Week Four - Day 22 - My Compost Heap Jam ... and Christmas at Booth's

I finally got round to making the Compost Heap Jelly, there's no real rush to make it up once you've cooked the fruit trimmings and strained them, as you long as you keep them safely in the fridge.

But first I had breakfast while the cold juice came up to room temperature.

I had one litre of strained juice, so I had my fingers crossed that my sugar ration of the last three weeks was enough.  I think I have only used it for the scones that I made so Iwas pretty confident that there would be enough left.

There was plenty, I guess slightly too much really as the ratio is usually 600mls of juice to 450g of sugar, but I just chucked it all into the large stock pot that I borrowed off Alan and brought everything up to a roaring boil.  I kept it there for ten minutes and then poured the boiling hot liquid into the jars that were hot straight from the oven.

Sometimes it works and sometimes it just doesn't set first time and I will be honest and say that this time I didn't get the set, it was still runny once it had cooled down.  Now this is great if you want a syrup for pouring over ice-cream etc but I wanted a jam, so all I did was tip all this back into the pan and bring it back to a boil.  I gave it another four minutes and then jarred it up again.  I only lost the small amount that had been in the cup in the evaporation after the re-boiling, and once finished I had the four small jars and the little one which all successfully set.  

One of the jars didn't form a proper seal so that one will be eaten first and will live in the fridge.  The others have been added to my ration pantry and are available at any time I need them.  

There's no evening meal to show you as last night we went to the Booths Christmas Book Launch at our local Booths store.  We expected a few nibbles and a glass of Prosecco ... we got a three-course meal, extra buffet nibbles and Buck's Fizz, white wine, red wine, sparkling wine and a glass of Port.

The buffet nibbles.

To say we were full was an understatement, what an amazing event.

Oh well ... now it's back to rations  😄

https://youtu.be/A6FQ9rQxets

Some weekend watching from YouTube.  This episode of The Wartime Kitchen and Garden showing the fake iced wedding cake cover that Catriona mentioned in a comment right at the very beginning of this challenge.

Sue xx

Day Nineteen - Pigs in Clover, Wartime Recipe

 

Time to start using up those four sausages I thought to myself as soon as I got out of bed this morning.  I wanted to try a recipe that I had read about in my Victory Cookbook and in the Food Facts book.  It's called by various names, usually either Pigs in Clover or Potato Piglets.  Whatever you call it it's very simple and as you can see from the ingredients above it requires just one sausage and one potato per person that you are serving. 

And a cup of coffee always goes down well when you are planning your menu. 

Oh, and while my sausage thawed out, I remembered to photograph my porridge breakfast this time. 😀

For my lunch I warmed up the other portion of yesterdays lentil soup and had it with the last of the croutons.

The recipe for Pigs in Clover is so simple it's barely a recipe at all.

Simply take one baking potato and one sausage for each person and using an apple corer ... or a potato peeler in my case, as I haven't got an apple corer anymore ... make a hole right through the centre of the potato and push the sausage through.  Wrap the stuffed potato in foil and bake in a moderate oven for around an hour, or until your potato is soft to the touch.  Serve on a bed of lightly steamed and buttered cabbage.

Now I adapted this a little bit to suit modern times, I thawed out the Linda McCartney frozen sausage and to save on power, something that would have been approved on during the war, I used Alan's microwave to zap the potato for five minutes to speed up the cooking time.

This was absolutely delicious as it was, but after eating it and planning to make it again I was thinking of all the other ways to serve a Pig in Clover.   With gravy for a start, and perhaps with a portion of sage and onion stuffing for a small Sunday lunch type meal, or perhaps on a hot day with a side of coleslaw and a sliced tomato.  All variations that would fit in with wartime rationing or with modern eating habits.

A very tasty wartime recipe and one that I will definitely be keeping in my repertoire.

Someone else who made this recipe and blogged about it.

Sue xx

Day Eighteen - Scraps Make Soup

 

I decided not long after I got up that I would use the scraps and peelings that I have been saving in the freezer since the challenge started, to make some stock this morning.  There's no point in them just sitting there when I knew they would make a good vegetable stock.  I had in mind a bowl of lentil soup for lunch or my evening meal, and if it was going to be just lentils I wanted to have a rich stock to make it taste good.

While I had my first coffee of the day and then got on with other jobs, they simmered away long and slow, flavour developing and according to Alan making the whole lodge smell lovely.  I still haven't got my sense of smell back at all ... I do miss it. 😞

I was that busy faffing about making stock that I forgot to take a photo of my breakfast, but it looked almost identical to this one from a previous week, so you get the gist.

