Say Cheese - A tasty cheese spread

Tasty cheese sandwiches.

The adult weekly ration of cheese was 2oz (57g), while for vegetarians, as this was a source of protein instead of meat, their ration was 5oz (approx 142g).
So you would do your best to "stretch" your cheese ration.

Today Salem and I had some very tasty cheese sandwiches for lunch using very little cheese.
I used margerine and a few other ingredients to come up with a very tasty filling.
An adult's weekly ration of margerine was 4oz (113g), which when there are three of us, is quite a bit.

I'm sorry I can't give you exact measurements of the ingredients as I don't really measure when cooking unless I really have to.

Tasty Cheese Spread

Grate some cheese ( I use a fine grater as it makes the cheese go further)
Equal amount or more of margerine to the grated cheese (don't squash cheese when comparing)
Finely chopped spring onions, onions, fresh parsley or whatever fresh herbs you have
Worchestershire sauce
Salt and pepper
A small amount of warm water

Place in a bowl the cheese and margerine.
With a fork, mix the cheese and margerine together adding a little hot water to help mix and thin it out a little.
Add a good swig of worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper and the onions/herbs.
Spring onions are my favourite.
Mix together.
Taste and see if it needs any more seasoning.
Spread on your bread as thickly as you like.

Tonight's dinner.

A tip for spring onions - as soon as you get your spring onions home, put them in a jar of water (as in the first photo) and you will have spring onions growing for months.  Just cut off the ends like you do for chives and they will keep growing back.  Just remember to water them.  I've got some that are now flowering so I will be able to have the seeds to plant out more.  Free food!!!!!

Tonight I had some leftover rice which I made fried rice with.
Fried rice is best made with leftover rice from the day before.  It doesn't go gluggy.

The following recipe is roughly how I made it tonight, adapt it to how many serves you want.
This serves two very hungry teenage boys and me, with leftovers.

Egg Fried Rice

Eggs
dripping or cooking fat or oil
1 or 2 onions
2 or 3 carrots
2 cups leftover rice
1 - 2 cups fresh or frozen veges (corn, peas, beans etc)
Salt
Soya sauce (optional)

Beat together some eggs with a little cold water and salt and pepper.
Use how many eggs you have left from your ration or some powdered egg, it works well for this.
Fry this in a wok or large frying pan with a small amount of dripping or cooking fat/oil.
When cooked put aside in a bowl, chopped into smallish pieces, for later.
Add about 1 tablespoon of dripping or cooking fat/oil to the wok/frying pan.
Then add in chopped onion and carrots, stir often and cook until tender.
Add the rest of the veges, keep stirring through.
Then in goes the rice and the egg.
Stir through and cook until rice is hot.
Add seasoning and soya sauce if you have it.
Serve hot.
Actually it is very nice cold too in a packed lunch.

These recipes are very easy and are great if you are on a budget too.

Mmmmm...... Egg Sandwiches

Today's lunch.

During WWII, in England, eggs were rationed to one per week, vegetarians had two.  You really had to decide what you wanted to use your egg for.
You had to make do with powdered egg for the rest of the time.
If you had your own chooks, like we do, you weren't so restricted but you had to give up your egg and egg powder rations for chook food which would be hard in winter when they hardly lay, if at all.

Last night I boiled up some eggs so I could make egg sandwiches for me and the boys today for lunch.  Well needed after this mornings ballet lesson.  We came home starving.
I slept in a bit to long to make porridge for breakfast and toast just didn't fill us up for long enough.

I know putting in a recipe for egg sandwiches seems a bit silly but this way you get more sandwiches for your egg.  And very tasty too.

Egg Sandwiches

Hard boiled eggs (as many as you want or have to spare)

margerine (1/2 to 3/4's the volume of the eggs)

fresh herbs -  parsley and/or chives, spring onions or celery leaf 

salt and pepper

In a bowl, place your shelled hard boiled eggs and the margerine. 

I like to have the margerine at room temperature as it makes mashing easier.

Mash both together with a fork so it is nicely combined but not too smooth that you loose the nice bits of egg white.

Add finely chopped herbs, what ever you have.  No set amount, I like lots.

