Historic Recipe: Cabbage Delmonico (and, a farewell to a good friend)

Friends, throughout the course of this experiment you've read my ruminations about cabbage. Ah, that staple of restricted wartime winter diets; the only source of semi-fresh green leafy things for many months. We've baked it, made various salads out of it and had moments of frustration with it.

Today, I honor cabbage with another historic recipe: Cabbage Delmonico. The recipe comes from Joanne Lamb Hayes' Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked and is described as a "meatless main dish." Here's my version as I made it...

Ingredients:
2 lb head of cabbage
2 TB butter
3 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp dry mustard
3/4 tsp paprika (Hungarian is best)
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups milk
1 cup grated extra-sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup bread crumbs

Cut cabbage into 6-7 wedges and cook in boiling water for about 5 minutes (the recipe said to boil for 8 minutes but I didn't want to overcook my cabbage, per grandmum's instructions). Drain the cabbage.

In a small saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Gradually stir in the flour, mustard, paprika and salt until smooth. Gradually stir in the milk, stirring constantly over low heat. Add in the cheese bit by bit and stir until all the cheese is melted.

Place cabbage in 9" x 9" baking dish and top with the cheese sauce. Sprinkle the bread crumbs and extra paprika over the top and bake for 20 minutes.

This is what it looked like coming out of the oven:

And this is what it looked like on the plate:

Sigh. Can't cabbage ever look attractive? If you have an even half-way decent imagination then you can ascertain how this dish turned out. After all, it's pretty much just cabbage and a mild cheese sauce. I'm not sure if the "meatless main dish" description is historically true, or just one the cookbook's author felt fit well. Either way, there's not enough protein or carbohydrates to make this a satisfying meal.

Cabbage, dear cabbage...you're like the Susan Boyle of rationing. Humble? Yes. Comely? Yes. Underestimated? Yes. And then you get your chance to shine and surprise us all by how tasty you can be in such dishes as baked cabbage and Asian cabbage slaw.

But like Susan Boyle, your moment to shine will fade...and so fade, you must.

Due to the seasonal restrictions on our produce selection, this will be the last time we purchase/prepare cabbage in the house until late summer. The next few months will be filled with fresh spinach and lettuce and many other green vegetables which have waited anxiously to have their moments of recognition.

And so, cabbage, this is farewell. At least, until late August.

Adieu.

--Rational Mama

Historic Recipe: Hot Cabbag Slaw (and a Plea from the Rational Living Household)

Friends, we knew there would be times during our year of living on WWII rations that we would be discouraged, discontent and otherwise dissatisfied with the situation in which we had put ourselves. Little did we know such a circumstance would arise so quickly within the year.

Lemme 'splain.

Remember how one of the limitations we're working with is that the only fresh produce purchased must be seasonal? That means for the months of January through March the only fresh produce items allowed are cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, onions, parsnips, potatoes, turnips and winter squash.

Now, the majority of the household has a fondness for green leafy things and as such we've been eating far more cabbage than the average modern American family. Cabbage salad, coleslaw, Asian cabbage salad, cabbage vinaigrette and so on. One of the recipes we tried was the "Hot Cabbage Slaw" recipe in Joanne Lamb Hayes' Grandma's Wartime Kitchen: World War II and the Way We Cooked.

Ingredients:
1 small head (1.25 lb) green cabbage
1 large red bell pepper (stems, seeds and ribs discarded)
1 cup water
2 TB bacon fat or vegetable shortening
2 TB all-purpose flour
2 TB lemon juice
1.5 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

*I substituted 1 large carrot in place of the unseasonable bell pepper

[Warning: the following pictures contain images of over-cooked, slimy vegetable products. Children and the squeamish may want to look away.]

Directions:

• Rinse and shred cabbage. Thinly slice pepper (carrot) lengthwise.

• Combine cabbage, pepper, and water in a heavy 4-quart saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook 10 minutes
• Pour into a colander and drain very well, reserving 1 cup liquid. If necessary, add water to liquid to make 1 cup.
• In same saucepan, melt bacon fat; stir in flour until smooth. Gradually stir in 1 cup reserved vegetable liquid, the lemon juice, sugar, salt and pepper.
• Bring to a boil, stirring constantly.

• Stir reserved cabbage and pepper (carrots) into thickened sauce and return to a boil. Cook, stirring, until vegetables reach desired tenderness, 5 to 10 minutes.

• Transfer to a bowl and stir.

I believe the culinary term is...ewww. Sadly, this recipe did not work for us; it was a combination of slimy cabbage, bacon flavor and lemon that no one found palatable. The children wouldn't touch it, The Man of the House and I ate our allotted serving and then I'm afraid, my friends, that the remainder ended up in the refrigerator and, after a week, went to visit trash mountain. So sad. One of our goals is to not waste food this year. So sad.

And it also makes me feel very thankful that this type of meal is a choice - not a necessity.

And this brings me to the plea: please oh please oh please oh please oh please if you have any fabulous, ration-friendly recipes for cabbage, carrots, parsnips, potatoes, turnips and winter squash can you please post them? They would make the Rational Living household happy and renew our faith in seasonal eating.

From the bottom of my stomach,
Rational Mama

Brilliant! Oczywiscie!

I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier...

If my undergraduate alma mater allowed non-education majors to have minors like other universities (really, KU, why not?), then I would have more than enough credits for a minor in Slavic Studies, with an emphasis in Polish language and literature. This may be news to some of you, and just genuinely weird to others. What can I say? I'm a Slav at heart.

Anyhoo, here I've been fretting over finding good recipes for our seasonal (and therefore non-rationed) produce, which right now consists mostly of cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and mushrooms.

And then I had an epiphany the other day, while calling my little cabbage kapusta, which is the Polish word for cabbage.

If you've ever flipped through a Polish cookbook then you will know that like 90% of the recipes consist mainly of combinations of cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes and mushrooms, with modest amounts of cheese, butter or meats for flavor. Okay...maybe 90% is a bit of an exaggeration, but seriously - it's crazy high.