I obviously had my mind on other things because I also forgot to photograph the two slices of bread that I toasted and had with jam that I ate for my lunch.

The soup turned out lovely and eaten with the croutons that I made last week made for a very filling and tasty evening meal.  And even better there's enough of both soup and croutons left for lunch tomorrow.  It was a good use of a bag of scraps and peelings, along with 4oz of my red lentils.

Sue xx

Day Seventeen - A Star Baked Potato is Born

 

Another day, another weetabix breakfast.  

My large box of weetabix is serving me well and I do enjoy it as a quick grab it and go breakfast.  My posh cup and saucer were going to be used, but then I changed my mind and had my coffee out of my usual yellow Jasmine Woods Ware.  I'm not that pretentious that I need sweet roses for my breakfast cuppa ... Hyacinth Bucket/Bouquet sprang to mind 😄

My dinner was absolutely gorgeous.

I've been buying my potatoes from Aldi for the last year or so but last week I splurged when I got the last bit of shopping.  I didn't need that much but I had picked up the spring onions, bread and radishes from Aldi and then gone on another errand, when I remembered that I needed potatoes my car was in the Booth's car park so I went and picked up the four baking potatoes from there.  True they were probably twice the price of the Aldi ones, but they were bigger, and my gosh they had twice the taste.

Have I been saving myself money but in the process losing out on flavour and quality?

It wasn't even the extra cheese that this week's rations meant I could afford to put on the potato that made it taste so good, it was the actual potato itself.

I need to have a serious thought about my just using Aldi as my go to supermarket.  Yes, they might be cheaper, and yes they might be a smidge closer to me, but in all honestly ... and this modern wartime rationing challenge is making me think a lot more carefully about everything I have available and that I am eating ... I would rather pay a little bit more and really enjoy the fewer things that I am buying.

For my evening meal I used another portion of my pasta.

It looks as though I can comfortably have one pasta meal a week and stay within the ration that my monthly points purchase bought me.  I cooked the pasta in the oven in the sauce that I made out of the last of the red tomatoes from the garden.  There is one whizzed up portion left in the freezer for future use.  I added some the broccoli that I purchased in week one to the dish and a few little pieces of the white Vitalite block of dairy free cheese, but to be honest this one isn't as nice as the Violife Feta style cheese that I usually use.

A tasty day foodwise, but the star of the day has to be the humble baked potato.  I might just have to alter my menu plan and have another one tomorrow.

Sue xx

Day Sixteen - This Week's Rations

 

It was only when I came to get my spread out of the fridge for this morning's breakfast that I realised that I hadn't weighed out this week's rations yet.

Oops!!

I've almost got it sorted in my head now and I've started just topping up the things in my containers with the new rations.  Isn't it easy with scales that you can just zero once you've stood something on them, they are a real modern game-changer.  So, another 2oz of oil went into my oil pouring bottle.

8oz sugar went into my sugar jar.

2oz of coffee topped up my coffee jar.

I'm surprised that I use less than 2oz of instant coffee each week, it's been a pleasant revelation.

Another 4oz of dairy free cheese was weighed out and added to the cheese leftover from last week.  I'll be able to treat myself to a good cheese and onion sandwich this week with all this cheese available. 😃

So, including all that I have weighed out and this week's carton of milk, along with the two sausages and four slices of Vegan Quorn Ham replacing the two eggs that vegetarians received instead of a meat ration, here are my rations for Week Three of the Challenge.

Oops ... how did I forget my 2oz sweet ration.

Each week I have been rummaging around for sweets that I already had in instead of buying sweets, and it seems that I have finally exhausted all but a couple more lemon sherbets, and as I still have last week's lemon sherbets in the tin, I searched high and low for something else.  I found the only bit of chocolate that I have left in the house, and look ... it weighs almost 2oz.  

That will do nicely then. 😄

This week is going to be a very cheesy and sausage-y week as when I went to put my two new available sausages into the freezer ...

... I found that last weeks were still there!!

So now it's time to write out this week's menu plan and make sure that I make good use of all my new foods and the leftovers and things in the freezer.

I'm going away for a couple of days now, so I will pick up where I am leaving off on my return.

Sue xx

Week Three - Day Fifteen - The Oslo Meal

 

The day started well with a large bowl of porridge and a cup of coffee.  I've found that my usual 50g of porridge oats is just under 2oz, never have I been converting as much as I have just recently.  It makes for a filling breakfast, so much so that it was nearly two o'clock before I even started thinking about lunch.

I wasn't really in the mood for cooking when my tummy started to rumble, so I thought what better time to try out The Oslo Meal.

