HISTORY: Preserved

Happy Memorial Day! 

We just got back from a homeschool conference down at Virginia Beach, VA. They had some field trips planned for the dads and kids and I went with my husband and kids to one that was on the Norfolk Navy Base. We got to see the navy helicopters and went on one of the active naval ships which was one of the most amazingly interesting tours I've been on in a really long time. 
Later when I was in one of the conference classes a navy jet roared overhead and it was loud. The presenter, though, put it into perspective right away. She said, "I know the jets are loud, but we love that sound. It's the sound of freedom and it's the sound of our navy keeping us safe, so we love our navy and the jets." I was astounded because I had never thought of that before, but how true her statement was. I am extremely grateful for the military and all of their hard work and sacrifice now and in the past to preserve our freedom.
In honor of Memorial Day I've been…

I could have sworn I've written about Historic St. Mary's City on here before, but I can't find any posts through searching, so I guess not!

St. Mary's City hosts two homeschool days a year which makes for a great field trip. It's a 17th century colonial village at the far southern tip of Maryland right by the water. They boast a sailing ship The Maryland Dove, various original buildings including a court building where the 1st law for religious freedom was passed in the American colonies, and they are actively excavating archaeological digs run by the local college. They have a few historical interpreters who dress in costume, but speak in present day terms at the main site and at the ship. Down the road at the tobacco farm, however, they dress in period costume and act in 1st person which makes for some interesting experiences. They interpreters speak with an east London type accent (at least to my ears) and I always find it amusing to listen to them. I've be…

I saw this recipe for Ham Turnovers in Grandma's Wartime Kitchen and got excited. I've been in a cooking slump lately with regular meal planning and it was the first recipe to peak my interest. I knew I had to make it for dinner one night.

The great thing about this recipe is that you could essentially put any leftover meat and veggies in the turnover which is a great way to reduce wasted leftovers. And an interesting thing about these turnovers is that the pastry part is biscuit dough instead of the usual pie crust. Biscuit dough uses less shortening/butter than pie crust, so if you're looking to save fat for rationing purposes, this is a good idea.

Once again, a nice easy recipe with simple ingredients: leftover ham, dill relish, mustard, and milk. That's it! I doubled the recipe because I wanted to freeze leftovers. (And just for kicks, I made a few ham and cheese ones as well and they were awesome!)


Combine the ingredients and prepare the biscuit dough.
Roll out th…

I've been making a lot of references to my Westinghouse Health For Victory guides for my rationing project. These have been wonderful primary sources for ration recipes and hold valuable information about the time period. There are quite a few of them, so I decided to upload pictures of the front and back covers of the issues I have thus far. This not only helps me keep them all straight, but I'm hoping it will be helpful for others who have an interest in these magazines.

Check out my Flickr album to see!

I needed to make some bread for dinner, and thought it would be the perfect time to try out another rationing recipe. I wanted to try something different and was pleased when I found this recipe for Plymouth Bread in my October 1943 Westinghouse Health-For-Victory books. This recipe is in several of those books, so it makes me wonder if it was fairly popular or historical and had been around for quite awhile, especially with a name like "Plymouth Bread". 
What's unique about this one is that it uses cooked cornmeal. Using cornmeal to replace part of the flour was a smart way of saving on rationed flour.

What I also like about this recipe is that it makes use of molasses - a ration point-friendly sweetener. I like finding new uses for molasses. :-)

Another interesting aspect of this recipe is that it calls for 1 cake of yeast. I did a search and you can still get cake yeast. I'm tempted to order some because quite a few ration bread recipes call for it. The measureme…

Are you one of those people that loves hot cocoa at any time of the year? My kids are those people. They requested some this morning. I guess it was a little chilly, but it wasn't that chilly. However, I had seen this interesting rationing recipe for Cocoa Syrup with Honey and thought it would be a good time to try it. It was their lucky day!

I love how simple this recipe is and it made me realize that I am much better off making this syrup to store in the fridge than using a store-bought powder mix with all the junk in it. You just warm up a mug of milk, add a tablespoon or two of syrup and there you go! Homemade WWII cocoa goodness.


I just got this neat little booklet published in 1942. It's one of the earlier Westinghouse Meal Planning Guides. I'm not sure when they started doing the wartime issues. It's something I still need to look into more. It's got a different look from the later issues, though, which is why I like it.


 One of the greatest gems in this boo…