So I went to the library the other day and checked out a few Polish cookbooks.

Jackpot!

The cabbage dry spell may be over!

--Rational Mama

The Doldrums

Another week, another menu... *yawn*

I'm afraid we've reached the doldrums...listlessly shuffling from one rationing week to the next, counting our points, making the same meals with the same *sigh* seasonal produce.

Same, same, same...

Of course, in 1943 most food rationing didn't begin until late February, so folks didn't have to wait very long at all for the growing season to begin and thus quickly had colorful and tasty options for their menu. Plus, they had nearly a year to plan ahead and preserve that bounty so they wouldn't get stuck with only cabbage and carrots next winter.

Us? We started in late December, so cabbage and carrots we have.

Why, oh why, didn't we wait to start rationing until the end of February?

Anyhoo...after TMOTH rolled a five last week for the Randomizer I wasn't going to chance it again and gave the die to Eowyn for this week's scenarios. And she proceeded to roll a five (head smack!). BUT, at least two of the scenarios we pulled for this week we're favorable, unlike last week, so it wasn't too bad in the end.

• Beef - limited, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
• Fresh Vegetables - limited, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
• Canned Fruits - Victory Special! available at only 1/4 the usual ration points
• Nuts and Nut Products - none available for purchase
• Poultry - surplus, available for only 1/2 the usual ration points

Luckily, the only beef on the menu this week (Monday's meal) was leftover from last week - we ended up not making the meatballs last Sunday and so can use that beef instead of buying new for this week.

The fresh vegetable shortage is a bummer and I had to downsize several portions for the week.

The Victory Special on canned fruits allowed us to buy a few extra cans of peaches and pears and a much coveted jar of applesauce.

I usually try to have a spare jar of peanut butter in the house since it is a staple at Rational Living. That will come in very handy this week since we can't purchase another. Also, there is a pecan pie scheduled for a special meal with guests on Friday that was in jeopardy until I remembered that we still have a stash of locally-grown pecans we picked a few seasons ago hiding out in the back of the cupboard. Whew!

Since poultry was available for reduced ration points I bought a pound of chicken breasts for future use and then obtained a nice quantity of turkey deli meat for a yummy sandwich night on Saturday (all those Subway commercials during the Olympics convinced me we needed a yummy sandwich night).

So here's how our menu shaped up for the week:

Saturday: deli-style sandwiches and chips
Sunday: roasted turkey, gravy, canned green beans and homemade stuffing
Monday: cabbage, tomato and beef soup with fresh baked bread
Tuesday: out to eat (our once-a-month splurge)*
Wednesday: hot dogs and oven-roasted potato fries
Thursday: crisped lemon liver, rice and canned fruit
Friday: bacon-wrapped venison tenderloin, baked sweet potatoes and baked cabbage

*Since it is an eating out week our point allotments for the week were reduced by 1/14th.

Did you see that on Thursday? It's a liver recipe. *shudder*

Liver seems to be a very generational thing, in that generations before mine eat it but subsequent generations don't. I tried to find a recipe that wouldn't be too anachronistic for our experiment but had a very favorable rating. I don't think I will tell the girls it's liver until I see their reaction - but more on that in a special "liver" post after Thursday night.

In the meantime - liver has such a reputation that I am curious as to if there was anything particular that your family cooked that you just couldn't bare to eat?

For me, it was these hamburger/shredded potato patty combinations...it seemed the potatoes were never fully cooked and made the entire patty a bit slimy. My stomach turns a bit just thinking about it.

Sorry, Mom.

--Rational Mama

Feel Like Making (Bud-Up, Bud-Up) 'Kraut With You!

So a co-worker of TMOTH's gave us two heads of cabbage a while back. Don't ask.

I managed to use up one over the course of a couple of weeks, but that second cabbage was threatening to take up permanent residence in the fridge. I was stumped.

While perusing Simply in Season I came across the "Simple Homemade Sauerkraut" recipe and thought, why not?

So I sliced some cabbage...


And mixed it with some salt and spices.


Then I attempted to cram eight-plus cups of cabbage into a quart jar.


Success! I added some salted water to top it off...


And then placed it in an out-of-the way space on the cabinet to start doing it magic fermentation thing.


Itwo weeks or so we'll know if we made sauerkraut.

I guess I have until then to try to convince the girls that they might actually like sauerkraut.

--Rational Mama

Review: Of Veg and Cheese...and Java Dilemma

In the original "Of Veg and Cheese" post I outlined how, in accordance with life in the early 1940's, we would be limited to seasonably available produce during the rationing year, with the exception of canned and frozen produce which would be subject to ration points and market fluctuations.

So how did it go?

Well, last winter was tough - no bones about it. With just one pound of frozen vegetables setting us back one quarter of our weekly blue/green points, we were forced to work with seasonally available produce. This meant mostly carrots, potatoes and cabbage. And trust me, with all other green, leafy vegetables unavailable you start to appreciate cabbage on a whole new level.

Going without fresh salad for a few months definitely helped us understand how much we really love salad, even if it's as basic as a few green leaves and a simple dressing. Luckily, growing lettuce and mesclun indoors (or in a hoop frame or cold frame) is so easy we were able to get a jump start on our spring greens.

Once early summer came around we had locally grown produce available from our gardens, the farmer's market and our CSA bag. As you know, we had a hard time maintaining our Victory Gardens, and my new work schedule made visiting the farmer's market logistically tricky. And for a second year the CSA bags were a bit of a disappointment (some of the produce was actually of poor quality); I don't believe we'll do CSA bags in the future.

On the other hand, you just can't beat locally grown fruit. This past year we consumed our share of local strawberries, blackberries, apples and pears. Nothing can beat a fruit that was allowed to ripen fully before picking...and then immediately eating it. Really, I cannot downplay the physical and sensual joy of experiencing a local "u-pick" establishment.