The Oslo meal, or breakfast or dinner ... it had many names ... was originally a diet developed in 1920's for Norwegian school children in Oslo, then adopted by many in the UK in the 1930's as a health rather than weight loss diet.  It was picked up by the Ministry of Food during WWII as an ideal and healthy lunch for both children or adults and it was eaten regularly by many people.

The main component parts are brown bread, butter or spread, milk, cheese and some raw and mostly green vegetables, along with a glass of milk.  And after eating this for my late lunch I can testify wholeheartedly that it is very satisfying and very filling.  I ate some of it as it was and then made myself a huge sandwich with everything that was left on my plate.

Still comfortably full at teatime I decided to thaw out one of my little dishes of stewed apple and blackberries and the little bag of saved crumble mix and just have that for some supper with a cup of coffee mid evening.

So, it was a good day, with meals eaten at all the wrong times if you are being pedantic, but a very tasty and interesting day too.

Sue 

Day Fourteen - Use it Up, and Enjoy ... and This Week's Giveaway Winner

 

The last day of my second week of living on My Modern Wartime Rations.  

I really like the last day of the week; it means I can use up some of the things that I might have been quite strict with myself over the week ... and this week I have been pretty careful with my butter.  So I decided a real treat of a breakfast was called for.

Scones.  

However, you say it ... whether it rhymes with stone or gone ... they are delicious and a real wartime suitable recipe if you follow the one that I use.  The main ingredient is flour which was not rationed during the war years.

My Scone Recipe

8oz Flour

2oz butter or spread

1oz Sugar

and a pinch of salt

milk

Rub the butter into the flour, add the pinch of salt ... and if you want to you can add a few sultanas now ... I meant to do this as I have them in my points shopping for the week, but I forgot, it was breakfast time after all!!

Add just enough milk to bring the dry mixture together and lightly make it into a ball.  I just flattened this out with my hands and divided it into four quarters.  But you can cut out with a cutter if you are so inclined.  My way means less washing up and no re-rolling of bits 😁

Brush with milk and bake in a hot oven (220c/200fan, 425f and Gas 7) for around 20-25 minutes.

Leave to cool slightly, or as long as you can wait and then enjoy.

I went berserk and used up all my remaining fat ration.

And then took the remaining two scones to Alan for his elevenses before I got tempted to eat all four.

Lunch was one of the frozen soup portions and some of the croutons I made at the beginning of the week.  They were so dried out that they just floated.  I had to submerge them myself.  A really good success then, as being this dry they should be happy in the cupboard for quite a while.

The two croutons on the edge of the tub lid were treats for the dogs, who also agreed that they made a tasty nibble.

For tea it was the leftover pasty, served with a salad this time.

A very successful food day, with three tasty meals that I really enjoyed.  Maybe I didn't quite get all of my five-a-day but with the vegetable soup that was high in greens and a nice salad it wasn't too bad.

Giveaway Draw

I decided to go all old-school for the giveaway draw this week as Google was playing up for lots of you and not letting you add your names to your comments, resulting in the occasional two comments for one request to be entered.

So, I wrote all the entrants names on pieces of paper, popped them into a pot, and asked Alan to pick a name out of it after a good rummage without looking ...

... he picked out Sue - Beachcomber

If you can get in touch via the Contact Form at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar Sue, I will post off your little book as quickly as I can.

Thanks to everyone who entered and there will be another giveaway very soon.

Sue xx

Day Thirteen - The Best Thing Since Sliced Bread?

 

Sliced bread is dangerous!!  

It's oh so easy to pull out a slice and toast it ... just because you fancy a slice.  Would I have had this very early morning slice of toast if I had had to get out the bread knife and the chopping board, I think not.  I would have waited for my weetabix.

No wonder the National Loaf was unsliced and often quite stale, less temptation to eat it just for the sake of eating it.  Or maybe I'm just lazy.  😁

My main breakfast after the temptation of earlier.

Double breakfasting was a good idea though really, because soon after eating my weetabix we had to hit the road at 6.20am to get to Mum's before the cleaning company came to give her little bungalow a deep clean.  We could not have left her on her own to supervise this so soon after coming out of hospital.

The rest of today's food was bought on the road to Mum's and while we were there.  Not on the ration, but I'm classing it as eating out at the British Restaurants.

https://youtu.be/lV6J24V1G6I

Yet another brilliant little YouTube film.

Sue xx

Day Eleven - Stale Bread, Tomato Sauce and a Step Back in Time

Breakfast was going to be a bacon butty, but the bread was stale and mouldy. 😞

Thinking on my feet I decided to cut off all the crusts and put the best bits out for the birds, I cut the inside of the bread into a couple of slices for a cheese and ham toasty later and cubed the rest of it to make some croutons to go with that soup that I have in the freezer. 

