We have been at this old fashioned 1942 life for six weeks now. It is still difficult to completely live a 1942 life when nothing around is is even a smidge glimpse of 1942. But we are continuing on, doing things our way.
Each day there is normally something simmering on the stove or rising in the oven or a warm place on top of the stove. Today was stewed (boiled) chicken, mashed potatoes and boiled carrots.
Removing dough from the bowl after the first rise...
This dough I pulled into two pieces. One for loaf bread and one for rolls.
I just pinch them off for the rolls...
Roll and tuck the balls and then pat them down...
Here they are ready to go into a warm area to rise...
Now they have risen and are ready to bake. I have many articles about how to make bread..
Nice warm bread makes the home smell wonderful.
I also made a dessert bread and baked a date bread. I simply adjusted my regular bread recipe and added 1/2 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons of yeast, a bit of vanilla and the dates to my normal bread recipe. It takes longer to rise.
It is a very good dense bread.
There is most always dishes waiting to be washed. There is more work living like 1942 but our home feels even more homey than before and we were already homey.
This is a picture I keep behind our stove, my husbands side of the family and it reminds me of when there was more family around and there was more laughter and help in the kitchen.
We understand the importance of the victory garden since we are living like 1942 and the government is urging everyone to start vegetable gardens. We added another small plot to hold two mid size rows. Katherine had to investigate before we added garden soil and a garden gate. This was one of our gravel paths.
We added soil and my husband made another cute little gate.
Charles knows that I love sparkley whimsical touches and so he surprised me with these little touches on the new gate.
We added our signs to our new plot and went ahead and planted the Turmeric and Ginger. We decided we would cover it if needed but for now it is warmer than normally for this time of year.
I wanted to show you how you can plant a mini garden even if you don't have a yard.
Punch about a dozen holes in the bottom of a large disposable drinking cup...
You can use a large safety pin or something like that.
Ask someone for a free wooden crate or you can use a plastic tote, anything will do. You can plant an herb garden or lettuce or anything that has small root needs. Put a organic fertilizer stick down in the cup and plant what it is you want to grow.
You can grow a garlic bulb or onion, my mother-in-law grew peppers in a very small trough one year and I was surprised how well they did because it was not very deep and not a lot of soil.
It is starting to look like spring here but it is still winter.
Our azalea's are in bloom already...
We never know where our herbs are going to spring up, here is lemon balm emerging from the cracks in our back steps.
I transplanted lemon grass....
And Charles cleaned out many of the birdhouses as the birds are searching for new homes to lay their eggs.
We feel such a part of nature in our yard and each year we lean new things as nature teaches us. As we are getting older we have a more intense desire to learn as we feel we are running out of time so I encourage you if you are young to not wait until you are older to pay attention to the wisdom of the creatures that are outside your home.
One more thing before I end this post, in the past people did not waste food as we do today. They made use of most everything. We had just a bit of leftover fruit bread that was getting stale and so i put some butter in a small pot and melted it, added some cream and a tad of vanilla. I heated it and then poured it over the stale fruit bread.
It makes a delicious bread pudding of sorts. Just let is soak in and eat it while it is warm. You can also do this with regular bread and just add a bit of cinnamon and raisins to your pot of butter, milk, vanilla mixture and pour it over your stale bread. I call stale bread, dry bread, not molded bread. Bread that has dried out.
My little surprise when I cut into some current bread I made last week. I had to laugh.
Grandma Donna
You may like to read...
http://gdonna.com/cooking-from-scratch/she-donned-...
