History Lesson

Today is ANZAC day** in Australia.  A tradition for Australians is to make ANZAC for/on ANZAC Day.  So far as I remember (correct me if I'm wrong, Mum), I've never made ANZAC biscuits on ANZAC Day.  I've made plenty of the biscuits, but just never for or on the special day.  Today I decided to change all that.  I thought it would be lovely to start making these each year with Little Spring.  She's always loved helping me in the kitchen and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity, seeing as how easy the biscuits are to make.

As I hadn't planned to make them, I hoped that I would have all of the ingredients in the house.  I was pretty sure I would as the ingredients are all basic/common ones in Australian households.  My heart soared each time I found the next ingredient, until I'd found them all!

While the butter softened, I decided to research the history behind the biscuit.  All I knew of the biscuit is that it was name after our Australian and New Zealand soldiers from WWI.  But why?  I was curious and I love my history! (side note: I hated history in high school; I was never any good at it and it just didn't grab my attention.  I'm sad that I didn't like it because now I just love learning about history!)

Thanks to the trusty internet, I was able to discover the story behind the ANZAC biscuit...

So, apparently the army issued the soldiers of WWI with biscuits called ANZAC tiles or ANZAC wafers.  They were a version of "hard tack" which is a bread substitute that has a long shelf life, and as the name suggests, very hard.  These are not to be confused with the ANZAC biscuits that have become a household name in Australia!

These  hard tack biscuits were so hard and durable, that the soldiers found uses for them aside from actually eating them (I don't blame them... they sound pretty unappetising!).  The soldiers wrote messages on the biscuits and sent them to family and friends!  They were also known to use them as a paint canvas, creatively decorated to become photo frames and even became Christmas cards!

So, with a not-so-appealing- option for the soldiers, the wives back home came up with the ANZAC biscuit.  The ingredients were chosen as they don't spoil easy (hence why there are no eggs in the biscuit) and therefore travelled well on the Naval transport, which was long and had only limited refrigeration.

In typical Australian/New Zealand style, the Aussies and Kiwis (New Zealanders) still disagree as to who actually came up with the recipe.  It joins all good arguments between the countries (for example: who invented pavlova, who can claim Phar Lap and Russell Crowe (although, depending on who you talk to about the latter, I don't think either want to claim him!).  At the end of the day, who cares?  It's a delicious treat and whether the recipe came from Australia or NZ, I don't think the soldiers eating them cared too much either!

And that is the history of the ANZAC biscuit.  As Little Spring and I made them today, I felt a connection with history.  I'm glad to know the story and will always remember this whenever I am making them.

(sources: Wikipedia, Australia War Memorial)

For those of you who are keen to make them, here is my Nana's recipe, which appears to be the most common/popular version (today's ones turned out chewy... another big Australian debate - do you prefer your ANZAC biscuits chewy or hard?!):

Ingredients

1 cup plain flour

1 cup raw sugar

1 cup rolled oats

¾ cup coconut

½ cup butter/margarine

2 Tbsp golden syrup

1 tsp baking soda

2 Tbsp water

Directions

1. Mix together flour, sugar, oats and coconut

2. Melt in saucepan butter and syrup

3. Mix together soda and water.  Add to saucepan.

(The baking soda must have been a bit old... it didn't all fizz up like it normally does (my favourite part!)

4. Pour saucepan contents into dry ingredients and mix together.

5. Drop teaspoons of mixture on to greased tray, allowing room to spread.

(I actually rolled the mixture into balls as the consistency wasn't right for 'dropping')

6.  Bake in 180^oC oven until firm.

 

** If you were interested in continuing the history lesson, read on to find out what ANZAC day is (I put this information in here for any non-Australians/New Zealanders reading this as I would hope that the Aussies and Kiwis will already know this important part of our history!).

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps.  ANZAC day commemorates the 25th April 1915, when the Australian and NZ forces landed on Gallipoli during WWI.  They were there for months and many lives were lost and 25th April became an important date in history, being remembered each year from 1916.  ANZAC day has since come to mark a day for remembering all of our soldiers who have fought/are fighting, not just for the ANZACs in 1915.  If you would like to read further, I suggest heading over the the Australian War Memorial website.  Even I discovered some things I didn't know! 

 (Source: unknown)

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

Lest we forget.

Recipes - Day 7: The Experiment

Wow!  Day 7's recipes below... I didn't think I'd get them all finished today, but I have and it's a relief!  Going through the recipes in such detail has my mouth watering though, and I can't wait to start trying them all next week!

