HISTORY: Preserved

I'm slowly making my way through the list of recipes that captured my interest from Cooking on a Ration by the fabulous Marjorie Mills. Last week I gave Red Flannel Hash a try. This was one of the more complicated recipes only because I had to make another recipe first - New England Boiled Dinner - in order to make the Red Flannel Hash. Using corned beef was optional for the hash, but I had some leftover corned beef from post-St. Patrick's Day, so I definitely wanted to put it in.

First step was to make the boiled dinner. It made a LOT. Carrots, cabbage (You're supposed to boil the cabbage head whole, but I didn't do that since I was on a time crunch.), turnips, onions, and beets.

Since I cooked the corned beef another time, I couldn't use the broth from that, so I cooked the veg and chopped corned beef in vegetable broth instead. We had that for dinner as a kind of soup which was pretty tasty. We didn't have it with the beets, which you cook separately, becau…

I've found some really neat WWII websites!

I was in Pennsylvania yesterday and drove through Abington. I passed a sign that said something about Abington and WWII. I was driving too fast to read the whole thing, so I made a mental note to look it up when I got home. Well, this morning I did a search and found that Abington, PA is the home of the WWII Lecture Institute, dedicated to connecting with WWII veterans so they can share their stories with the public and to preserve their memories for future generations. So awesome!! You can check out their website here. They're looking to expand to neighboring states, including Maryland, so that is really exciting!

The second website I found I am really excited about. I was searching online for a Michigan factory my great-uncle said he worked at during WWII. I stumbled on the website for the Heritage Research Center LTD. They have a really cool way to look at wartime production during the war organized by state, then broken down by ci…

Lately, I've been trying to be better about menu planning to help us save money on food and so I don't feel so overwhelmed when dinner time comes and I have no idea what to make! I've been planning one month at a time which has been nice. This month I was determined to fit in some ration recipes.

Last night's menu included Spanish Rice which I found in my book Cooking on a Rationby Marjorie Mills, ca. 1943.  Something I've noticed about 1940s "ethnic" food, is that the recipe is the most watered-down version possible of that ethnic food. They just didn't use a lot of spices. This recipe called for more spices than usual - salt, pepper, paprika, and a teeny bit of cayenne pepper. I was quite surprised! And I really couldn't resist. I had to add some garlic powder. I know I shouldn't have, but the Spanish Rice was just begging for garlic, and I couldn't say no! Other than that I followed the recipe. I only keep white short-grain rice around…

I haven't forgotten about my March sewing challenge! I finished my 1930s mock-up blouse and am still working on the actual blouse, but should be finished soon. I'll hopefully be posting about it within the next week.

Last Saturday I took a nice trip alone to the antique mall. I love wandering large spaces with hundreds of booths stuffed full of cool antiques! One of the stalls was 40% off everything and had quite a few quilt tops with awesome vintage fabric! It was so hard to decide on just one. A few of them had nice examples of 1930s fabric, but it was mixed in with later period fabrics like what I suspect was 60s or even 70s. I finally settled on a lovely, simple quilt top with all 1930s fabrics. I'm excited to get this one finished - I just need to get some cotton batting and pick out a fabric for the back. I'm thinking of tying it too, so it theoretically could be finished quickly!

Here's my quilt top! Isn't it so pretty? I don't have any heirloom quil…

Spring is officially upon us! At least that's what our plethora of daffodils, sprouting rhubarb, and leafing berry and lilac bushes are telling me. I am so excited for another berry season and so excited for my four (FOUR!) rhubarb plants. I am going to have rhubarb coming out of my ears... :-D Perfect for trying a 1930s recipe I found for Rhubarb and Banana Pudding!

So, yesterday I had some ground up carrots lying around, and I wanted to make another ration recipe. So, I turned to my trusty wartime cookbooks. I am becoming more and more convinced that I really don't need to search on the internet anymore for recipes. I have more interesting and delicious recipes at my fingertips than I know what to do with. And once again, for my carrot dilemma, my Westinghouse Health-for-Victory cookbooks came to the rescue!

 The recipe is for Carrot-Oatmeal Cookies. They sounded super yummy. When I was making them, I was putting in the teaspoon of cinnamon, a whole teaspoon of nutmeg, rais…