Horses, food & wine

I spent the morning in a Parelli natural horsemanship class, playing with Emily. She is a lovely palomino filly, isn’t she pretty?!

     

Horses are so very 1942. Many people were returning to horses due to petrol rationing, including milk men and bakers who used horses to deliver their goods. Horse delivery lasted well into the 1960s in many areas. My grandfather used a horse to deliver vegetables in the 1950s in Holland, before he left for Australia, but I can remember hearing the clip clop of the milk mans horse up to the end of milk deliveries in the early 1970s. Here is a lovely photo of a milk man and his horse from the US in the 40s.



As to the diet today. Well, I had sushi for lunch, fish and rice, so healthy, and war ration probably in Japan, but I doubt we were eating raw fish in Australia. But technically, still available on the rations.  Dinner tonight was corn beef, home cooked, green veg and mashed potatoes – and some red wine, as it’s Friday.  I think the red wine could be interfering slightly with me actually losing weight, but in 1942 it wasn’t rationed, just hard to get.  Well, the French version anyway, as the vineyards were battlefields.  In Australia there were quite a few wineries, so if you had the money, you could have bought it, and clever people would have bought earlier and cellared it.  I mean to do that one day too!

Friday also means Phryne Fisher!  Tonight she meets Lin Chung, and if you haven't seen it,visit the website here.

  
Deb xxx

29 March 1942–War, fashions & diet day 9

On this day in 1942, “Harris’s Navy”, a group of small vessels led by the steamer LAKATOI, commanded by Patrol Officer G. C. Harris, reached Cairns, Australia with hundreds of troops and civilians evacuated from New Britain. It was a daring escape right under the nose of the Japanese. You can read an eyewitness account by nurse Gladys Baker, here.

Another breakfast of all bran today – I quite like it and it really makes me feel good.  Today I had 1/2 a sliced banana.   A toasted sandwich for lunch, with a few slices of cheese, and the other half of banana.  Coffee and the last pancake for afternoon tea, in my sweet new cup that I bought today at the op shop ($2.50).  Dinner tonight was tuna mornay at Mum and Dads – I am sure that his would have been a great 1942 dish, made with a white sauce, vegies and a little fish, with mash potato on top. No photo, sorry.

  

Here are some lovely child and young lady’ fashion from one of my 1942 Magazines.  I cannot imagine my 10 or 15 year old daughter wearing one of these now.


Deb xx

Ration diet day 8 & a wedding

A busy day today.  Thankfully I had a bowl of all bran and apricot for breakfast with my coffee, or I wouldn’t have lasted the day.  I spent the whole day in court, as “instructing solicitor” in three different matters.  Sounds impressive but all I had to do was take notes, keep the client company and know where to find things in the file for the barrister.  There was no defined lunch break, so I wasn’t game to leave the courthouse in case we got called in again.  So, no lunch.  Only a cup of tea, with Dad, who I bumped into as he was doing his two hour stint as a Justice of the Peace at the courthouse.

Dinner was lazy, as Ms 6 and hubby are away and there are only four of us.  Very strange!  Did you know they make frozen pizza with spinach and mozzarella?  I loved it, and figure that it was pretty healthy, and war style as there was no meat, and  it used my cheese ration of last week that I hadn’t touched. 



To the wedding of the day.  I love the happy faces in this one from 1942, where everyone but the minister is in uniform.

Deb xx

27 March 1942– Ration diet day 7

Oh my gosh – it’s been a week.  I haven’t even eaten my cheese ration yet!  Mind you, tonight we did go out to dinner – a surprise birthday party for a friend, so we couldn’t not go.  My camera was flat, so I couldn’t take photos, but we went to a lovely open air restaurant by the River in Mackay, Bridges. It was so lovely to catch up with people, as the weather has been so bad here we haven’t been out or invited people over (we need to sit outside when we have visitors as the eating area is so tiny).  I had a steak, which was quite small so I didn’t feel really guilty, and vegies and mash.  Wine, but no dessert. 
Breaky had been porridge again (the kids are asking me to make it now) with apricot puree, and lunch was a corned beef and tomato sandwich.  I cooked the corn beef myself the other day, so as to have an easy dinner on hand.  I think  we’ll have it tomorrow.  A pancake with jam and an apple for snacks.

  

Enough about food.
I have been reading about the Japanese during WWII a bit lately. This article is in my copy of The Australasian Magazine from 7 March 1942, and is by a foreign correspondent who spent 13 years in Japan before the war.