Plenty of salt and pepper.

Make sure you do season well, as you want your sandwiches to be tasty.

It is ready to spread on your bread, no buttering necessary, as thickly as you like.

The flavour developes more if you leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours before spreading.

Cut the crusts off your sandwiches and cut into triangles for a posh lunch or afternoon tea.

Remember not to throw out the crusts, use them in something else, like croutons.

I hope you enjoy this as much as the boys and I just have.

Back to Rationing, Making Poppies and WWI

In the local paper.

Yes, we are back!!!!!

Back to WWII wartime rationing, not that we fully left it but we have been having too much "black market" and convenience food due to a hectic shedule and not having the time for all the cooking etc, a lot of time spent away from home etc.......
But I am going to make the time.

Over here in Kiwiland, it has been a cold winter so I have been making lots of pots of warming vege soup which is a meal in itself.  Served with either toast or crunchy croutons.

Yummy vege soup.

Vege soup is so easy to make, just use what ever vegetables you have at hand and how many you want.

This is how I made it last night.

Vege Soup

3 medium potatoes

2 onions

2 large carrots

3/4 cup of soup mix (split peas, lentils, pearl barley)

1 or 2 cups frozen or fresh veges (corn, peas, spinach, beans)

1 or 2 stalks and leaves of celery

2 oxo cubes (vege, chicken or beef)

soya sauce and/or worchestershire sauce (whatever you have)

parsley fresh (if possible)

salt and pepper.

In a large pot add your potatoes, onions and carrots which have been sliced and diced, along with the soup mix and oxo cubes.  Full the pot half way with water, sorry I never measure the amount.

Bring to the boil then turn down the heat and simmer for an hour.

At this stage, I grab a fork and mash some of the potatoes and carrots against the side of the pot.  This makes the soup thicker.

Then add a good swig of soya sauce and or worchestershire sauce, celery (chopped) and the other vegetables.  Stir in well.  At this time add parsley if you only have dried.

Leave simmering until needed.

Add fresh parsley and salt and pepper to taste.  

Your soup should be well seasoned.

Serve with a little grated cheese on top if you have any.

Also with hot toast or croutons.

I will post our yummy crouton ideas next time.

Enjoy!!!!

Eggs from our lovely ladies.

Our lovely ladies of the backyard, our chickens,  have been laying lots of lovely eggs for us.  I've got some serious baking to do over the next few days.

Also keeping us occupied on our many train rides and any spare time in the evening, is our poppy making.
We are helping our local libraries with making 2,721 poppies for a display next year commemorating the 2,721 New Zealanders from Kapiti (Paraparaumu, Waikanae and Otaki) who died in WWI.
So far Salem and I have made 900 and we are still going.
I came up with a nice easy crochet pattern which I will post soon, so keep an eye out for it.

Not bad for our first blog post for a while, nice to be back.

We Love Beans

Lots of fresh asparagus and beans

We have been having huge amounts of beans growing in our garden and have been given loads of fresh asparagus.  Yum!!!!!
With all our beans, practically every meal has beans in it.
One of the kids favourites is beans with baked beans.

A meal of beans with baked beans

Beans and Baked Beans

In a large pan, frying pan or wok, fry one chopped onion in a small amount of dripping or oil.
Then add in some mushrooms and a good amount of fresh beans and asparagus.
I don't measure the amounts of veges I use.
When nearly cooked add in a can of baked beans and 1/2 cup of water.
I used some frozen peas too.
Stir through and add parsley and some mixed herbs if you want.  I really like using sage.
Add Worchestershire Sauce and some HP Sauce if you like.
Bring to the boil and then simmer.
If the sauce is a bit watery add a little cornflour mixed in a little water and stir through until thickened.
Serve with rice, mashed potato or on toast.

In need of Party Food? Try Fairy Loaf!!!

Fairy Loaf cupcakes

On Friday night we had Salem's dance school's Christmas Party so we needed to make something to take with us.
Hmmmm ...... what would be good to take and is a wartime recipe?
First thing that came into mind was the Fairy Loaf that I make for the boys which is very similar to a sponge cake.
The boys love it!!!
I really don't know why it is called fairy loaf????????

