Day Twenty-Two - Giveaway Result ... and It's All Over For Now

 

Weetabix for breakfast ...

Followed by toast and jam and a cup of coffee.

It had to be done, after all you do have to sample the goods don't you.  The jam was delicious, slightly too sweet for me but very tasty.  I usually add a good dash of lemon juice to my jams to take the edge of the sweetness but of course I had no lemons or lemon juice on my rations.

The final giveaway from this rationing challenge is this pack of replica wartime ephemera. 

And the random number generator picked out comment number one, which was Joy.

So, if you can send me your address Joy, I will get you little bundle of goodies off to you as soon as I can.  You can leave your address as a comment as I have temporarily changed the comment settings so that they will all be monitored by me before publication ... and obviously I won't share your address with the world.  Once I have written out your envelope, I will delete the comment and reset the comments back to normal.  Thanks.

Unfortunately, I have decided to end this Challenge here and resume my normal way of eating and shopping.  It's been a really good thing to do but in these times of economic change I want to be able to buy and store more of the foods that I usually buy and eat, while I am still able to get them at reasonable prices. 

During the Challenge I have felt it was wrong to do this, so I have been spending my usual housekeeping money on items for the local Foodbank trolley, which of course I will continue to do but to a slightly lesser extent.

Thanks to everyone that has followed along and left some amazing comments. After a short break from blogging, I will be back on my other blog on a regular basis.

Sue xx 

Day Twenty One - Old Jam, Fadge ... and This Week's Giveaway

 

A simple and very early breakfast, hence the low lighting in the kitchen.  

Isn't it staying dark longer in the mornings now, something I quite like just as I like the dark evenings.  Something I'm not so keen on though are the high winds and heavy rain that we've been having over the last few days.  Alan's Fig tree went from leaves and fruits to just a few unripe fruits clinging grimly to the branches in the space of two nights.  Oh well we are halfway through Autumn now, so it is all to be expected.

I noticed that the jam that I am currently using is one of my much earlier batch of Compost Heap Jellies made way back in 2016.  There have been many others since then, so I wonder why this one is still around.  It's still very tasty that's for sure.  I need to get my new, much smaller batch done today.

Later I set to making some mashed potatoes.  

I drained the potatoes and kept the cooking water.  While it was still hot, I dissolved two teaspoons of stock powder into it as I thought it would be a good base for a flavoured rice on another day.

Once they had steamed dry a bit while I was making the stock, the potatoes were mashed and divided into two.

The 8oz of potato was mixed and kneaded into 4oz flour.

Then patted out into a round that would fit into my frying pan and cut into four.

I sprinkled some grated cheese on one of the farls as they were cooking and then topped it with one of the others once it was on my plate.  To be honest I could barely taste it, so although it perhaps made it slightly healthier it was a bit of a waste of cheese for flavour.

It was quite tasty, but also very stodgy.  I should maybe have remembered from the Potato Floddies recipe that I followed HERE, that potato and flour do not sit that lightly with me.  Anyway, it was a filling lunch and feeling so podged meant I did not have any inclination whatsoever to snack during the afternoon.

My tea was a simple Bangers, Mash and Gravy using the last of this morning's batch of mashed potatoes.

 Oh, I do love mashed potatoes ... especially when they are not mixed with flour.  😄

And now, time for this week's giveaway.  All you have to do is leave a comment below saying you would like to be entered and your name will go into the draw tomorrow to win this little collection of replica wartime ephemera.

Good Luck. 😀

Sue xx

 

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 Twelve - Fresh Food Shopping and Second Giveaway

I didn't need much fresh food, so I didn't buy much!!

I would much rather use up what I already have in the fridge and the cupboard than shop to excess, if there's one thing that living on rations ... even modern ones ... is teaching me is that you need very little to make tasty and filling meals.

The nearest bread I could find to the National Loaf this week was this small Rustic Loaf from Aldi.  I thought it was unsliced until I got it home, then I found I had the luxury of ready sliced bread for the next few days.

It made a very tasty slice of toast for my breakfast this morning.

The lighting in this photo is very 1940's isn't it ... it's just how it looks in my little kitchen at 6am with the door curtains closed and the side light on.

Not too long after breakfast I decided to peel and cook the last potato from my first week's fresh food shopping so it could cool down ready to go into a pasty for my lunch.  I made some pastry with one and a half ounces of my butter and 3oz of flour and left that to chill in the fridge.

When lunchtime came around, I found I simply wasn't hungry, so I made up the pasty as per my plans with the last of the baked beans and the now cooled and mashed potato ... but I put it back into the fridge for my tea instead. 

It was delicious and enormous, and in a health-conscious frame of mind I quickly cooked up some cabbage with a tiny knob of butter.  I've been sadly lacking in my greens this week.

There was no way I could finish all that huge pasty, so I have leftovers for tea tomorrow night.

Now it's time for this week's Giveaway

This is what I am giving away to one blog reader this week.

A lovely little book with lots of interesting information about the wartime rationing years and a good selection of recipes.

If you would like to be in with a chance of winning it, all you have to do is to be a Subscriber of this blog and simply leave a comment on THIS post only saying Please Enter Me in the Draw.

I will post anywhere, so there are no UK limitations.  Good Luck.

Sue xx

Day Five - Jam, Soup and the First Giveaway

This morning breakfast was just a simple slice of toast with homemade jam.

Closely followed by a couple of weetabix with milk.

The milk is lasting well and should see this week out easily.

Lunch was equally simple, just a bowl of soup and a slice of toast.  

The dish is a bit of a mess because I went all 'modern' and warmed it through in Alan's microwave, I was just being lazy and didn't want lots of pots to wash before we left for the hospital.

The first loaf that I bought is starting to get stale now, and would be no good for sandwiches ... it's really into National Loaf territory now, I could lob it at an enemy and have his eye out, but instead I decided to follow this idea and flip it over for slicing into pieces for toast.

I didn't slice it quite the same way as it's shown in the Ministry of Food leaflet as I like the 'squarer end' of loaves and not so much the rounded end, yes another foible of mine. 😄  I thought I would work my way up to that bit and then whizz all the top part into breadcrumbs for future use.

There's no evening meal for today as once again we were really tired after travelling to the hospital to visit Mum, so when Alan suggested a Chinese, I caved in and had some curry sauce and plain boiled rice while he had one of his usual spicy concoctions.

And now for the first Giveaway of this Challenge.

I mentioned when I first started this particular Challenge that there would be some giveaways for my Followers, well this first Giveaway has been limited to the people who have joined in from the beginning, leaving comments, giving me encouragement and generally cheering me on from the side-lines.  

There were thirteen of you, so I wrote your names down ...

... and used a Random Number Generator to pick the winner.

So, Catriona if you would like to have all the replica goodies shown in the photograph just contact me via the Contact Me by Email Here box at the bottom of the right-hand sidebar, your details will not be visible to anyone else.

There will be another Giveaway next week that will be open to everyone who has clicked on the Followers tab on the sidebar.

Sue xx