Basically he says that 1937 was the year that marked the rise of Japan as a military threat, because they

1. Started a 5 year naval programme for additional warships etc
2. Started a 6 year army plan for extra expenditure and armament production
3. Produced an unprecedented 5 million tons annually of finished steel products, after buying pig iron from the US, India and France
4. Had a secret fund of 750,000 pounds for propaganda including winning over the people so that they would be happy with increased army spending

In addition, from 1940 prices went up and bans and rationing began. Westernised ways, such as dancing and makeup, were frowned upon – permanents waves were banned, as was western fashion, and dancing at dance halls – people were urged to go home and “meditate on the war”. 18 Government run radio stations played military music, and lectures from military personal.

It sounds like the average person had no say, or no chance is opposing, in what the Japanese government was doing.   We just voted last weekend, and our state political parties will change, but you don’t really know what they are going to do until they’re in, do you.  I wonder how it felt to live in Japan in 1942, as a Japanese person.

Deb xx

26 March 1942–Ration diet day 6 & War

Food today – all leftovers, due to being super busy (a full day of work plus hubby away).
Porridge  and coffee for breaky, soup (blended form last nights stew) and some pineapple for lunch, and a baked potato with left over beef Bourguignon for dinner.  Not very exciting (but cheap and cheerful), and I did have a glass of red wine.


In the news today, a  RAAF Lockheed Hudson A16-139 crashed at Kilsyth, a suburb of Melbourne at the foothills of Mt. Dandenong in Victoria on 26 March 1942. Apparently the aircraft flew over houses at tree top level on its landing run, following the route of the proposed freeway and sliced the top off a pine tree just after crossing a road.  It came to rest with the wings against two large pine trees at the other end of the paddock.   The trees are still in existence and still show the scars.

Many references also state that the 1st "Eichmann transport" to Auschwitz & Birkenau Camps began on this day in 1942, but I can’t find real evidence for this.  However, the transports were real, and you can read more of this horrendous story here., and about the first 700 Jews from Polish Lvov-district reaching concentration camp Belzec here.  There were also work camps in Finland where Russians from the newly annexed Karelia were sent, and in occupied Europe, where captured civilians and soldiers were sent (including in Holland where my grandfather was sent to a work camp).

Russian children in a concentration camp in Finland, 1942  Source

Another story going around for this day is that 20 tons of gelignite in a stone quarry at Easton Pennsylvania killed 21 people.  I have actually found a real story about an explosion of 30 tons of gelignite or  4,000 sticks of TNT (estimated to be enough to dislodge 120,000 tons of cement rock) that took 31 lives at the Lehigh Portland Cement Co. 's quarry near Sandt Eddy, Lower Mount Bethal Township, Northampton County.  You can read a true account here.

Lastly for today, the German offensive in North-Africa under Col-general Rommel began.  You can read more about that and Rommel here.

Also on this day, novelist Erica Jong (Fear of Flying) was born, and English cricketer Harry Love and Jimmy Burke, American baseball player, both  died.

Really glad that I am living in 2012 today!

Deb xx

25 March 1942–Ration Diet day 5 & Port Moresby attacked

 

Sunday, and a sleep in.  Well, a little sleep in.  My sweetie brought me breakfast in bed – whole meal pancakes (using my egg ration for the week and a little more oil) with raspberry jam and a coffee.

They were pretty good!.  A girlfriend and her daughter popped in for a coffee mid morning, and I resisted the temptation of chocolate biscuits.  Lunch was a BLT sandwich – chopped up lettuce, tomato and cooked bacon on toast.  I still have !/2 a rasher of bacon for the week after this!

  

For dinner I was going to make left over vegie soup, but it ended up being more of a stew, with all the vegetable ends I had been saving, and bits of spinach that looked to old for salad, with some onion, garlic and herbs and left over cooked rice.  For the kids I blended it with milk and served it with toast finger.  For us I served it with the left over stew from last night, and thinly buttered bread.

  

For supper I had another pancake with a little jam, and a glass of milk, as I hadn’t quite used 2 pints of three for the week.

News of the day:

Port Moresby was again attacked, for about the 19th time.  A small Japanese force of 3 bombers and 4 fighters appeared 9:30am at extreme height.  Allied fighters could not find the Japanese planes in the clouds and the bombers must have known they were there as they dropped their bombs hurriedly and all bombs fell harmlessly in the harbour.  Since the first raid on February 3 1942, the Japanese had dropped 1,650 bombs in the Port Moresby area with a total of 185 planes in all raids: 151 bombers and 34 fighters.  Britain shot down exactly the same number of planes (185) in one day in the Battle of Britain! The 1,650 bombs luckily caused almost negligible damage and only two people were killed and about 22 wounded.