As far as cheese goes...well, it's a staple we never want missing from the fridge. The versatility of hard cheese (snack, recipe ingredient, sandwich topper) make it a very useful, albeit rationed, resource. And thank goodness sour cream and cottage cheese weren't rationed - they have frequently been used to bulk up a sauce or soup (the former) or add protein to an otherwise light meal (the latter).

And finally, coffee. As outlined in the post "Java Dilemma," during rationing each adult received one pound of coffee every five weeks, assuming shortages didn't throw a kink into your coffee purchasing week. Both TMOTH and I increased our coffee consumption during the past year, in exchange for shrinking our soda intake. Even with that change, though, we were never in danger of running out of coffee supplies before the next ration amount could be purchased. We even had enough of a coffee surplus to, umm, be creative.

So, what of veg and cheese and coffee after rationing? We plan to continue focusing on seasonably available produce in an effort to reduce the carbon footprint of the fruits and vegetables we eat. And we'll continue to drink coffee at our current rates and avoid heavily-sugared sodas.

And cabbage...dear, sweet cabbage. You will always have a special place in our hearts...even if you're not as frequent a visitor at the table.

--Rational Mama

"It Tastes Like Heaven": A Historic SPAM Recipe

Well, here we are, about 1 month in to our rationing year and we're finally getting around to our first SPAM recipe.

SPAM was around before WWII, but didn't become really popular until the War - and subsequent rationing - began. At 5 red points a can SPAM is definitely a "bargain" meat. Plus, it's precooked and quite versatile - contributing it's salty meatiness well to many recipes.

Now, I have only had SPAM on a few occassions, and all before I turned 6 years old. As a child I liked the idea of tinned meat. There was a sort of beautiful precision in the geometric shapes that appealed to me. As far as taste, I vaguely remember a certain squishy, salty flavor similar to lower quality ham products. The Man of the House remembers eatings SPAM a few times as a child as well.

But our girls had never had anything of the sort.

It seemed a good idea to initiate them with the most simplist of SPAM recipes: Fried SPAM Burgers. It doesn't get any easier than this, folks.

Ingredients

1 can SPAM (I used the "lower sodium" variety)
4 hamburger buns
Assorted hamburger toppings (cheese, mayo, pickless, ketchup, etc.)

• Slice SPAM loaf into 4 slices.
• Fry SPAM slices in a non-stick skillet on medium/medium-high until lightly browned and crispy, approximately 5 minutes per side.
• Place in buns and garnish as desired.
  

And the girls? Prior to the cooking they marveled at the way it schlopped out of the can and landed on the plate with a splat. They spent a good two minutes poking and prodding the meat cube before I sliced it. And for a while Sissy did a song and dance around the kitchen implying that SPAM was, in fact, octopus meat.

But after the cooking? They finished their SPAM burgers in record time! Really - it was gone in a flash! When I asked them to give a review of their SPAM burgers they both agreed on the same four words, "It tasted like Heaven."

So, it seems likely that SPAM will be a regular visitor in the Rational Living household.

On note: we served our SPAM burgers with the oven-crisped cabbage recommended by Rational Living reader Carla. It's very simple: thinly-sliced cabbage tossed with olive oil and salt/seasonings, roasted on a baking sheet at 400 degrees until slightly crisped (about 20 minutes or so). My review? "It tasted like Heaven." The roasting imparted a lovely, sweet taste to the cabbage, reminiscent of roasted Brussels sprouts. It also will most definitely be repeated during the year.

All in all, a successful rationing dinner this evening!

--Rational Mama

1 Month Check-In

Today we mark one calendar month into our year of living on WWII U.S. civilian rations.

How are we doing?

We used 248 of our 251 red ration points. Assigning these every week is quite a math game - there are definitely never too many red ration points!

We used 538 of what should have been only 192 allotted blue/green points (refer to the "And Then Things Became REALLY Interesting" post from a few weeks ago). The good news is that while I was doing some research I learned that all families were allowed to claim, without penalty, five cans per person at the start of rationing. Assuming that an average can was worth 14 points, that would be an additional 280 points worth of canned goods that I could have credited the family for at the beginning of ration. If we subtract those points from our total, that brings us down to 258 points. That's still about 18 can's worth of points, or 18 cans too many. But there's not much I can do about that now. I have a modest amount of canned goods in the cabinet right now (beets, spinach, corn and carrots), so I was not hoarding during those few weeks of excess point usage. I'm not happy with the situation, but I'm at peace with it.

We've purchased all our sugar and coffee allowances.

I didn't track gasoline/mile usage for that first partial week, but for the following three weeks we used 300 of our 576 miles. I'm really happy about that number. Even if we didn't get the extra gasoline/miles for The Man of the House's job equating to a wartime industry, we would be well within the reduced allotment for families without the added gallons/miles. Of course, TMOTH (as he likes to be called) would like to hoard all those extra miles. There will be a post on that compulsion soon!

And how are we doing mentally?

Eowyn and Sissy miss fresh fruit (Eowyn = bananas, Sissy = apples) and both are no longer amused by the increased appearance of soups on the menu.

TMOTH is frustrated with the fact that few people he talks to "gets it" and understand why we undertook this project.

As you are all aware, I greatly miss fresh vegetables - and lettuce most of all. Rational Living reader Kari had a great idea about this which I will be posting about soon. Otherwise, I'm also feeling the time drain of the project: time looking up points, extra time spent making menus and grocery lists, extra time spent cooking more meals from scratch, time spent tracking usage and time spent posting on the blog. But all of these except that last point help make the experiment that much more authentic, so I can't complain too loudly.

And I have to admit that I look forward to Mr. Bowles' Marketplace Scenario Randomizer with giddy expectancy.

And let me add a note of thanks for all those who read the blog and use the comments section to ask questions, suggest recipes (I'm still loving the baked cabbage!) and give us emotional support. This project wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it wasn't for the ongoing dialogue. Thank you!

And what do we think the next month will hold for us? I imagine the reduced blue/green points will become painfully real in the next month, and we will plan our garden. And I'm sure we'll try at lease five other ways to cook cabbage.