Spreading on the icing

It is very easy to make and I use a whisk to mix it.
The recipe doesn't state any oven temperature to cook it but I cook it at 180 degrees C.
I also doubled the recipe and used two small bantam eggs from our lovely girls.
Our two eggs would equal one large-ish egg which I find really works well for the doubled recipe.
Also I use half milk/ half water too.

Mmmmm .....pink icing!!!

Fairy Loaf

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.
Break one egg into basin.
Beat in 3 tablespoons sugar, whisk well.
Add 1/2 cup milk, pinch salt, 1 cup sifted flour and 1 teaspoon of Baking Powder.
Put in a greased tin and bake for half hour.
Do check before the half hour is up.

Our yummy cupcakes plus an extra

Instead of using a loaf tin, I put the mixture in small cupcake paper pans in a mini muffin tray.
The double mixture made 24 mini cupcakes and a small star-shaped cake with the leftovers.
We had eaten a few before we took the above photo.

Tasting time

We iced them with a simple icing of 1 cup of icing sugar, some raspberry essence, a tiny bit of butter (about 1/8 tsp) and a drop of boiling water.
And to make them look extra festive, we decorated the icing with some jelly crystals we had in the pantry.
It was a good excuse to then make up the jellies afterwards.
The cupcakes were extremely yummy....so was the jelly.

Nut and Raisin Loaf

This following recipe is so quick and easy and the kids love it.
They call it the Trail Mix Loaf.
It is even yummy when it gets a bit stale but it never lasts that long.
I use blanched peanuts as they are cheap.
I also don't chop up the peanuts, that's too much work ;^)

Nut and Raisin Loaf

2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons of golden syrup dissolved in 1 cup of boiling water
1/4 teaspoon of salt
1 cup of nuts
1 cup of raisins (or sultanas)

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.
Mix the dry ingredients together including the nuts and raisins.
Add the liquid and mix well.
Bake for 30 minutes or until skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle of loaf.

Serve sliced spread with a little margarine or just plain.
Do give it a try, it is so tasty.

If you do try any of my recipes, do let me know how it turned out and what you thought of it.

"Mince" made with Oats

"Mince" with Tomato on Toast

Well I am back, I needed a bit of a break as I wasn't feeling the best and had my hands full with my son's dancing but here is the promised "Mince" recipe.

It can be done with either a tomato sauce or with gravy.

Oaty Mince

1 cup of porridge oats
2 cups boiling water
1 stock cube
1 onion chopped
1 carrot grated
1 tablespoon cooking fat, dripping
Salt and pepper to taste
fresh or dried parsley
Mixed herbs and/ or Sage

Any of the following... 
1-2 stalks of celery finely sliced
sliced mushrooms
1 grated potato
finely sliced spinach or puha

1 tin of tomatoes or cup of fresh chopped tomatoes
or
1 cup of gravy, can be made up from gravy powder


In a bowl mix porridge, boiling water and stock cube.  Put to the side.
In a large pan or frying pan, fry onion in the dripping.
Then add the other vegetables of your choice (except spinach or puha) and cook until tender.
Then add the leafy vegetable and either the tomatoes or gravy.
Followed by the oats and the dried herbs.

Mix together well and simmer.
You may have to add more water as the oats really make the sauce thick.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.

I also like to add a good squirt of HP Sauce and some Worchestershire Sauce.
It is important to season well as the oats are quite bland.

Serve on toast, with pasta or mashed potatoes.

A little grated cheese with the tomato version is really yummy.

Give this a try and experiment with the seasonings.
It is a very economical meal and we generally have plenty for the next day.
Grumpy Teenager loves eating meat but really enjoys this "mince".

Ginger Biscuits

Ginger Biscuits

These biscuits are very yummy and smell divine when cooking.
I have just made a batch now.
You can add another teaspoon of ginger if you want a very gingery bikkie.
Great with a hot cup of tea.
Don't forget to dunk!!!!!

Ginger Biscuits

1/4 cup margarine

1 Tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

2 teaspoons powdered ginger

1/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup plain flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda.

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees C.
Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.

Melt the margarine and golden syrup together.

