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

Missing Coffee

Tea does our fancy aid,
Repress those vapours which the head invade

And keeps that palace of the soul serene.

--Edmund Waller (17th century English poet)

Yeah, but coffee does it so much better.

--Rational Mama (21st century rationer)

U.K. Ration Day!

Hello to all! Today is the day we start living on 1945 U.K. rations for the next two weeks!

A previous post outlined some of the rations and restrictions which were, unfortunately, a little squishy. Since I didn't have access to many first-hand sources I was making a sort of U.K. ration hodge-podge - a little 1943, a little 1945, etc.

Luckily, the ever so kind Mr. Graham (from On the Ration) set me straight. So, here's a rundown of our rations for the first week.

Standard Weekly U.K. Rations for Family of Four (1945)

8 oz preserves/syrup/treacle (Hagrid's favorite) (We have blueberry preserves)

32 oz sweets (We've gone with 27 oz sugar and 5 oz hard candy)

One pound bacon or ham (bacon this week)

32 oz butter/margarine/lard (We have 16 oz butter, 8 oz margarine and 8 oz lard...shudder)

8 oz cheese (Cheddar)

4 eggs (Drats! I can't find egg powder in this town!)

1.80 gallons fresh milk

milk powder - enough to make .6 gallons of milk

8 oz loose tea (no coffee or soda allowed)

Ribena concentrate for the girls (Our local grocery store had Ribena, Mr. Graham!)

2 cans concentrated orange juice

$8.32 for meat ration (Our antibiotic-free whole chicken was $8.30)

The monetary ration for meat was historically for red meat only, but to stay in line with our rationing year we will also include pork and poultry as part of this ration due to their current widespread availability (as compared with WWII).

There is also a standard ration of cod liver oil that I will not be subjecting the family to (I'm afraid Sissy would never speak to me again).

Then we have 24 points per week to use on tinned and dried foods. This is how we spent ours for the first week:

2 pounds oatmeal (8 pts)

1 pound dried beans - garbanzos (4 pts)

1 pound pasta (4 pts)

1/2 pound rice (1 pt)

1 pint condensed milk (2 pts)

1 fl oz olive oil (1 pt)

4 oz mayonaisse (4 pts)

Of course, local fresh produce and whole-grain breads are ration-free.

Soap rations are outlined in a previous post.

And then there's the gasoline rations...Under U.S. rations (and with a little 2010 math) our family is allowed 193 miles per week combined for both of our vehicles. Mr. Graham shared that gasoline rations varied during the war, with civilian rations of gasoline not being an option for a good portion of the war. He did related that if TMOTH's employment correlated with a wartime industry (which it would) then in early 1945 he would be allowed 9 gallons of gasoline per week which, using our 2010 math, would equate to 157 gallons per week.

Our weekly average has been closer to 180 miles per week, so we will definitely have to rethink our trips.

Of course, no appliance or clothing purchases are allowed and eating outside the home (restaurants, etc.) will only be permitted at two different (previously scheduled) family occasions during the two week period.

So there's the basics! Last night we went through the cupboards and refrigerator, storing away tempting items that are not allowed on U.K. rations. It was like removing all the hametz out of a house for Passover. Good bye crackers, gratuitous amounts of packaged cereal and cheese. Today we have nice, sparse shelves and a simple vegetable and dumpling soup.

We'll see how this goes.

--Rational Mama

Black Saturday

So...I think I bought something on the black market.

Granted, it wasn't as controversial as cigarettes or booze, or even something more traditional to the WWII civilian black market (typically beef, sugar and coffee).

It was granola bars. You know, those kind that have two thin, crunchy granola wafers in each individual wrapping? I bought a box of those.

A few Saturdays ago I found myself at work without my lunch. The best option was a nearby grocery store, so I wandered the aisles looking for something to hit the spot. This small grocery store didn't have a salad bar, nor much of a deli to speak of. Rationing makes impulse purchases a little tricky, since things like prepackaged meals and most chips are not allowed. I looked and looked, with nothing catching my eye or my taste buds.

And then I saw them - their cheerful green box beckoning me hither, saying, "Go ahead, you haven't had a granola bar in over six months...live a little."

I pondered the implications. Technically, this type of prepackaged good was not available during the 1940s and so isn't really allowed during our rationing year. But, in the broad scheme of things they were a pretty basic option (as opposed to, say, highly processed Cheetos). And they sounded really, really good.

So I bought them. I had purchased a contraband item.

I guess I can somewhat rationalize (no pun intended) it by saying I traded some of our coffee rations for the granola bars. Coffee was a highly-desired commodity during WWII rationing and made frequent appearances on the black market.

Friends, we haven't actually bought coffee since the end of January. This means that, had we been purchasing coffee at our normal ration allowance with the idea of stockpiling it, we would have approximately 10 pounds of the stuff with which to make trades.

That's a whole lotta granola bars.

But I promise to not abuse this option, since there were serious implications (jail time, fines) for anyone caught trading on the black market.

Instead, let me know if you have a recipe for the type of granola bars I'm talking about - that way, we can have our snack and be legit.

--Rational Mama

This Week's Scenarios and Menu

Another week...and I'm starting to dream about salads. Nice, green, crispy salads...

Last week we used 103 of our 193 allotted miles. I think The Man of the House is working on a blog entry about gasoline usage and hoarding...or how I won't let him hoard as much as he wants to. Look for that to appear within the next week or so.

