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What eras inspire you?

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  • I think that the post war years up to the 1970's would be my favourite eras, there seemed to be more hope and aspiration about, people were happiest then. Anyone remember being paid cash in a brown envelope every Friday? Happy days!
    But since the eighties we have become slaves to consumerism and have been screwed by unethical banksters and corporates.
    Blessed are the cracked for they are the ones that let in the light
    C.R.A.P R.O.L.L.Z. Member #35 Butterfly Brain + OH - Foraging Fixers
    Not Buying it 2015!
  • VJsmum wrote: »
    Slightly OT, but it isn't so much another era that inspires me but another nation, which is France and the French. I love the way they shop, cook and eat, I love the way they dress and the whole lifestyle.

    I never thought of it that way but have to agree with you to a certain extent. However, for me it has to be the Italian way of life. I love the food, the architecture, the scenery but, most of all, I love watching the people and witnessing family life the Italian way! On warm summer evenings, on holiday in the Italian lake area, I love watching the whole family out for a stroll round the lakeside - that includes the dog, the children, mum and dad, grandma and grandad, stopping off for an ice cream at the gelateria on the way. You don't see that here any more, unless it's because we don't often have warm summer evenings!!!
    "If you dream alone it will remain just a dream. But if we all dream together it will become reality"
  • meritaten
    meritaten Posts: 24,158 Forumite
    I never thought of it that way but have to agree with you to a certain extent. However, for me it has to be the Italian way of life. I love the food, the architecture, the scenery but, most of all, I love watching the people and witnessing family life the Italian way! On warm summer evenings, on holiday in the Italian lake area, I love watching the whole family out for a stroll round the lakeside - that includes the dog, the children, mum and dad, grandma and grandad, stopping off for an ice cream at the gelateria on the way. You don't see that here any more, unless it's because we don't often have warm summer evenings!!!

    oh yes - I visited the wonderful town of Limone on Lake Guarda. and watching the families come out to eat in the evening became a favourite activity! you rarely saw just couples dining - tables for a dozen or more were the norm! and there could be three or four generations all happily eating and chatting (though it usually sounded like a violent argument!) I loved it!
  • Mrs_Bones
    Mrs_Bones Posts: 15,524 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Combo Breaker
    Cookery wise, I'm fascinated by early food writing and recipes. Things that go something like ''Take almaundes blaunched, and grynde hem al to doust withouten eny lycour. Do þerto poudour of gyngeuer, sugur, and salt; do þise in a thynne foile. Close it þerinne fast, and frye it in oile; clarifie hony with wyne, & bake it þerwith.'' Some of these recipes with a few tweaks are to my taste....others its clear where food tastes lead on in other directions over the years.

    Ultimately though, I'm glad I live today. I'm glad I have yhings like a washing machine and a vacuum cleaner especially. Hot running water and reliable plumbing is a modern luxury I am happy not to forgo as well as access to Internet and huge numbers of books for reference and pleasure.


    I love old cookery books as well. I was given the 'A Feast of Ice and Fire' cookbook, it's based around the fantasy series Game of Thrones. I love how it's set out, they've taken old medieval recipes and given you the original one and then a modern updated version.

    I also agree there are many modern conveniences of progress I wouldn't want to give up for anything. I think some people though (not those on this forum obviously) seem to see all forms of progress as improvements and I'm not at all convinced by that argument. Modern doesn't always mean better. I'm also rather suspicious of the lies we were fed that all this progress would lessen our work load and would leave us with loads more free time.
    Dozey_crow wrote: »
    I like all eras up to 1960s but I am greatly inspired by the Victorian era. It seems a time of amazing progress as well as mend and make do. For instance, they grew hundreds of varieties of fruit and veg including par choi, peppers and other things we may still consider exotic. They made hot beds from straw and manure to do this.

    They were pioneering but also resourceful which was a winning combination. The clothes, jewelry and fabrics were also beautiful. Don't get me won't I know that some awful things also went on but it fascinates me.

