With it being the weekend, just food and photos tonight, no wartime memories from Anne or videos.
Starter: Cream of Parsnip soup. One pint of stock, one shredded parsnip, half a shredded leek, a little flour and milk to thicken, then milk to taste instead of ‘cream’. I was going to say there was no cream in wartime, but of course there was. I well remember cream at the top of the milk bottles delivered to our back doorstep in the morning growing up – even though that was a long time after the war ended, I hasten to add. It was always a rush to get to the bottles before the birds pecked open the silver tops.
Main Course: Lancashire Hotpot with boiled shredded cabbage. I boiled red and green cabbage together which resulted in the lilac appearance. Looked a bit odd, but taste fine. Especially with a splodge of butter.
Pudding: Ah, pudding. Our evening meal isn’t complete without dessert these days. I haven’t had a syrup pudding in for-e-ver – my mum used to make them all the time and they were wonderful – but having bought a jar of golden syrup at the beginning of the week with my ‘points’, tonight seemed the perfect time to give it a go. It involved making a simple cake mixture – flour, butter and sugar – which I mixed with a REAL egg rather than my powdered ration. You then steam the pudding in a bowl for an hour (I only used 1/2 the recipe so it was less time). My mum used to have this great metal bowl with a lid on it that locked everything in. Today I struggled to seal the bowl with some greaseproof paper and string. And I mean struggle. I finally gave up – this being the 21st century there had to be a better method – and used an oversized rubber band. (I can see you smiling already and giving me ‘that’ look, yes, that’s it, the same one my husband gave me about an hour ago when I told him what I’d done.)
Okay, okay, the band broke in the boiling water, breaking the seal and letting some water in. As a result, the pudding was a bit ‘heavy’… but, boy, it tasted good!
I wonder where you can buy those pudding bowls with lids these days…
Diana Cranstoun 
This looks quite delicious!
It was!!
It does look delicious. Can you get Pyrex individual bowls with lids. Or are they all plastic now? I see your problem as we can’t get the same things they could. I remember skimming the cream from the top of milk too. Are you having fun?
I’ll check out the Pyrex bowls and lids. What a good idea. I am having fun with this. Learning a lot. The weird thing is, although I seem to be eating more than I usually do – we NEVER have 3 course meals – I’m losing weight, which has to be a good thing! And energy. I definitely have more energy.