The Australian chiefs of staff had envisioned that an attempt on Port Moresby would happen before the end of March.  A conquest of New Guinea would have removed the last land barrier guarding the northern approaches to Australia, and they then expected the Japanese to make an effort to occupy Darwin early in April.    Thankfully the Americans decided to keep an eye on Australia!

Here is a great map from 1947 showing comparative sizes of Australia and the USA.

You can read more about the defence of Australia here.

De xx

24 March 1942–Ration diet day 4, thrifting & war in the south pacific

Todays breakfast was porridge.  1 cup of oats cooked with 3 cups of water (you can ad a pinch of salt or sugar but I don’t bother), boil and then simmer for about 10 minutes.  I like it with pureed pear and cream, but today had it with with some tinned (think home preserved) cranberries, which added sweetness and liquid. 


I did my four hour shift at the op/thrift shop today, and forgot to bring some fruit, so I had to hang out until lunch time.  But look at my treasures today!  They were having a half price shoe sale, and I found two lovely pairs for Autumn/Winter ($2 each, as new!), and a cute red bubble skirt and sunglasses for Miss 6 (also $2 each).

   

I found a book on self sufficiency for $1.50 and a practically unused Remington hairdresser/shaver set for $5.  So of course then I had to give Mr 6 a haircut! 

     

I was sorely tempted by a red wooden table and a dressing table, but I I stood strong and resisted.  So I spent around $20, and was feeling very good about my not spending year.  When I came home, however, I found that my husband had spent money on something new.  Now you may know that I love horses, and truth be told I have always wanted one of these, especially when the children were younger. But really - now I am saving for a real one!

   

It looks older than it is, with a distressed finish, and has a sort of evil but cute carnival look.  He won’t tell me how much it was, but insists it was on special.

When I finally got home, I found that my lovely daughter had made soup for us for lunch.  She used the chicken carcass from the other nights roast, some onion, and some corn off the cob.  She added a pack of noodles for extra bulk, but we could have had it with rolls or bread.  A pinch of salt and pepper and it was wonderful.

As it’s the weekend and I actually have time to cook, I attempted a beef Bourguignon.  My recipe is one I usually make, and is similar to Carolyn’s  over at The 1940s experiment. This fed our whole family of 6, so I figure my ration contributions would be half a tablespoon of oil and 1/2  a rasher of bacon.  I cook it on the stove top so as not to heat up the house with the oven, and cook it slowly for about three hours and serve with rice or mashed potatoes.

Beef Bourguignon 1942 Ration Style

• 1kilo of stewing steak, diced (about half a cup fresh chopped meat per person)
• 4 large carrots, scrubbed and cut into 1cm slices 
• 3 rashers of thick bacon, chopped 
• 3 tablespoons oil for frying
• 2 onions cut into 6 pieces each
• a few cloves of garlic, chopped or left whole
• 1 cup of red wine (that you like the taste of)
• 1 cup of beef stock (or some vegemite/marmite in water)
• 250gm of chopped fresh (or tinned) tomatoes
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• herbs such as bay leaf, rosemary, thyme and parsley
• salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup flour

1. Cut the bacon fat and rind off and fry it in a large casserole dish/pan.  You can drain the fried rind and use it crumbled as a garnish, or just eat it.  While it’s frying, dice the beef and coat in flour.  If there isn’t enough fat from the bacon rind in the pan, add some oil and heat it up.
2. Brown the bacon and steak.  Push them to one side and soften the onion.
3. Add the wine, tomatoes and stock.  Stir and cover and let simmer for one hour.
4. Add the carrots.  Stir and simmer for another hour.
5. Add the mushrooms. Stir and simmer for about 45 minutes, and put on your potatoes (or pumpkin) or brown rice to cook.
6. Add the herbs and salt and pepper to taste.  Turn off heat while you get ready to serve, mash the potatoes, set the table etc.  I make mash just with a little milk, salt and pepper (no butter at present, but it is nice).

You can serve it with a green salad or green vegies to brighten it up, but I thought our pumpkin mash was bright enough.

   
Yummy!
Onto news of the day:  The US Congress accepted an Australian proposal for dividing the Pacific into distinct naval operational zones. The two areas proposed were the Southwest Pacific  (SWPA) and the Southern Pacific (POA).    U.S. General Douglas MacArthur was appointed Supreme Allied Commander of SWPA, which included the Philippines, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies (excluding Sumatra), Australia, the Territory of New Guinea (including the Bismarck Archipelago), the western part of the Solomon Islands and some neighbouring territories. The  POA or Pacific Ocean theater of World War II, was commanded by Admiral Chester Nimitz.