Stir in the vanilla essence then add to the bowl of dry ingredients.

Mix into a dough.  Use your hands as it is easier.

Roll into small balls and press down onto a lightly greased oven tray.

Prick with a fork and bake for 10-13 minutes.

Leave to cool down for a few minutes then cool on a wire rack until cold.

Cheese Loaf

Cheese Loaf

This loaf is extremely tasty and very yummy.
This recipe is another from the "Self Help Wartime Cooking Suggestion"s booklet.
It is the favourite of the Grumpy Teenager.
It keeps well and still stays soft after several days if it's not eaten up first.

Cheese Loaf

2 cups of flour
1/2 cup grated cheese
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1/2 teaspoon each of salt, pepper & mustard
1 cup milk

Mix all dry ingredients and add milk to consistency of a soft dough.
Pour into greased loaf tin.
Bake in oven  for 30 minutes at 180 degrees C.

I used half milk and half water and instead of the plain flour and baking powder I used self raising flour.
It turned out perfectly fine.
I also added 1 teaspoon each of dried chives and dried parsley which really bought out the cheesy flavour.
I didn't have mustard powder, just English mustard in a jar and this also worked well.

Do try this very tasty loaf.

Coconut Loaf

Coconut Loaf

This recipe is from the "Self Help Wartime Cooking Suggestion"s booklet.

I cooked this last week and thought it was quite nice and mildly flavoured.  

Not very sweet but was very nice with some jam and then was very nice toasted and spread with butter or margarine.

Then I made another last night and added a tablespoonful of coconut sprinkled over the top before baking it and that really added a nice toasted coconut flavour to the loaf.

It has also passed the kids taste test.  They love it.

Coconut Loaf

2 cups flour

3 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 dessertspoon  golden syrup

6 Tablespoons dessicated cocnut

Milk to mix.

Sift flour, salt and baking powder.

Add sugar and coconut.

Mix the syrup and milk.  (I found 1 cup half milk/ half water worked fine)

Stir into the dry ingredients to form a moist dough.

Bake in a greased loaf tin at 180 degrees C for 30 minutes.

Instead of using plain flour and the baking powder, I used self-raising flour instead.

Yummy, yummy, yummy!!!!!!

Victory Tea - Party Nellie B's Oaty Loaf

Nellie B's Oaty Loaf

Our next recipe is a creation of mine which I have been cooking for years.  It is very quick and simple to make with a minimum of effort.
It is egg-less and is made with no butter or margarine except what is used to grease the loaf tin.

A firm family favorite which my boys LOVE!!!!!  So much so that I usually double the recipe and cook two loaves at a time.
We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

Nellie B's Oaty Loaf

In a large bowl mix :
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup raisins, currants or sultanas (or a mixture of them)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup milk
1 Tablespoon cinnamon.

Leave covered in a cool place for two hours or longer.
Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees C.
Add 1 cup of self-rising flour to the mixture and stir to combine.
Pour into a greased loaf tin.

Cook for 30 minutes.  A skewer should come out pretty much clean after being put into the middle of the loaf.
Let it cool in the loaf tin for a few minutes before turning out on a wire cooling rack.

Serve spread with a bit of butter or margarine.  Great when still warm or when cold.

Enjoy!

Victory Tea - Party ANZAC Biscuits

ANZAC Biscuits

Next up in my recipes for goodies for the Victory Tea - Party is ANZAC Biscuits.
These sweet biscuits have long been associated with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) which was established in WWII.
ANZAC biscuits were sent by mothers and wives to soldiers abroad because the ingredients do not spoil easily and the biscuits kept well during naval transportation.
They are very yummy, easy to make and are also a popular commercially made biscuit.  My boys say that my ones are heaps better than the bought ones.


ANZAC Biscuits

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup desicated coconut
small pinch of salt
115g butter or margarine (I use margarine)
1 tablespoon golden syrup
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon boiling water.

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees C (320 degrees F).
Mix all dry ingredients (but not the baking soda) in a bowl.
Melt butter and golden syrup, then add the baking soda dissolved in the boiling water.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry.
Spoon onto greased oven tray and bake for 15 minutes.
Cool a little on the tray then put on cooling rack.