Last week we used all 59 of our reduced 59 red points and 88 of our (incorrectly calculated) 178 blue/green points (we went out on Tuesday, hence the reduce points).

For those of you who missed the post a few days ago, we have since learned that we are allowed only 48 blue/green points per week!

The good news is is that this week we have only one scenario:

Canned soups and sauces are scarce and only available at half the normal purchase/recipe quantity.

With that in mind, here's this week's menu:

Saturday: Homemade pizza (pepperoni, mushroom and onion)
Sunday: BBQ pork country-style ribs, cheesy potatoes and (canned) green beans
Monday: Carrot soup and grilled cheese sandwiches
Tuesday: Thai chicken thighs, rice and baked cabbage
Wednesday: Buttermilk pancakes and bacon
Thursday: Chicken broth soup (made with the thigh bones from making Tuesday's chicken boneless) and corn dumplings
Friday: Dinner out

Yes, I realize that said "Dinner out" for Friday night, even though we had our official "one dinner out per month as a family" last week. We've been gifted two dinner theater tickets to see some of our two best buddies in a play on Friday. Since dinner is included, and since the girls will be having a sleepover with their aunt that night we've reduced our allotted ration points for the week to 59 red (rather than 64) and 45 blue/green (rather than 48) accordingly.

I also purchased our allotted 2 pounds of sugar and finally purchased our second one pound coffee allowance for the month.

On Tuesday of this week we'll officially mark one calendar month of the project, so I'll work on a little recap for you. I'm also scheduled to give a presentation at out church next weekend, so when the text for that is finalized I'll post it as well.

Thanks for all your support!

--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

A Rational Review

Now that we've survived the first day of rationing, I thought I'd review all of the rations/restrictions that we are following during this rationing year.

These allotments follow traditional U.S. civilian rationing during WWII:

Gasoline: maximum of 193 miles per week combined for our two vehicles (equivalent to the 11 gallons per week we would have been allowed during the War).
Sugar: maximum 2 pounds per week for our family of four.
Meat/Cheese/Oils: maximum 64 red points per week, following point values on this handy dandy chart (we are including poultry, which was not part of the original WWII U.S. civilian rationing program).
Canned, Frozen and Processed Fruits, Vegetables and Soups: up to 192 blue/green ration points per week following the handy dandy chart. [Editorial Note: during the 4th week of the rationing year it was discovered that we are only allowed 48 blue/green points. Big change!]
Coffee: Up to 1 pound per adult every 5 weeks.

All of the above restrictions, as well as some additional food items, are subject to change as a result of Mr. Bowles' Amazing Marketplace Scenario Randomizer.

In addition to the above we have also incorporated a host of additional restrictions during the rationing year:

Eating Out: we will eat out at a restaurant as a family only once a month, and I will have one weekend lunch out with the girls just once a month as well.
Limited Processed Foods: minimally processed and/or minimally-packaged foods will be preferred over other options (i.e. "real" carrots vs. bags of mini peeled carrots, no prepackaged snack cakes).
Seasonal Produce: only seasonal fresh produce may be purchased, following this list (if off-season, produce must be dried, canned or frozen and thus cost more rationing points).
Soda: permitted at a maximum of three 12 oz servings per week, per adult.
Limited New Purchases: all purchases must be evaluated for needs vs. wants and when possible second-hand options should be considered (Craig's List, Ebay, Goodwill and Freecycle).

We're also in the process of re-evaluating our energy usage in the Rational Living household, so additional energy ration guidelines may be added. We're notoriously bad about leaving lights on in unoccupied rooms and don't use power strips to power-down idle electronics. But that will be fodder for a future post!

In the meantime...pretty much the entire gang at the Rational Living household suspects that the eating out restrictions are where we will feel the most pain.

How often does your family eat out? Do you have a family plan about eating out, or is it more loosey-goosey?

Thanks for stopping by!

--Rational Mama

Java Dilemma

Java, java, java.

We haven't yet figured out how to deal with the coffee ration during the project year.

Coffee was the second consumable to be rationed by the U.S. government during WWII, beginning in late November 1942. Strangely enough, coffee was rationed not because there wasn't enough to supply the troops, but because civilians were hoarding coffee in fear/anticipation of it being rationed; their own attempt to avoid a shortage caused a shortage. The U.S. government introduced coffee rationing as a way of getting coffee back on the grocery store shelves. The official coffee ration was 1 lb of coffee every 5 weeks for each individual age 15 and above.

That means our house would have 2 lbs of coffee available every 5 weeks.

But see, we're not big coffee folks, so even 1lb of coffee would last for months. Sounds pretty easy, right? Well, part of the reason we're not big coffee drinkers is because of soda. I may have a soda once or twice a week, filling in the other days with an occasional tea or coffee. Hubby, on the other hand, seems to drink soda in spurts - he'll go days without soda and then have a few. So, we could consider rationing soda, but soda was widely available during WWII and was never rationed (yay! an un-rationed, copious supply of sugar!).

So what are we to do with this seemingly easy (for us) ration?

Should we come up with some sort of rationing system that includes soda and/or tea?

Or should we call it good and have at least one ration that is easy to live with?

This also has me thinking...what food item(s) would you consider hording if you suspected rationing would soon be instituted?

For me...I think chocolate would be at the top of the list, along with cheese. Mmm...

--Rational Mama