    Victorian is another era I love, closely related to the Edwardian. What I love to pick from so many era's are all the care and time people put in to their work and crafts. People made time and actually seemed to care about what they produced. Contrast that to the mass consumerism of today, buy cheap and dispose of when bored mindset etc. It can make the world seem very shallow today. It's not just the disposable nature of what is produced but we seem to build obsolete into products now. Many things are just not made to be repaired, I'm not sure what sort of progress that actually is. We also seem to think we've invented the concept of recycling but we still don't do it on the scale of the Victorians.
    meritaten wrote: »
    but nan made beautiful cakes and her Welsh cakes were the best - so were her pikelets, I tried to recreate her recipe but nothing comes close. (if you are from the valleys and have a pikelet recipe - please post it - drop scone recipes are nothing like it!).

    Meri when you say pikelets what sort of food are you describing? I know there are regional variations. To me drop scones are like scotch pancakes, flat and done on a griddle. Pikelets are another name for crumpets, at least around here, so they are much thicker with a holey texture. Sorry I can't remember my grans recipe but I know it had flour, yeast and milk in it and she cooked them in rings smeared with lard so they got a good depth. Drop pancakes didn't have the yeast and they had eggs in so they were more like a batter mix.
    [FONT=&quot]“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou[/FONT][FONT=&quot][/FONT]
  • marmitepotato
    marmitepotato Posts: 986 Forumite
    edited 19 January 2014 at 9:41AM
    I adore the 1920's, the fashion, the music, the beginnings of Art Deco. I would loved to have been a 'flapper girl'.
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    edited 19 January 2014 at 9:24AM
    I never thought of it that way but have to agree with you to a certain extent. However, for me it has to be the Italian way of life. I love the food, the architecture, the scenery but, most of all, I love watching the people and witnessing family life the Italian way! On warm summer evenings, on holiday in the Italian lake area, I love watching the whole family out for a stroll round the lakeside - that includes the dog, the children, mum and dad, grandma and grandad, stopping off for an ice cream at the gelateria on the way. You don't see that here any more, unless it's because we don't often have warm summer evenings!!!

    I think its easy to be in love with the good parts of other cultures, and we have much to learn and remember certainly.

    What I would say is that no culture gets it perfect. I've had shocking food in France and Italy too. Italy had while I was living there the fatest growing rate of childhood obesity on europe (not highest numbers, that's us I believe:(). There is certainly premade food in Italy and residential homes. While intact with extended family is resoundingly, resoundingly better, I was clear as part of a childless couple I didn't want to grow old in Italy.

    While living in Milan I became friendly with an a and e doctor who'd worked in uk so had comparison to elsewhere. The way he explained the situation with domestic violence, particular against children, and intervention from authority ...or the delay of that, in Italy made my blood run cold. As it did his.
  • lostinrates
    lostinrates Posts: 55,283 Forumite
    I've been Money Tipped!
    Mrs_Bones wrote: »
    I love old cookery books as well. I was given the 'A Feast of Ice and Fire' cookbook, it's based around the fantasy series Game of Thrones. I love how it's set out, they've taken old medieval recipes and given you the original one and then a modern updated version.
    ]oh thanks. This is outside my normal reading zone but I have a friend who loves the game of throne books and loves eating. He's coming to see me soon and I'm sure he'd love a feast and them, to be given the book I'd made it from if it were the game of thrones connection, I'm really grateful for this! :j[/COLOR]
    I also agree there are many modern conveniences of progress I wouldn't want to give up for anything. I think some people though (not those on this forum obviously) seem to see all forms of progress as improvements and I'm not at all convinced by that argument. Modern doesn't always mean better. I'm also rather suspicious of the lies we were fed that all this progress would lessen our work load and would leave us with loads more free time.
    i dunno. I live in a house / land that was worked by many people. I'm lucky enough to have some records over a couple of hundred years of the 'modern' history of my house. It was probably a dame site cleaner and more organised mind you. But I bet my vacuum cleaner and a decent floor cleaner does in half a day what would have been a few days activity for them. The idea of one woman managing the house with no help through the week, and a man just at week ends, ( its just a farm house, nothing fancy ) le alone land and animals would have been inconceivable. The car, automation, power tools........the difference is incredible.