Store in an air-tight container.

Enjoy!!!!!!!

Victory Tea - Party War Cake

One of the goodies we will be making for the 1940s Experiment Victory Tea - Party is War Cake.

This recipe was published in the New Zealand Woman's Weekly in 1941.

It is very moist and will keep well, great to send to soldiers.

War Cake

Boil together for 3 minutes the following ingredients:

1 breakfast cup brown sugar

1 breakfast cup currants or nuts

1 breakfast cup cold water

2 breakfast cups sultanas

1 teaspoon mixed spice

pinch of salt

3oz butter.

When the mixture is cold, mix in 

1 teaspoon of baking soda mixed in a little warm milk

1 teaspoon baking powder (or 2 teaspoons of cream tartar)

2 breakfast cups plain flour.

Cook in a moderate oven for two hours.

The fruit cakes would be made by women to send off to their loved ones giving them a taste of home.  They would be put into a tin then soldered shut and sewn in calico to be sent off to the soldiers with other items.  Another popular item, believe it or not, was Andrew's Liver Salts which were used by the soldiers to make scones in place of baking powder.

Earthquakes, Soup, Dumplings and Yorkshire Pudding

7.0 earthquake felt in Wellington

Wellington residents were rattled after a 7-magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of the lower North Island.

GeoNet reported the earthquake hit at 10.36pm on Tuesday. It was centred 230km deep and was 170km northwest of Wellington.

It was a long. rolling quake felt throughout the lower North Island and upper South Island.

- © Fairfax NZ News

Wow, what an earthquake that was tonight.  It was really long and the whole house just kept moving.  

The cats took off leaving the sofa for dust, and I went and stood in the archway between the dinning room and lounge, with one hand keeping my large cabinet steady as it had a lot of my crockery in.  No damage thank goodness.  Salem slept through it all, so did the chickens who if disturbed make a huge racket.  You should hear them when a hedgehog sneaks into bed with them!!!

Hopefully there will be no more earthquakes tonight.

Taranaki Street, Wellington, New Zealand 1950s

It has been so cold lately and we have all come down with colds, luckily the boys have recovered but I was the last to get one and I seem to get it the worst.  I've got tissues stuffed up my nose so I can do this post.

I have been through a whole box of tissues today, I could do the 1940s thing and use hankies but I think I would have used every single one we have, and we have a lot, but I just couldn't face heaps of soaking wet, drippy hankies to wash especially as the weather is supposed to turn nasty tomorrow.

So it has been the perfect time to make a large pot of yummy vegetable soup.  It is so easy to make and will feed us for days.  Even grumpy teenager enjoys making it.  Just loads of vegetables, soup cereals, extra pearl barley, sometimes split peas,  mixed dried herbs, worchestershire sauce and a bit of salt and water to fill the pot.  Bring to the boil and then simmer for a few hours.  What could be easier?  A big favourite of ours is to have dumplings with our soup.

Dumplings
2 cups flour
1 Tbsp butter or margarine melted
1 tsp dried mixed herbs or parsley
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup half water, half milk

In a bowl put all dry ingredients.
Add both the milk/water and the butter to the dry ingredients.
Use a knife to mix everything together using a cutting action at first.
Mix to a soft scone-like dough.  Add more water if too dry.
Shape into small balls (larger than a marble, smaller than a golf ball).
Pop into your simmering soup, put the lid on and let cook for at least 20 minutes.
Make sure that there is enough room in the pot for your dumplings to rise.  You might have to take a little of the soup out.

Serve in your bowl of soup, enjoy.

We are still enjoying our roasts (minus meat) and also yummy yorkshire puddings to go with them.
A nice easy recipe is.............  and it only uses one egg!!!!

Yorkshire Pudding
75g flour
1/2 cup half milk, half water
1 egg
1/8 tsp salt
Pepper to taste
3 Tbsp dripping, cooking fat or oil

Whisk all the ingredients together, except for the fat, to make a batter.
Preheat a roasting pan (or muffin tins) with the fat in a 220 degrees C oven.
When the pan and oil is hot, take out of oven and quickly put the batter in, then straight back into the oven.
Cook for 25 - 30 minutes or 12- 15 minutes if you are using muffin tins.
Cut into squares when cooked and serve hot.

