This Week's Scenarios and Menu

Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer has spoken! Our scenarios for this week are:

Processed Meats - no new purchases available

Coffee - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available

Whew! I am so thankful that cheese and butter were not restricted, since we're saving them up for Sissy's birthday party on the 15th!

We'll be fine with the processed meat we have on hand (leftover pepperoni from last week's purchase) and since we're not big coffee drinkers we're doing quite fine with the 2 pounds I purchased at the beginning of rationing.

We have a few left-over anachronisms in the refrigerator and cupboard that we'll get rid of this week to put us on the up and up. Hence, the tortillas and wonton wrappers mentioned in the menu below:

Saturday: Homemade pizza (pepperoni, olive, onion and pineapple for the girls)
Sunday: Homemade tacos and (canned) corn
Monday: Mushroom and barley soup with fresh-baked bread
Tuesday: Out for Rational Mama's birthday!
Wednesday: Egg puffs and (frozen) mixed vegetables
Thursday: Turkey wontons and (frozen) broccoli
Friday: French toast casserole and (frozen) blueberries


For this week's menu we used 62 of our 64 red points on ground beef for the tacos, canola oil, turkey for the wontons and cheese and butter for Sissy's birthday menu.

We used 125 of our allotted 192 blue/green points on canned pineapple and other fruit, canned corn, spaghetti sauce and beef broth. Mostly, though, our blue/green points were used for frozen produce; we are desparately missing the variety of fresh produce normally available to us. Everyone in the household agrees that this is the hardest part of rationing so far.

I also purchased an additional 2 pounds of sugar.

Tuesday night's dinner out with family will be the first time we've eaten out since at least December 26th. Not a new world record, I know, but a good change. We have a no-rules policy towards eating out during the rationing year, since we will be doing it so rarely. This gives our modern souls a little break and is still in line with the historical example. Early in the rationing period purchases at restaurants were not included, but the government quickly decided that wasn't in the best interest of the general food supply. Folks still ate out in restaurants during the war although selections were often, but not always, limited and ration points were usually recorded.

As for the gasoline ration, last week we used 73 of our allotted 193 miles. Pretty impressive, but the horrible weather we've had has made us more home-bound than usual. I expect that number to increase significantly once warmer weather is the norm.

It will be interesting to see exactly how lunch and dessert for 17 people will work out on the 15th. I've got one more week to prepare and plan and calculate ration points.

Oh, and there's at least two more historical recipe posts on the way! One was nice and comforting, the other was...well...you'll see. If points allow then next week we will try our first SPAM recipe!

--Rational Mama