Glory Buns

This is a recipe for simple currant spiced buns that turned out so absolutely tasty and yummy and easy to make that I simply called them GLORIOUS..

They are not only economical but taste sooo good!

CLICK HERE for my WWII Glory Bun recipe!

Cheese Whirls

Here is a recipe used during the war as a fun snack… I made these today after I had observed the Remembrance Day silence and while I listened to the full Remembrance Day service from Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, on my local radio station, CKBW. After the service I watched some of the veteran videos which I have on DVD… Please click here for more thoughts on this

Ingredients

• 12 ounces of plain white or wholewheat flour
• 4 oz cooking fat/margarine
• 4 oz strong cheddar cheese
• 2 eggs (or dried eggs)
• 1 teaspoon dried mustard powder
• salt and pepper
• 3 teaspoons of quick rise dried yeast
• Marmite (you can buy this British item in Atlantic Save Easy & Superstore in Canada)
• milk for brushing with

Method

Place all the dry ingredients (except the cheese) in a large bowl and mix together

Break up the margarine and rub in to the dry ingredients

Mix in the grated cheese

Mix in the two beaten eggs

Knead until a dough is formed

Flour your work surface and rolling pin

Break the dough in half

Roll out the dough into an oblong shape about 1/4 inch thick

Spread with Marmite

Roll up into a long swiss roll shape

Slice along with a sharp knife

Place whirls on a greased baking tray

Brush with milk

Place in over at 200 C for about 12-20 mins

Makes about 30!

 

Today it’s ‘Time to Remember’…

I’m not sure I believe in war..

The more I think about it the more I think it’s a terrible, terrible thing. I think about war a lot and I think about how all over our world it has effected every day families regardless of colour or creed.

So today I’ll be thinking about all the sorrow and tragedy war had caused to so many people and how this has happened to people on every continent of our planet and equally so regardless of nationality.

Above all I’ll be thinking of the BRAVE men and women who have taken part in a war and lived through it or given their lives and the BRAVE families at home battling to keep their children safe and fed.

We have to watch their faces and their eyes for indications of their memories and when they speak we have to listen to what they say (or don’t say ) very carefully.

Please take a little part of your day to watch these 3 minute videos of war veterans in our local community, filmed by my work colleague Tim.

It’s Time to Remember….

CLICK HERE and then click on ‘Veterans Videos’

Lord Woolton Pie

Lord Woolton Pie – a delicious vegetable dish

Here is a very famous WWII 1940’s dish, Lord Woolton Pie..

WIKIPEDIA- Woolton pie, at first known as Lord Woolton pie,^[1] was an adaptable dish of vegetables, created at the Savoy Hotel in London by its then Maitre Chef de Cuisine, Francis Latry.^[2] It was one of a number of recipes commended to the British public by the Ministry of Food during the Second World War to enable a nutritional diet to be maintained despite shortages andrationing of many types of food, especially meat.

It was named after Frederick Marquis, 1st Lord Woolton (1883-1964), who became Minister of Food in 1940.

There are many adaptations of this recipe and I have made it a number of ways with pastry instead of potato or served with a thick brown gravy but today I made it ‘Savoy Hotel’ style with a special herb white sauce (although their potato piping would have been divine and mine was quickly squiggled on using a baggy with a hole in..)

I made a big double portion for myself and two single portions for the girls..

Lord Woolton Pie

• Various in season veggies like swedes, turnips, potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks, onions, carrots
• Potatoes for mashing
• Flour, butter and milk for sauce
• Strong grated cheddar cheese
• Herbs such as sage or thyme for sauce

Method

• Peel washed potatoes (save peelings to bake in oven with salt and herbs)
• Dice potatoes and cook in salted water until soft
• Mash with butter, a little milk and add salt
• Peel, wash and dice in season veggies as applicable and boil until nearly cooked
• Drain and place in pie dish
• Make sauce-Use dessert spoon of butter and melt in pan, add two dessert spoons of flour and mix and slowly add in milk, keep stirring. Add salt and herbs and pepper
• Pour thick sauce over the vegetables
• Put mashed potato in piping bag (baggy with a hole in the corner)
• Pipe over the top of veggies and sauce
• Finish by placing some grated cheese over the top
• Place in oven at 220 C for around 30 minutes until the potatoes have browned

Week 13 – 35lb off with 65lb to go!

Despite a few glitches over Halloween (no matter how hard I try to convince myself there is no way they had funsize Kit Kats in the 1940s!) the scales this morning are showing another 2lb off!!!