    Victorian is another era I love, closely related to the Edwardian. What I love to pick from so many era's are all the care and time people put in to their work and crafts. People made time and actually seemed to care about what they produced. Contrast that to the mass consumerism of today, buy cheap and dispose of when bored mindset etc. It can make the world seem very shallow today. It's not just the disposable nature of what is produced but we seem to build obsolete into products now. Many things are just not made to be repaired, I'm not sure what sort of progress that actually is. We also seem to think we've invented the concept of recycling but we still don't do it on the scale of the Victorians.

    i think a key difference is the comparison of the cost of materials in comparison to labour. In the Victorian era, not only were things repaired but quite humdrum things were made beautifully. I think this probably comes down the fact that 'materials' were expensive to procure and process, but labour was comparatively cheap. Now labour is more expensive and. Am guessing ( and it IS just a guess ) the ratio is less marked making labour no longer cost effective.
  • mardatha
    mardatha Posts: 15,612 Forumite
    I am mad about history. All ages are interesting, but especially the Victorians. To me they weren't anything like their stuffy image - they were efficient, pushy, lively, nosey - and so so practical & sensible. They did things and they did them right. I love the homes and the clothes.
    I'm also quite interested in the middle ages, with the herb gardens and slower pace of life. Wish I knew which books to read to get the real picture of life then.
  • Uniscots97
    Uniscots97 Posts: 6,687 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    It has to be the 1900's upto the 1940's. I love drama programs from these periods. Looking forward to Mr Selfridge coming back on (~1910). But love the simplicity of these eras, no such thing as throw away society then and I think we waste too much now (I also think the modern era has made us eat more than we actually need). OH and I loved the Wartime Farm series and I told OH about helping to make a quilt when I was a child and stuff it with feathers!
    CC2 = £8687.86 ([STRIKE]£10000[/STRIKE] )CC1 = £0 ([STRIKE]£9983[/STRIKE] ); Reusing shopping bags savings =£5.80 vs spent £1.05.Wine is like opera. You can enjoy it even if you don't understand it and too much can give you a headache the next day J
  • meritaten
    meritaten Posts: 24,158 Forumite
    edited 19 January 2014 at 9:47PM
    Mrs_Bones wrote: »





    Meri when you say pikelets what sort of food are you describing? I know there are regional variations. To me drop scones are like scotch pancakes, flat and done on a griddle. Pikelets are another name for crumpets, at least around here, so they are much thicker with a holey texture. Sorry I can't remember my grans recipe but I know it had flour, yeast and milk in it and she cooked them in rings smeared with lard so they got a good depth. Drop pancakes didn't have the yeast and they had eggs in so they were more like a batter mix.

    right - difficult to describe. They are thicker than normal drop scones but the recipe (as I remember it) is quite similar. now I cant remember if she used plain or SR flour but I know she used either baking powder or bicarb. they were thicker than the normal drop scone batter, and done on her 'bakestone'. The batter was thicker than any drop scone recipe I have tried, I distinctly remember beating eggs and milk for her to add to the flour but cant remember how much! I don't recall her using 'rings' but my word they were uniform in size! a little bit holey inside but smooth on the outside. vaguely remember her saying her mother called them 'crumpets'! (her mother was English born - around Bath I believe, but brought up in South Wales)
    They were gorgeous - my efforts are dense and chewy. Hers were light and melted in the mouth!
    Am beginning to wonder if nan had developed a 'unique' recipe for an Unique dish!
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