Yum, Yum, I think it's roast for dinner tomorrow night if I'm feeling a bit better!!!!!!!

Nitey Nite Everyone

Nellie B

Some useful websites

Just a quick post today for those who are wanting information on getting started on their own journey into wartime life.
There are quite a lot of useful websites out there to get information about  rationing and life during WWII.
Also plenty of very cool recipes to try.

Check out:

 www.ukhomefront.co.uk

http://www.southshorenow.ca/timetoremember/recipes/index.php

http://1940sexperiment.wordpress.com/100-wartime-recipes

http://woottonbridgeiow.org.uk/recipes/wartime.php

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/world_war2/daily_life/

http://cookit.e2bn.org/historycookbook/20-97-world-war-2-Food-facts.html

These will get you started.  The sites aimed at children are pretty interesting.

It's been Five Weeks of Rationing

Five weeks has flown by and we have both been enjoying our rations.
Grumpy Teenager has been enjoying our wartime meals alot.
Both Salem and I are still loosing weight.  I've lost 7kg in total and Salem has gone from 36kg at the start, down to 31.5kg.  He really doesn't need to loose weight but it is dropping off.
It's quite amazing as we are having full cream milk, cooking fat, butter etc.. which we never ate before.

We still aren't using much of our sugar rations and now Salem has found that he enjoys his cups of tea without sugar.  He has saved some of his lollies ration too.  My lollies don't last long at all.
We had a big spring clean (in the middle of summer) and Salem did alot of cleaning for me so I gave him half my lollie ration in payment, and it was chocolate too!!!!

We have all been enjoying the wartime recipes and Salem likes to help out with making our meals.
A big favourite with the boys is Semolina Pudding which I substitute half the milk with water and just cook it on the stove top leaving a lid on the pot and turn the heat off to finish the cooking.  Yum, yum, yum.



Semolina Pudding

Ingredients

• 600ml, 1 pint milk
• 45gm, 2-3 oz semolina
• 25gm, 1oz caster sugar
• 15g, or a knob of butter
• a pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (to taste)

Making and cooking it

1. Well grease an ovenproof dish
2. Put milk into pan and heat until lukewarm
3. Sprinkle in the semolina
4. Cook slowly, stirring all the time until it comes to the boil and thickens
5. Add sugar and butter
6. Remove from the heat and pour into the ovenproof dish
7. Grate (or sprinkle ready ground) nutmeg over the top
8. Put into a moderate oven (160C or Gas 3) for 30 minutes.

Another family favourite is the Vegetable and Oatmeal Casserole.  The boys love it.
I add either a leek or an onion diced up and fry in the cooking fat until soft along with a diced up carrot and stalk of celery if I have it.  Grumpy Teenager even literally licks his plate clean.



Vegetable and Oatmeal Casserole

Ingredients

• 450g ( 1lb) mixed root vegetables
• knob of dripping
• 50g (2oz) coarse or medium oatmeal
• sprinkling of paprika
• chopped parsley and herbs to flavour
• salt and pepper to taste
• 5ml (1tsp) meat extract or stock cube
• 1 pint vegetable stock

Making and cooking it

1. Peel and dice the vegetables
2. Fry in dripping until slightly cooked
3. Add the oatmeal and stir until the fat is absorbed
4. Season with paprika, herbs, salt and pepper and add the meat extract
5. Add the vegetable stock and simmer gently, covered for 1 hour. Stir occasionally or it may burn on the bottom

A little corned beef, cooked meat or fish may be added at the last minute.

It doesn't look like an interesting recipe but it really is delicious.

Two Weeks of Rationing

Our rationing has been going well.  Both of us have been sticking to it.
Have been having alot of vegetables and salads. 
Haven't been doing any baking as we are still making do with xmas cake and xmas pudding.
They should last us for another week or two.

