Well the last few days have been seriously wintery - lots of driving rain and dark skies.
food wise - it has not been as manageable. Last night we had friends for dinner and my husband used about 2 weeks meat ration to feed 8 of us. It was surprising but we as a family had much smaller appetites than usual and found it all a bit rich.
What has become clear is how hard it is to replicate the actual food conditions - we have so much choice in the supermarket , as well as the ability to freeze left over food. This has meant we have little stale bread/ ingredients. We still seem to have a large amount of food - admittedly we are eating many more vegetables and loads of potatoes !!! It has made the experience easier than it would have been in 1940. Although we have given up oranges today i bought some bananas as a treat. Food buying would have been such a major exercise - a daily not weekly chore which took far longer than today.
I watched "The 1940's house " again today - and reminded the children that other items such as soap and shampoo were rationed. Although they are getting fed up of the idea of rationing , the older two have both agreed that it has made them more aware of just how much they have ( of all things). a definite improvement in their moods has also been noticed - no meal feat with 1 teenager and 1 pre-teen!.
i went to the supermarket today and bought some different cuts - as our meat ration was used up we had to look for offal and sausages neither of which were rationed. I bought a small amount of liver and some oxtail to casserole. My daughter was horrified as, although we have eaten these before she had never seen them in the raw as it were !!!!
Cooking rice pudding as dessert i modified the recipe - i initially cooked the rice and milk as they were - adding the sugar at the end. I found that the amount of sugar required to make it sweet enough was actually less than 1/3 of the recipe amount.
todays meals :
bacon and potatoes- we are getting a little bored of this so i need to look for some more creative breakfast dishes.
split pea soup with bread
oxtail stew, mash and green vegetable
rice pudding
i have enough oxtail left for another 2 meals for the children ( or one for us all ) , plenty of boiled potatoes and vegetables. Tomorrow morning i may use the potatoes and some of the eggs for a frittata. It is the egg situation which makes me most anxious - 6 for the week does not go very far if you 2-3 in a dish. Last week i saved them and made cake but i may end up using recipes from the eggless dishes this week.
School begins again next week - this will reduce the amount of food being eaten so i may reduce the ration - however as canteens and school meals were all a part of 1940's life I may keep things the same. Watch this space.
food wise - it has not been as manageable. Last night we had friends for dinner and my husband used about 2 weeks meat ration to feed 8 of us. It was surprising but we as a family had much smaller appetites than usual and found it all a bit rich.
What has become clear is how hard it is to replicate the actual food conditions - we have so much choice in the supermarket , as well as the ability to freeze left over food. This has meant we have little stale bread/ ingredients. We still seem to have a large amount of food - admittedly we are eating many more vegetables and loads of potatoes !!! It has made the experience easier than it would have been in 1940. Although we have given up oranges today i bought some bananas as a treat. Food buying would have been such a major exercise - a daily not weekly chore which took far longer than today.
I watched "The 1940's house " again today - and reminded the children that other items such as soap and shampoo were rationed. Although they are getting fed up of the idea of rationing , the older two have both agreed that it has made them more aware of just how much they have ( of all things). a definite improvement in their moods has also been noticed - no meal feat with 1 teenager and 1 pre-teen!.
i went to the supermarket today and bought some different cuts - as our meat ration was used up we had to look for offal and sausages neither of which were rationed. I bought a small amount of liver and some oxtail to casserole. My daughter was horrified as, although we have eaten these before she had never seen them in the raw as it were !!!!
Cooking rice pudding as dessert i modified the recipe - i initially cooked the rice and milk as they were - adding the sugar at the end. I found that the amount of sugar required to make it sweet enough was actually less than 1/3 of the recipe amount.
todays meals :
bacon and potatoes- we are getting a little bored of this so i need to look for some more creative breakfast dishes.
split pea soup with bread
oxtail stew, mash and green vegetable
rice pudding
i have enough oxtail left for another 2 meals for the children ( or one for us all ) , plenty of boiled potatoes and vegetables. Tomorrow morning i may use the potatoes and some of the eggs for a frittata. It is the egg situation which makes me most anxious - 6 for the week does not go very far if you 2-3 in a dish. Last week i saved them and made cake but i may end up using recipes from the eggless dishes this week.
School begins again next week - this will reduce the amount of food being eaten so i may reduce the ration - however as canteens and school meals were all a part of 1940's life I may keep things the same. Watch this space.
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