighs as well as a few lbs of mince, liver and some pigeon breasts. The chicken is causing me a problem because it wasn't really available during the war so I feel a bit guilty using it (especially such modern cuts as boned breasts), but I want to use it up rather than buy fresh meat. I reckon a whole chicken will count as our week's ration. I think I will use it -I suppose I could pretend it was rabbit -the opposite of what they did in the war :rotfl:

I'm off shopping this morning to get a few storecupboard items. During the war I wouldn't be sure of getting hold of any of them, but today I'm pretty confident Waitrose won't have run out of baked beans and jelly I'm not doing my usual thing of buying several tins/packets of everything though. I'm going to be a lot more restrained and just get one of each.

I'm also going to buy our sweet and chocolate ration- that will cheer the kids up as our weekend's camping trip has been cancelled again because of the rain (phew! )

I'm also calling in at the butcher's for a pot of his best beef dripping- we still have a big chunk of our cooking fat ration to use. Dripping is nicer for frying than lard I'm using it very sparingly. I might make a dripping cake:think:

A trip to the farm shop for salad and strawberries is on the cards too.

On Monday I will get next week's rations of milk, cheese, butter and ham (bacon is in the freezer) plus more fruit and veg.