Have a great weekend,
Deb xx

23 March 1942– Austerity, rations & avocado

In addition to rationing during WWII, the ‘Austerity Campaign’ promoted going without luxury items. People were told to:

• Smoke less–burn less money.
• Drink less–satisfy a need not a habit.
• Plan meals for their food value.
• Give up cosmetics–it’s smart to be natural (except red lippy of course – it’s cheery).

Today for breakfast I had All bran again.  I quite like it, and it certainly lives up to it’s advertising.
For lunch I had a ‘green smoothie’ that I made in the morning and took into work in a thermos.  I don’t think people made these in the 40s, but blenders were available, as an attachment to a mix master, so it would have been possible.  I just blended up a handful to two of young spinach leaves with a ripe banana and a glass of water.  So much easier to eat than salad, and great when you are busy.

 

For dinner I had a another serve of my “Woolton Pie’ from last night it made 4 serves), with salad and one chicken skewer, as the rest of the family were having them.  OK, and I also had a couple of glasses of red wine – it’s Friday after all.

My family queried whether avocadoes would be in the war ration diet (I ate a bit of one yesterday).  I grew up in Melbourne, and I never tasted an avocado until about 1975, when they suddenly became all the rage. Unfortunately they were picked and shipped unripe, and then sometimes served that way, so I didn’t really like them. Now living in Queensland, we have avocado trees growing everywhere. I am sure that here they would have been eaten in 1942, and in America avocadoes were also available.

I recently bough this American 1942 avocado brochure on etsy, which talks of ‘modernizing your menu’ with avocado:
      
If only we had that brochure in the 70s!
Deb xx

22 March 1942– Riding & War ration diet day 2

 

It’s finally stopped raining, after we got 70mm in three days.  The water is drying up and things are getting back to normal.  And even better, I got to go riding again!  We had a lovely trail ride through sugar cane and by the swollen creek, and then in the afternoon I got to do it again with the kids, as they made up for missing the Tuesday lesson. I will try and take a camera with me next time.

Todays menu:

Breakfast was just the same as yesterday – All Bran with apricots and milk, with a coffee.  Morning tea was a banana after riding.

For lunch  I made a lovely sandwich with some leftover chicken from last night, avocado instead of butter, and lettuce.  Then I had my second coffee and one square of chocolate.

Dinner – I made a variation of a “Woolton Pie’.  I used the leftover roast vegies from last night, and the two beetroot I had also roasted, with scraps of chicken from the carcass and the jelly that had formed.  Instead of putting the rolled oats in the vegies, I made a crumble pastry with 1 cup of plain flour, 1 cup of oats, 2 ounces of oil and a tablespoon of water.

 

It was actually quite good, like a savoury apple crumble, and quite filling.  I didn’t feel the need for anything later in the evening.  his pie made about four serves, so I have some for another  day.  I served it with a spinach leaf salad dressed in 1 teaspoon of my oil ration, and I had one glass of red wine.

I realised today that I forgot to post a wedding photo yesterday, so here is one today instead.  Such a lovely couple!

Cheers,

Deb xxx

21 March 1942–Ration Diet Day 1

Cover of the Australasian  Magazine for 21 March 1942:



You would think that with people using less petrol, tyres wouldn’t be an issue!

Day one of my ration diet began with a glass of water, a bowl of All Bran with milk and apricots (I’m using tinned but in 1942 as a stay at home mother I would have stewed or preserved/canned my own).  And of course a wake up cup of coffee with a little milk. 





The first ad is an Australian Ad from 1942, and the second is American also 1942.



If you can’t read it, the answer is “by kicks or carrots – just like your colon…….”
Any way, Morning tea was another coffee.  At work we have a nespresso pod machine, so it’s real coffee, about 5gm a cup, and I make it long with a shot of milk and top it up with hot water.  I also had a home made biscuit. I already had these, so not sure how much of rations it would use, but I will try and bake on the weekend and work it out.

Lunch was a sandwich with a table spoon of raspberry jam, on white bread (we were out of wholemeal) a carrot, a nectarine and a (locally grown free from friends) star fruit for mid afternoon.  This is what I took to work:


Dinner  was Roast chicken (free range) and vegies, with one biscuit/cookie for dessert.

I have kept the carcass and vegie trimmings to make soup and the dripping and extra roast vegies for a pie for tomorrow night. Waste not want not!



Australia never had it as bad as the UK when it came to rationing.  The UK had huge shortages of food and other materials, because of blockading in the north Atlantic by German U-Boats.  In Australia, rationing was intended as a way in which Aussies could contribute to the war effort through communal sacrifice, and it was supported by most people because it ensured that everyone would be able to access essential items.
The Rationing commission stated that if we weren’t going short, it meant we weren’t supporting our troops, that ships that should have been transporting essential war items were instead transporting luxuries.


Cheers,
Deb xxx