In fact, sometimes I think the official title for the project should be: "Rational Living...or...50 Ways to Cook a Cabbage."

--Rational Mama

Video: Two Cooks and a Cabbage

I had to wonder while watching this 1941 film from the BFI National Archives...

If I grow cabbage this summer do you think Eowyn and Sissy would be so excited about cooking their own?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2evv45stEHw

Not sure why the embedding isn't working anymore...

--Rational Mama

This Week's Scenarios and Menu

First off, let me say this: TMOTH may never be allowed to roll Mr. Bowles' Amazing Scenario Randomizer die again.

You see, the number rolled represents the number of scenarios we will have that week - except for six, which represents a scenario-free week. We have not yet experienced a scenario-free week.

In between a quick dinner and rushing to piano lessons and church obligations Wednesday night we did our weekly ritual of consulting the Randomizer. In a hurry to get things done, I handed TMOTH the die to roll.

He rolled a five. (EEEK!)

And then we proceeded to pull out some pretty heavy scenarios:

• Pork: none available for purchase (this includes cuts of pork like pork chops, pork roasts and pork steaks)
• Processed Meats: limited availability, only 1/2 of the regular purchase amount available (this category includes sausages, salamis and the like)
• Chicken: scarce, only available for 1 1/2 times the normal ration points as usual
• Salad Oils: surplus, available for 1/2 of the usual ration points
• Coffee: only substandard (instant or off-brand) qualities available

There was some nervous giggling going around as we pulled out those first three scenarios. What made it worse was that I had already planned out the menu for the week, which included sausage gravy, a traditional Polish meat stew and a generous portion of chicken satay on Friday night when we are having company over. Meat amounts were adjusted down, down, down and the following solidified for our menu this week:

Saturday: Sausage gravy (using only 1/4 lb sausage), from-scratch biscuits and from-scratch hash browns and canned pears
Sunday: Church potluck - sausage and cheese quiche (using only 1/2 the sausage the recipe calls for) and Asian cabbage slaw...Dinner - spaghetti and meatballs (making only a 1/2 batch of meatballs)
Monday: Bigos (with only half of the recommended Kielbasa and supplemented with non-rationed venison) and bread and butter (and Spaghettio's for the girls)
Tuesday: Leftovers
Wednesday: Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup
Thursday: Black beans and rice
Friday: (Company for dinner) Chicken satay (reduced portions), sesame noodles and baked cabbage

I took advantage of the surplus scenario and purchase some canola oil. I also purchased 2 pounds of confectioner's sugar. We're still plenty good in the coffee category, so I didn't have to sacrifice my appreciation for responsibly harvested, locally roasted PT's Coffee.

It's been a while since we tried a historic recipe, so I'll try to come up with a good one for next week. It may be time to try one of the "glandular meats" recipes.

*shudder*

--Rational Mama

This Week's Scenarios and Menu

So, first things first...

Last week we used all of our red and blue/green points...again. Really, I don't see this changing anytime soon. After suffering a week for purchasing ketchup (still in shock over how many blue/green points that costs us) I vow to squeeze out every bit of point purchase I can because, thanks to the Randomizer, we have no idea what items are or are not going to be available. As inconvenient as it may seem I consider this a historically accurate development and success for the project.

We used 145 of our 192 allotted miles. TMOTH had to drive himself to work (rather than carpool) at least once and we had a 14 mile round trip to a nearby hamlet to pick up a gently used treadmill.

Because we have a rule preferring used items for non-perishable purchases during the rationing year (and, really, that should be our rule everyday), it took about a month's worth of searching to find a used treadmill that: 1) works, 2) has an adjustable incline, 3) is a reputable brand, and 4) was within our price range. Anything we found on Freecycle was in rough shape (understandably - it's free!) and the listings on Craig's List were mostly for primo-top-of-the-line models that were reduced to only a million dollars after the owners shelled out bajillions. Eventually, a serendipitous e-mail from a co-worker sealed the deal on a perfect treadmill at the perfect price. This was definitely not an instant gratification process. Again...inconvenient? Yes. Appropriate for our rationing redux? Most definitely, considering most appliances were rationed during the War.

After that victory we were ready to see what Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer had for us. Another week with only two scenarios:

• Alternative sweeteners (molasses, honey, corn syrup, maple syrup, etc.) - only substandard (off-brand) quality available
• Canned soups and sauces - Victory Special! Available at half the usual ration points

(Okay self, just breath and stay calm...)

First - alternative sweeteners...luckily I had purchased molasses the previous week (we were getting awfully low to guarantee another batch of Oatmeal Raisin Cookies), and our syrup and honey supplies are well-stocked. Lucked out once again.

Whoa, that's weird, don't know why the font went all wonky there. Anyhoo...

(Big gasp for breath...just let it out...)

Oh my gosh! A Victory Special! Seven weeks into rationing and this is our first Victory Special! And did you see what it was for, friends? Canned soups and sauces! And what is a very common type of sauce? Tomato sauce! Remember my rantings last week at how ridiculously point expensive tomato products are? I would like to be all cool and suave and tell you that I absolutely did not freak (in a good way) and stand in the tomato-based sauce section of the grocery store, drumming my fingertips together like a mad scientist while chuckling absurdly at all the half-point tomato sauces.

But, friend, I did. And I bought them.

Okay, now that I blurted out my excitement, here's our menu for this week:
Saturday: Fried chicken, mash potatoes and gravy
Sunday: Lentil loaf and (canned) carrots
Monday: Homemade pizza (mushroom, olives, pepperoni and left-over sausage from the sausage loaf)
Tuesday: Grilled pork steak and Asian cabbage salad
Wednesday: Baked potatoes and cottage cheese
Thursday: Black bean soup, sour cream and Frito's
Friday: From-scratch macaroni and cheese and cabbage salad

Maybe I'll get organized and make a post for the macaroni and cheese recipe. It's authentic 1940s, with real butter, cream and cheese. A little excessive for rationing? Yes.

But you gotta live.

