Today started with a bowl of ‘Swiss Breakfast’, that’s muesli! Oats, milk and sultanas topped with fresh berries from the garden and a light drizzle of honey. The milk was from powder and I have to say I’m impressed with how good it is, I will definitely be keeping powdered milk for down the plot and camping trips in the future! I am also incredibly thankful that I keep bees because their honey has been absolutely invaluable!
Lunch ended up being bread and jam and tea loaf and jam. It was supposed to be pilchards in tomato sauce on toast but I couldn’t bring myself to even try them! I have a fear of fish bones, a ridiculous one, I acknowledge! But I’m going to wait to try them until there’s someone around to a) perform the Heimlich if required and b) finish the tin for me if I don’t like them!
This evening’s dinner was Bacon and Potato Cakes with braised cabbage and boiled carrots. I saved my 4oz bacon diligently until today! There was even enough of this that I’m saving 2 potato cakes for breakfast tomorrow. By chopping the bacon into small bits you can make it go a lot further and, by cooking it in the pan before mixing it with the potato you have the cooking fat already provided! I’m doing rather well on my cooking fat ration though, in quite impressed with how far it’s gone. Proper dripping fat from the butcher is definitely something I plan to add to my supplies after this, it’s amazing, high cholesterol be damned!
Bacon Potato Cakes: dice 4oz bacon and fry in a large frying pan until crisp. Carefully fish out of the fat, leaving this in the pan, place the bacon in a mixing bowl with 3 grated potatoes, one egg (reconstituted from dried or fresh), salt and pepper and 3oz flour (approx). Mix well until everything is combined. Dollop 4 equal portions into the hot fat in your pan and cook until browned then flip and cook the other side until browned and firm in the middle.
One thing I really am not going to miss is the amount of washing up that each meal produces! You’ll usually need a mixing bowl to prepare something, then a pan for cooking your main dish, a pan for boiling vegetables, a pan for mash or cabbage, then, of course, you have to serve it with plates and bowls and cutlery and glasses… it never ends! Just think what the poor women had to go through before the advent of dishwashers. Heck, in 1951 not too many people even had fridges! Thankfully, the dishwasher has been taking the strain for me or else I’d never have for any work done this week!
Anna in the kitchen 