I have now lost 35 lbs and am down to 280

This means I am on track (with a bit in hand) to lose 100lb in one year which was my goal when I started this blog 3 months ago. There will still be quite a bit of weight to lose beyond this but I am focussed on the 100lb goal- being 1/3rd of the way there already is very motivating..

My fears are that the next few months will be my danger period- typically this has alway been the time for me where everything goes wrong and the weight creeps on again. I can’t let this happen though……this is it. It’s my one shot…

Good luck to everyone who is struggling to do the same!

C xxx

Will the real Carolyn Ekins please stand up…

Life is weird at the best of times.

Some people go through life with a goal, they know who they are, they know where they want to be and they stay right on track to get there. The majority of us bimble through life never truly knowing who we are or where we want to be and can either be satisfied with that and stay on the track we are already following or we decide to take the dirt road instead of the highway. The dirt road has many detours & dead ends, takes a long time to travel because it is never clearly signed, but ultimately has the most interesting scenery. You never really know where the road will take you but it seems better than following the other routes..

I have always taken the dirt road in life.

But sometimes you have to force a change to make things happen, have clear goals and stick with that one goal for a long time otherwise you keep taking detours and never will get to the end..

Inside every fat person…

Being super sized fat is not me. Inside my body Carolyn Ekins is screaming to get out- it’s been so long since I’ve seen her that I really have forgotten who she is but I know there isn’t one day that passes by where I don’t wonder what it would be like to be the real me again. That can make me sad. Has this happened to you?

To quote some very contrived lyrics from a 1980’s single from recording artist Toyah..

I wanna be me, I wanna be me..

So I guess it’s time to make sure that for once in my life, I stick to the highway, stay focussed on the road ahead, avoid all dangers, drive steadily, keep plenty of gas in the tank and above all check the mirror frequently as one day the real Carolyn Ekins will once again appear in it…

Thanks for listening

C xx

What is your favourite wartime recipe?

Candy Apples- A 1940’s Halloween Treat? CLICK HERE for recipe

I have a FREE weekend (so far…except for Halloween and grocery shopping)

This means I get to catch up on a whole lot of cooking with at LEAST a few different recipes as for every lb I lose I’ll re-create a wartime recipe on my blog.

Is there a wartime recipe you’d like to see re-created? If so please leave your suggestions as a comment and I’ll try to tackle a couple- see what they come out like!

And now for something non- 1940s BUT tomorrow is Halloween! At work we have been busy putting together some fabby recipes and crafts for a useful Halloween page. My friend Jana brought in some Frankenstein Cookies to work yesterday (I do admit to tearing an arm off to taste it- it was the tastiest arm I have ever gnawed on)…

You can see the Franken Cookies, Candy Apples, Ghosty Cakes, Orange Jack O Lanterns and soups by CLICKING HERE

I wonder what treats they had in the 1940’s for Halloween?

C xx

Week 12 weigh in – 3 lbs off!

Being attacked by dogs and high school children and rapidly running out of time before having to leave for work (and I still have to pluck my chin hairs) so just a very quick update for now..

A day late with my weigh in this week but it’s very good news- 3 lb off!!!

I’ll do all the full calculations later but I’m down to 282 lbs – can hardly believe it!!!!

C xx

Being less fat means you can do stuff…

Today I marched for climate change…. if this event had taken place just three months earlier I would have had to have shown my support from just the confines of my home hooked up to my lap top computer.

I am discovering that being less fat gives you more choices. I may have only lost 30 lbs and realistically have another 120 lbs to go BUT just three months ago it was very painful to walk just the length of the garden as well as stand for any time period. In stores, because of the pain in my back, obviously caused by the huge amount of extra weight being carried around my middle (and all over) I would find relief in pushing a cart (shopping trolley) as this gave some relief by leaning on it ( I bet there are others that have discovered that trick too!) …..you kind of get used to those discomforts over the years.

So having lost 30 lbs I find I can now walk 1/2 mile and stand indefinately and today I was able to march for climate change as part of 350.org, in the cold, pouring rain……..Not even the weather could dampen my enthusiasm- it was a very happy day for me.

Please click here to check out the photos!

Week 11 weigh in – down another 2 lb!

Start weight: 315 lbs (22 st 7 lb)

Last weeks weight: 287 lbs (20st 07 lb)

This weeks weight: 285 lbs (20st 05 lb)

Week 11 weight loss: 2 lbs

TOTAL weight loss to date: 30 lb (Yay! 2 stone 2 lbs)

I admit to weighing myself earlier this week and I was already down to this weight- I was secretly hoping for more by the time I jumped on the scales this morning but I guess that’s not so bad..

Nearly 1/3 rd of the way there already!!

C xx