--Rational Mama

Preparing for the Big Day AND Another Week of Scenarios

Things are in full chaos mode at the Rational Living household. Sissy's birthday party (with 15 attendees!) is on Saturday afternoon, so we're in a frenzy of cooking, cleaning and crepe paper. But I squeezed out a few minutes to let you know how we did last week and what scenarios we are facing this week.

Last week we used 62 of our 64 red points and 125 of our 192 blue/green points.

We used 125 of our 193 miles.

We had a special treat on Tuesday when the Rational Living household was taken out to eat in honor of Rational Mama's thirty-f(*cough*cough*) birthday. We had a lovely dinner at the local Indian restaurant and the night was rather ration-friendly, since most ate vegetarian meals and we had plenty of blue/green points left to "pay" for the frozen vegetables that were used.

However, the dinner out got use thinking...during the weeks that we go out to dinner it doesn't seem fair to give ourselves the full amount of ration points, since we don't count our meal's points when dining out. So, since this Tuesday is our regularly-scheduled, no special event, only once a month, Rational Living household night out for dinner we are only allotted 13/14ths of our ration points: 59 red and 178 blue/green points.

With that in mind, here's our four scenarios for the week (that's the most scenarios per week so far!):

• Beef - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
  
• Coffee - limited availability, only 1/2 the normal purchase amount available
  
• Canned fruit - scarce, available but at 1 1/2 the normal ration points
  
• Dried fruit - scarce, available but at 1 1/2 the normal ration points

As if the fruit issue wasn't challenging enough. Sigh.

Two recipes on the menu this week call for one pound of ground beef per recipe, so that will now be 1/2 pound each, to be extended by adding black beans. Tortillas also make another appearance this week. Since our town has had a thriving Hispanic population since the late 1800s we are allowing ourselves this treat, as they would have been available in local markets during the 1940's.

This week's menu:

Saturday: Sissy's Birthday Party! Homemade macaroni and cheese (historic recipe), coleslaw, broccoli casserole, relish tray and banana cake (historic recipe)

Sunday: Tacos and (canned) corn - special request for Sissy's real birthday

Monday: SPAM burgers and oven-fried cabbage (thanks to reader Carla for the great cabbage idea!)

Tuesday: Out!

Wednesday: Spaghetti marinara

Thursday: Cheese enchiladas and black beans

Friday: Hot dogs, saffron rice and carrots

Did you see that on Monday?!?! It's our first SPAM recipe! I have vague memories of having SPAM a few times as a child and being mesmerized by the thought of meat in a can. I'm interested to see how the girls react. I'll report all the gory details and let you know how the party fare is received.

Have a great weekend!

--Rational Mama

First Results from the Randomizer!

Last Wednesday night we used Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer for the first time - something we will be doing every Wednesday evening during the rationing year. The roll of the die indicated that there would be three scenarios for the this week's shopping. They are:

Salad Oils - None available

Frozen Fruit - Scarce, available but only at 1 1/2 times the normal ration points

Processed Meats - Only substandard quality available

As far as the salad oils go, I'm glad I bought a new jar of canola oil last week. I think we have enough to get us through, but I hope we can purchase more next week.

Frozen fruit is already quite pricey on the rationing list, so 1 1/2 the regular points makes it a definite luxury for the week. Our family typically does not use much frozen fruit at all when not rationing, but that's because we eat lots of fresh fruit instead. Since we're limited to seasonal availability during the rationing project I have a feeling frozen fruit will be purchased more often as a nice break from canned and dried fruit during the winter months. Luckily we had just enough points to purchase some frozen strawberries this week as an extra treat.

Substandard processed meats showed up on our shopping list in the form of hot dogs and some pepperoni for homemade pizza night. In this instance I assumed that "substandard" meant off-brand. Again, not too bad of a scenario for our first week with the Randomizer.

For this week's shopping trip we used 63 of our 64 red rationing points and 185 of our 192 blue/green stamps. Red points were used on pepperoni, cheese, hot dogs and turkey and then buying containers of both shortening and margarine. Friday night will be a special night with 10 point pork chops! Most of the blue/green points were used on canned fruits and vegetables and those point-pricey frozen strawberries. Also, we purchased a modest-sized bottle of ketchup at a whopping 18 points - yowzer!

I also purchased our allotted 2 pounds of sugar (brown).

The dinner menu for this week is:
Saturday - homemade pizza (pepperoni and black olive)
Sunday - sloppy does (using non-rationed venison), mashed potatoes and cabbage salad
Monday - vegetable fried rice and egg-drop soup
Tuesday - baked hot dogs loaded with left-over mashed potatoes and cheese and (canned) green beans
Wednesday - vegetarian taco soup with sour cream and Fritos (yay for historically accurate Fritos!)
Thursday - waffles and (turkey) gravy (historical recipe) and (frozen) peas
Friday - pork chops, cabbage and fresh-baked bread

On Wednesday night we also reset the trip meters on our vehicles - this week will be the first full week to stay under our 193 miles-per-week ration. The Man of the House has been carpooling to work with a gentleman who prefers to be paid in soda (!); this saves us around 14 miles each day that he works. My round trip to work is only 2 1/2 miles, and I often walk to and from work two to three times a week, weather permitting. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't permitted much lately, so I'm itching for some nicer weather in the new year!

The next few weeks of shopping should be interesting because we are preparing for Sissy's birthday party, during which we will be feeding 17 people a noon-time meal. We've already developed a relatively ration-friendly menu and should be able to make all the items...as long as the Randomizer doesn't throw us a kink!

--Rational Mama

This Week's Scenarios and Menu (and No-Bake Cookies)

This week we had yet another mix of both favorable and limiting scenarios:

Beef - Victory Special! available for only 1/4 of the usual ration points
Salad Oils - Victory Special! available for only 1/4 of the usual ration points
Sugar - limited, only 1/2 the usual quantity available
Canned Vegetables - scarce, available for 1 1/2 the usual ration points

The beef Victory Special is nice, especially since my regular blood donation appointment is this Thursday and I could use the extra iron.