 I couldn't possibly just put the oven on for croutons so while it warmed up a bit, I sorted through the homegrown tomatoes taking out all the red or almost red ones, and then I added the slightly squishy large tomatoes from the fridge, drizzled them with a bit of olive oil and some homegrown garlic cloves and popped the tray in the oven along with a potato for my lunch.

And breakfast was weetabix and a cup of coffee.

As you can see occasionally standards slip and I forget to use a saucer, oh well the coffee tasted just as good. 😄

Lunch was tasty, small but tasty.

After an hour or so in the oven the tomatoes and garlic were whizzed together and now I have some tomato sauce for future use.

For tea I made a sort of cheese and ham toasty, using the last couple of slices of the edgeless bread with the Quorn ham and some vegan cheese.  Another small but tasty meal ... and as you can see once again no saucer!!

As my tea was so small, I thought I would have one of the remaining crumbles from the freezer for supper, but bedtime came around and I just wasn't hungry, so I saved that for another day.

I need to up my game a bit more now and get back on track, but I won't be going this far ...

https://youtu.be/ahzO9LegnS4

Enjoy!!

Sue xx

Day Ten - Porridge, Pots and Leek Pudding

 

After a good breakfast of porridge and an apple we set off once more down to Manchester.

This time we headed directly to Mum's bungalow to get it ready for her return.  We had arranged for a small team of cleaners to do a deep clean of the bungalow next Tuesday in preparation for her coming home, but then plans were thwarted when the hospital rang me to say she was being discharged the next day.  So, we snapped into action and got there a couple of hours before she was due.

My brother took a half day off work and went to get Mum some shopping and sort out all the things that he normally does for Mum, I did a minor clean of the kitchen areas that she or her carer would need to use over the weekend, including washing all the pots left from just before Mum fell that had lain abandoned for two weeks.  Alan started clearing the floor to make getting around for Mum much easier with her rollator, and then repositioned her telephone next to her chair by tacking an extension cable along the picture rail and safely down the side of the door.  Now when everyone starts phoning to see how she's getting on she won't have to cross to the other side of the room to answer it ... much better.

Between us we got the bungalow safer and then before we knew it she was home.  Literally five minutes after she was brought in the carer arrived to introduce herself and give us all the details of the care package from their side of it. 

It's nice to have it all in place, but of course this is nothing of course to do with my rationing Challenge and all plans of ration meals went straight out of the window for the day.  Lunch was a sandwich hastily grabbed from Booths before we headed for the motorway and supper ... eaten very late on our return ... was once again a Chinese curry sauce and rice.

https://youtu.be/AAxtin4dyQ8

Episode Two of a Wartime Kitchen and Garden for your perusal, while I have a much calmer day.

Sue xx

Day Nine - Weetabix, Coffee and Pasta

Breakfast for day nine was weetabix and a cup of coffee ... shortly followed by another cup of coffee.  It was just one of those days when double coffee-ing was the only way I was going to get through it.

I only used one and a quarter ounce of my 2oz ration of coffee during week one, hence my large coffee jar appearing in this week's rations photos the other day.

I knew I wouldn't be able to fit this week's coffee into that little jar while it already had some in it, so I tipped out the contents of my usual countertop jar into a jug and then weighed it back into the jar.  There was a bit of a woo-woo spooky moment when it weighed in at exactly 2oz, but then I have had a few of those since rationing began.

Then I emptied the little jar containing last week's leftovers into the big jar and that how I know I only used one and a quarter ounce of coffee last week.  It's a big relief that I am well under the necessary for my rations, and actually if I needed to, I could have more cups than I have been having.

A girl can never have too much coffee!!

 I was hungry by the time I looked at the clock and realised I hadn't had any lunch so instead of a sandwich I made what was supposed to be for my evening meal for lunch.

 

The pasta was soon cooked and while it did I sauteed one of my large tomatoes with the last two spring onions from last week's fresh shop.  With a dash of the pasta cooking water, it made for a very tasty, filling and simple tea.  

I can't remember where I read it now, but in one of my books it said that although rare, pasta was available in the war years bought mostly from the little Italian grocers.  Now I don't have a little Italian grocer, but I do have a large stash of pasta in my cupboard ... and that is good enough for me.  🍝

Later for some supper I just had a slice of bread with some jam, I forgot to take a photo as Alan had just arrived home from his meeting, distracting me with his teasing of the dogs.

That's another day happily under my belt.  Tomorrow might be a bit more complicated though as Mum is coming out of hospital and we have to get to her bungalow in readiness for the transport bringing her home arriving, and to sort things out there for her.  But I'll see what I can do.

Sue xx