One weeks sugar ration has lasted us two weeks and we have only used half of it.
Likewise with the tea, I've had to cut down on my pots of tea as I don't have enough milk to
have all the cups that I would like.  I have also been watering down my milk to make it last longer.
Salem has been enjoying his milk ration.  The amount is more than what he used to have pre-ration time.
We do use up all our butter ration, this was something we didn't really eat before.  Margerine doesn't get all used up though.

Our one week ration of cooking fat hadn't been touched until yesterday, I used some to fry up some lovely fish that Salem worked for on Saturday.
He worked at the fishmongers at the market in the morning and we got some lovely trevally.  This is a fish that years ago people would turn up their noses at and would only use as bait.  I told my mother about our lovely fish and she didn't have anything nice to say about it, saying it was just a bait fish and oily.  I don't think she has ever eaten it before.
We made fish fingers with it, cutting it into strips and them Salem crumbed it.  It is a lovely firm fish and was absolutely delicious.  Even my other son "Grumpy Teenager" loved it.
We had the fish with lots of fresh salad.

During the last week we have been having toast for breakfast with either jam or vegemite.
Having the Oslo Meal most lunches.
Having baked potatoes with a bit of cheese, relish and more salad.
I have also made fish chowder using a tin of smoked fish from our monthly points.

FISH CHOWDER

1 can of smoked fish

1 leek sliced up

1 cup milk

1 cup water

salt and pepper

1 cup or more of frozen or left-over vegetables

1 heaped tablespoon of corn flour

1 tablespoon margerine
Parsley

In a large pan fry the leeks in the margerine until soft.

Add the liquid from the can of smoked fish to the pan.

Flake up the fish and add as well.

Add the vegetables and warm through.

Then add the two cups of liquid and salt and pepper to taste.

Just before this comes to the boil, mix the cornflour with a little extra water

then add to the pan and stir to mix in well.

Turn element down as you do not want this to boil.

Cook for a few more minutes.

If it is too thick add a little more water and check the seasoning.
Sprinkle with plenty of fresh chopped parsley before serving.
If you don't have fresh parsley, use 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of dried added with the vegetables.

This made a decent meal for the three of us.

Will feed 4 or 5 people if you serve it with bread.

Very, very yummy!!!!

Last night I started reading "Spreading their Wings - New Zealand WAAFs in Wartime" by Bee Dawson.
It's a very interesting read.  I'll tell you about that later.

Day Three

Our third day and all is going well.

It has been very hot and the salad (oslo meal) is going down a treat.  Salem really enjoys it.

It is also nice and easy to prepare and while there is plenty of fresh salad available we may as well stick to this.  It's also too hot to think of preparing anything else.

Breakfast was weetbix and milk with a cup of tea as usual.  Dinner was fish cakes, lettuce, more leftover veges and gravy.  Yum.  The fish cakes are just made with mashed potatoes, small amount of cooked and flaked white fish with parsley.  Then coated in breadcrumbs and fried in some margerine.

A little after dinner we went for a nice walk in the cool evening air for about an hour.

We did this yesterday evening as well. We like to walk alot but the weather has been to hot so the evening is perfect.  Salem has fallen asleep alot quicker tonight and last night as well.

We will try to do this every evening, even in the rain which is forcast for tomorrow afternoon

and the rest of the week until after New Years.  So it will be very humid - hot and sticky.

I will make some jelly for tomorrow.

Day Two

It's our second day on our rations.

Breakfast and lunch were the same as yesterday.

We are in the middle off summer so really aren't really wanting anything cooked.

I'm having to not drink as much tea as I usually would as I won't have enough milk.

Salem has plenty and is quite enjoying having so much.

He even enjoys having the codliver oil.

We have been drinking a lot of water with ice cubes because it has been quite hot,

not having our usual fizzy drinks.

Dinner was more leftover vegetables from xmas day.

I heated them up in the frying pan with a little margerine and served it up

with silverbeet and gravy.

I made the gravy with a very basic gravy powder with some vegemite

and a little margerine.

I don't think we will get through all our margerine, butter and cooking fat this week.

I think once the weather gets a bit cooler we will want some

baked goodies and some roasts.

I have been doing alot of research online and we got quite a few books from the library.

I've also ordered a couple of books online, one being "Nella Last's War".

Can't wait until it arrives.