I used the salad oil Victory Special to purchase two pounds of olive oil.

We should be fine with only one pound of sugar this week since we have yet to run dry on that particular ration, so to speak.

The only canned vegetable in this week's menu is a can of corn that was actually left over from a previous week.

The biggest challenge for this week's menu was the sudden comatose state of the oven range. This menu was already planned and purchased when the range took a turn for the worse, so we were pretty much stuck with it. Here's what we have to work with:

Saturday: Hamburgers and (from scratch) potato fries
Sunday: Vegetarian lasagna and iceberg salad
Monday: Beef brisket and (canned) corn
Tuesday: Chicken and dumplings
Wednesday: Leftovers and Asian cabbage slaw
Thursday: Vegetable fried rice
Friday: Chicken enchiladas and black beans

Firstly, Saturday's fries were amazing. I did the entire peel, slice, soak in ice water, fry at 325 degrees, cool, fry at 375 degrees process and, although a lot of work, was totally worth it. Wonderfully delicious fries to rival anything available in a restaurant.

Normally, I would not be happy at all about an iceberg salad. I like my greens very, well, green and flavorful. Since the 1943 grocery store ads show that iceberg lettuce was occasionally available this time of year I decided to go for it. It was crunchy and a nice change of texture, but I learned that, as far as salads go, I might actually prefer a cabbage salad to an iceberg salad. Go figure.

I decided to "bake" the lasagna in the electric skillet by placing a metal trivet in the bottom and filling the skillet with water a little over half-way up the sides of the lasagna dish. Then I put the lid on and cranked the heat in the skillet for a while. The only drawback was that the top layer of cheese didn't get that golden, toasted appearance and taste. I'll reuse this method on Friday for the enchiladas if tomorrow's news from the appliance technician is not so good.

Otherwise, I was having a major cookie craving this evening and was quite disappointed to realize that you can't bake cookies if your oven is busted. And then I had a brilliant aha! moment: no bake cookies!

Here's the simple (and not very ration-friendly) recipe I used:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup milk
4 TB cocoa
1/2 cup peanut butter
2 tsp vanilla
3 to 3 1/2 cups oats (bland cereal like Cheerios or bran flakes work well, too)

• Place all ingredients except the oats in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
• Boil hard for one minute and then pour into large bowl with the oats and mix well.
• Drop by spoonfuls onto cookies sheets covered with wax paper.
• Cool until set.

If you're like me you get so excited at the thought of no-bake cookies that you forget to add the milk. What you're left with doesn't quite gel like the recipe intends but it's still a wonderfully tasty mess!

Hope everyone has their favorite sweet treats available tonight!

--Rational Mama

Hello, Cabbage, My Old Friend...

...I've come to eat of you again.

Our cabbage hiatus is over. Thursday night we had a nice, Asian-inspired slaw with our dinner.

Welcome back, old friend.

--Rational Mama

R-Day is Here!

Only half-way through Rationing Day and what a day it has been already! We had a blizzard here over Christmas so I spent the morning trying to dig out some sidewalk space while The Man of the House is at work. Then the girls and I headed to the opposite side of town to get a needed item for a home repair (leaky kitchen faucet), and unsuccessfully tried to exchange Sissy's damaged #1 present at Barnes and Noble (pages missing!). On the way back we stopped at the grocery store for our first rational shopping.

It was definitely a different type of shopping experience - especially in the produce department. Instead of apples and bananas we purchased a few cans of fruit, applesauce, and raisins. I splurged and bought a few clementines, since it wouldn't have been unheard of for those to be on the market here in December 1943. Otherwise, the only fresh produce purchased was carrots, onions and cabbage which are all available year round and then two sweet potatoes which will be off-limit due to seasonality beginning in January.

I didn't buy any meat or cheese because over half of our 64 red ration points were used to claim the small amount of cheese, butter and oils we already have in the house. You see, citizens were technically required to report all quantities of rationed food items already in their cupboards at the start of rationing. I'm sure there was a fair amount of fudging in regards to this task, kind of like the time-honored tradition of lying about your weight on your driver's license: you give a ballpark figure but no one expects it to actually be accurate. So I fudged a little, but now our red points are all squared up. I also claimed our allotted two pounds of sugar for this week to address the sugar that we already have on hand.

I did face one dilemma as I was menu planning for the week and making the grocery/ration points list: we have a turkey. A big, fat, hefty turkey that I bought at an amazing price during Thanksgiving week and then tossed into the chest freezer. I had full intentions of cooking it before rationing began but between school recitals, birthday parties and holiday events it never happened. If we were strictly following 1940s rationing this wouldn't be such a big deal since fresh poultry was never rationed. But since we adapted the rationing to include poultry I was faced with the fact that I have a giant piece of meat worth approximately 78 red ration points - more than all the red points we're allotted for one week! After lots of consideration I came to this conclusion: after the turkey is roasted today I will split the meat into four equal portions, each valued at 20 red points. One portion will be used this week for roast turkey and then turkey and noodle soup. The other three portions will be put in the freezer to use in subsequent weeks at their 20 red point values.

So, for the record, here's what our dinner menu for the next week looks like:

Saturday (today): Roast turkey with gravy, green bean casserole, and stuffing (using day-old bread that had been stored in the freezer)
Sunday: Turkey and homemade noodle soup with cabbage salad
Monday: Sweet potato and (frozen) butternut squash soup with fresh-baked bread
Tuesday: Baked potatoes with cheese and sour cream and (frozen) sno peas
Wednesday: Pancakes and canned fruit
Thursday: Spaghetti marinara with carrots
Friday: Black bean soup with corn bread

Oh, and by the way, despite the 8" of snow and lots of snow drifts we managed to not get stuck once on our 10+ miles of shopping travels this morning...until two houses away from our alley. A nice citizen helped push our van free and then we got stuck again in the alley. Ten minutes, two shovels, two large pieces of cardboard and lots of help from Sissy and Eowyn and I finally got the van back in the garage. Needless to say, I'm quite content to stay home for the rest of the day, smelling the roasting turkey and sipping on my rationed coffee.

Connect Four, anyone?

--Rational Mama

Rational Top Ten

Can you believe it? Tomorrow is the last day of rationing! Since tomorrow will be filled with family gatherings and festivities we thought we'd highlight what we think are the top ten highlights from the rationing year (in no particular order).

Here goes!

1. Realizing, midway through the first month, that we had been allowing ourselves too many blue/green points. Like, 75% too many.

2. The recipes! Without the rationing project as an excuse there is no way we would have even dreamed of making jellied ham loaf or beef heart kabobs. The historic recipes have encompassed the good (nutburgers, victory pancakes), the bad (six layer dinner, full o'bologney, sausage loaf), and the ugly (hot cabbage slaw and...)

3. Liver. Really, even though it's an historic recipe and could be listed above it deserves a solitary mention. Nothing, nothing, we ate during the rationing year made the same impression as liver. If you've never read this post you really should.

Oh, thank goodness we didn't have to try this!

4. After a good four or five years of discussion we finally installed an attic (or whole house) fan. This was critical because of our decision to...

5. Sweat it out during the summer by not turning on the air conditioner in the house. It turned out to be one of the hottest summers in the past decade and even with the attic fan and other remedies (cool baths, oscillating fans, popsicles, etc.) we were miserable. Sticking to your sheets and running out of deodorant miserable. Eventually, we caved and turned on the air conditioner. In the end, this was probably the best decision because...

6. We learned that running the attic fan, ceiling fans and oscillating fans along with the dehumidifier used just as much energy as if we had run the air conditioner in the first place. So I guess you could say that sweating it out over a month of summer heat was a miserable but beneficial learning experience.

7. Local fruit. Man oh man, you just can't beat the fresh blackberries, apples, pears, strawberries and mulberries we munched on this summer. And we even have some extra blackberries in the freezer for the long winter months!

8. When a bottle of ketchup costs nearly half of a week's worth of rationing points, nothing says "Suck it, rationing system!" quite like making your own ketchup. Let's face it - ketchup is not a necessity, it's a luxury. Having the ability to make your own (and control the ingredients) is definitely a guilty pleasure. I don't know if we'll ever buy commercially-prepared ketchup again.

9. Having regular commentators from the all across the United States, the U.K. (especially you, Mr. Graham), Eastern Europe, Canada and visits (per traffic reports) from every continent except Antarctica made Rational Living a truly international community. Kinda seems fitting since the real-life scenarios the project was based on included an international community as well.

10. Even with all the planning required by the rationing project and the huge learning curve experienced in the first few months, no other micro-project during the rationing year was harder that the week we followed U.K. rations. The plan was actually to go two weeks on U.K. rations but the meager servings and food limitations (along with nearly constant hunger complaints from the girls) made us cave at the end of the first week. That week was actually a big turning point for the project, as it really hit home that our voluntary, meager rations (and hunger) were choices for us, whereas plenty on this earth have less than that due to circumstances beyond their control.

And, of course...reader feedback on the blog always made our day. This project wouldn't have been nearly as interesting if we didn't have the helpful and insightful comments from YOU. Thanks for sticking with us through the entire project. This blog will continue on, but we're not quite sure as to the content and form. Stay tuned.

So, are there any other scenarios that we missed that you would have included in a top ten?

--With Love, from the Rational Living family

This Week's Scenarios and Menu...and Procrastination

Our scenarios this week are:

Butter - scarce, available for 1 1/2 times the usual ration points
Salad Oils - surplus, available for only 1/2 the usual ration points
Soft Cheese- scarce, available for 1 1/2 times the usual ration points
Beef - scarce, available for 1 1/2 times the usual ration points

Luckily we were good on butter, soft cheeses (cream cheese) and had no need for beef this week once I made taco night turkey tacos instead of beef tacos. I used the salad oil surplus to stock up on some more canola oil.

Here's how the menu shaped up:

Saturday: homemade pizza (sausage, mushroom, onion and olive)
Sunday: turkey tacos and corn
Monday: fiesta salad (corn chips, ice burg lettuce, shredded cheese, black beans, sour cream and home-canned corn salsa)
Tuesday: rice and beans (with smoked sausage)
Wednesday: baked potatoes and cottage cheese
Thursday: grilled chicken breast, rice and broccoli
Friday: macaroni and cheese with carrots/celery and dip

Fiesta salad is a common menu item at our house during the warmer months. It was nice to be able to have a "salad night" after so many months without (non-cabbage) greens. The girls ate up all their lettuce and went back for seconds, which is something that was NOT common before rationing. Unfortunately the jar of home-canned corn salsa we used this week was our last , so it will be many months before this show up on our menu again.

I think I'm going to try to stock up on butter, oils and cheeses over the next few weeks in the hopes that we can have enough ration points one week for a nice ham. The markets will soon be flooded with spiral-cut beauties and even a small one will cost us nearly all of our red ration points for that week.

Otherwise, I did some more research this weekend and found some goodies to share with you from the March and April 1943 newspapers. Of course, I have plenty of other things that need to be done, like cleaning the house and putting away my laundry. I'm not very good at putting away my laundry. I fold it and put it in the basket and even take the basket upstairs to my room but that's where the process usually stops. I would much rather do more research or walk on the treadmill while watching Battlestar Galactica (love me some BSG!) or work on my embroidery than put my laundry away. But...how can I ask the girls to put their laundry away if I don't put mine away? So, off I must go.

In the meantime, what's one (or two) household chores that you tend to procrastinate about?

--Rational Mama

Rationing Points: Week #1

So, wondering how we did on using our ration points this week? Here's a quick break down !

RED POINTS (Meats, Cheeses, Fats and Oils) -
TOTAL AVAILABLE: 64 pts
Turkey 5 lbs (bone in) - 15 pts
Macaroni and Cheese (2 boxes) - 1 pt
Butter (1 lb) - 16 pts
Canola Oil (32 oz) - 10 pts
Cheddar Cheese (1 lb) - 8 pts
Cream Cheese (8 oz) - 3 pts
Bologna (10 oz) - 3 pts
Bacon (1 lb) - 8 pts
TOTAL USED: 64 pts.

Whew! Barely scraped by, but if we weren't also rationing poultry we would have had much more wiggle room. That bacon was a last minute addition for Wednesday's dinner once I saw that we could afford the points. It's bacon!


BLUE/GREEN POINTS (Canned/Frozen/Dried Produce) -
TOTAL AVAILABLE: 192 pts.
Green Beans (2 cans) - 12 pts
Cream of Mushroom Soup (1 can) - 4 pts
Frozen Snap Peas (1 lb) - 12 pts
Fruit (2 cans) - 32 pts
Spaghetti Sauce (1 can) - 8 pts
Carrots (1 can) - 6 pts
Dried Black Beans (1 lb) - 2 pts
Chicken Broth (5 cans) - 20 pts
Raisins (3/4 lb) - 3 pts
Applesauce (25 oz) - 21 pts
Juice (48 oz) - 9 pts
Spinach (1 can) - 8 pts
TOTAL USED: 137 pts

Hmm...we still have 55 blue/green points to play with...which may come in handy (I'll 'splain later). We're really feeling the lack of fresh produce, especially fruit, since we are subject to seasonal availability just like our WWII civilian counterparts. I did splurge and by some clementines, though.

We also purchased our allotted two pounds of sugar and one adult's five-week coffee rations.

Here's our plans for all these rationed items, plus their non-rationed compadres:
Saturday: Roast turkey with gravy, green bean casserole, and stuffing (using day-old bread that had been stored in the freezer)
Sunday: Turkey and homemade noodle soup with cabbage salad
Monday: Sweet potato and (frozen) butternut squash soup with fresh-baked bread
Tuesday: Baked potatoes with cheese and sour cream and (frozen) snap peas
Wednesday: Pancakes, bacon and canned fruit
Thursday: Spaghetti marinara with carrots
Friday: Black bean soup with corn bread

Lunches this week consist mostly of left-overs, peanut butter and honey sandwiches and non-rationed dried soup mixes. Speaking of soup, the soup on Monday night was not that great. Really. Not good. Orange mush with too much pepper. But we ate it and I rewarded the family by baking our first historically-accurate treat: Lafayette Gingerbread (historical recipes will get their own blog post shortly). And I will fully disclose that we also finished off the last of the ice cream that was hibernating in the freezer since Eowyn's birthday party a few weeks ago. But that is gone now...long gone. Adios. Sigh.

Anyhoo, back to those extra blue/green points...we're getting together with a few friends on New Year's Eve and we need to bring some party noshings, so I imagine we'll be dipping into that surplus, plus providing some baked goods. No traditional little smokies or sweet and sour meatballs or cheese ball. But I also promise to not bring cans of cooked spinach and navy beans, either. I'll let you know what I come up with for that occasion.

Tomorrow night is our first experience with Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer. As challenging as it was to make a menu this week just keeping to basic points my mind already cramps a bit when I think about meal planning with key ingredients either missing or worth more points. Of course, they could also be worth less points...gotta keep the optimism going. Needless to say we'll keep you posted on what restrictions we'll be working with next week!

Be safe - there's a war on, you know!

--Rational Mama

Garden Plans, Part I

Isn't this great?

It's from the February 26, 1943 edition of the Topeka Daily Capital. At this point sugar had been rationed for nine months and canned goods rationing was set to start within a week. Red point rationing of meats/oils/cheeses was still over a month away.

But can you see the excitement in their eyes? That's how the Rational Living family has viewed the seed catalogs this year, too.

We've always perused the catalogs in spring, dog-earing and asterisking (whoa, that's a real word) interesting options and day-dreamy ideas. Typically, we might try one new thing a year (or we might try - and fail - at container potatoes twice), but we normally just fall back to the standard, small tomatoes-n-such garden.

But this year, gardening is serious business. Really serious business.

We will really need to maximum our garden harvest this year so that we have plenty of fresh produce during the summer to eat PLUS have enough extra to store-up for winter. The more home-preserved produce we have going in to the fall and winter the fewer precious ration points we will have to spend.

In order to do this we must be more selective about plant varieties and expand our garden size from modest to massive. This post will cover the varieties and a future post will take you on a tour of our gardening spaces.

The article on the left is from Feb. 23, 1943 and it includes a thorough list of what vegetables were recommended for Victory Gardens. Over the past few months we've developed our own list of what we will plant, based upon family preferences and growing conditions. Here's what we have so far:





Spring Garden
Lettuce
Mesclun
Spinach
Peas
Garlic (Inchelium Red, already in the ground)
Radishes

Summer Garden
Tomatoes (cherry, standard and paste)
Peppers (bell and jalapeno)
Garlic (harvest in July)
Cucumbers (standard and pickling)
Eggplant
Yellow squash or zucchini
Green Beans (pole)
Malabar spinach
Melon (space permitting)
Dill
Basil
Mint
Lemon Balm
Sage

Autumn Garden
Lettuce
Spinach
Mesclun
Kale
Garlic (back in the ground)
Beets
Broccoli
Radishes

We're not going to bother with some items (such as carrots, corn, cabbage and okra) because they are readily available at our local farmer's market for very reasonable prices. Additionally, we will have some surprises each week because we've signed up for our local CSA again.

In the spirit of not wasting, I'm vowing to use up most of the produce seeds that we have leftover from previous years. This includes seeds for tomatoes, pickling cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, mesclun, beans, radishes, some cucumbers and most of the herbs. We ordered the rest of our precious seeds from Seed Savers.

We'll be starting seeds in the greenhouse before the month is over and the peas should be in the ground by then as well. Of course, that means we need to get supplies and start turning over the soil and mixing in compost and the like. We've had so much moisture on the ground for the last several months that that everything is too wet; hopefully some dry, sunny days are in our near future.

That's our list...what are you planting, dear reader?

--Rational Mama