Another ingredient that I've researched (included in Day 7's recipes) is "horseradish".  I've certainly heard of this, but only in its form in a jar.  Here's what Wikipedia had to say: "Cooks use the terms "horseradish" or "prepared horseradish" to refer to the grated root of the horseradish plant mixed with vinegar. Prepared horseradish is white to creamy-beige in colour. It will keep for months refrigerated but eventually will start to darken, indicating it is losing flavour and should be replaced."

Recipes - Day 6: The Experiment

Day 6's Recipes below... we're nearly there!  Once again, I referred to a number of webpages, which I've included at the very end of this post, so you can click straight on the link if you want...

Thousand Island Dressing History and Recipe
Taco Sauce suggested recipe

Recipes - Day 5: The Experiment

Day 5's recipes below!  In one of the recipes, I refer to "Poultry Seasoning".  On googling what this would be, I came up with the following suggestion:

 

2 Tablespoons dried marjoram

2 Tablespoons dried savory

2 teaspoons dried parsley

1 Tablespoon dried sage

1-1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 pinch rosemary

1 pinch onion power

Blend all of the spices together and store in an air-tight container. Use for stuffing and poultry.  Makes about 1/3 cup.  Tip: If you prefer a more powdery consistency, grind your poultry seasoning with a mortar and pestle or pulse it briefly in a food processor.

Recipes - Day 4: The Experiment

Day 4's recipes below!  You'll note that I've added some information regarding one of the ingredients on the list, and included some website references.  If you'd like the direct links so you don't have to type them in, I'll include them at the very bottom of this post.

Link to breakfast cereals
Link to cereals

Recipes - Day 3: The Experiment

Day 3's recipes below.

Recipes - Day 2: The Experiment

UPDATE: I realised that I neglected to write the instructions for "Macaroni American".  My apologies!  Here they are below:

Cook macaroni according to directions for Boiled Spaghetti (Day 1).  Combine tomatoes, sugar, Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and bay leaf; heat.  Cube cheese.  Alternate layers macaroni, tomatoes and cheese in greased baking dish.  Cover; bake in moderate oven (370oF.) 15 minutes.  Serves 4-6.

----------

Phew!  Day 2's menu was much quicker to collate, as you can see below!

Recipes - Day 1: The Experiment

Below you will find the recipes you need for Day 1 of the Experiment.  Whew!  It's taking a bit longer for me to collate these than I thought... making everything from scratch leads you from one recipe to another just for the ingredients list.  But, I'm still excited (even though it's hard work!).

The pictures below are jpeg, but should be a standard A4 size to print out.  Please let me know if you have any issues with printing them out legibly and formatted okay.

(Update: I just did a test run of printing them out and I think you will need to save these images to your computer and then print.  If you print directly from this page, they come up very small.)

 

Menu Plan - The Experiment

In case you're a little worried about what we'll be eating during my Cooking Like Grandma Experiment, here's the menu plan to ease your mind!

 (If you click on the menu, it will take you to another page, where it will be larger and you can read it much easier).

There's nothing too out there!  No liver, or offal or anything else equally not-so-pleasant.  Then again, maybe that's your cup of tea and are disappointed there's none on the menu!

Most of these dishes are taken from the books I received in the package that started it all, but I have also taken a couple of recipes from Grandma Ellie's recipe tin, so there are a couple of 'newer' dishes dated around the 1960s.

I thought I'd ease into the whole Cooking Like Grandma thing... if this menu plan goes well and I get some good feedback, I hope to do this again in future, and might find some dishes to get a bit more adventurous with my taste buds!

If you have any thoughts on the menu plan, feel free to share them on the blog.  The experiment hasn't started yet, but initial feedback is welcome!

14 days until we start!  I'm excited!  I would like to have started earlier, but because of what the coming weeks look like, it might have been a little hard to stick to the plan for the whole week.  I hope you're getting excited as well!

As always, stay tuned for further updates... I'll be posting more information leading up to the start date, to ensure you have all the resources you need to 'experiment' with me!

Cooking Like Grandma - The Experiment

Yep, I've talked about Grandma Ellie's books for awhile and now it's time for the big launch of:

The Experiment

So, what exactly is it?  I'm going to attempt to spend a week cooking (and eating) like Grandma Ellie.  I want to find out a number of things:

1. How much money I can save, if any, or how much extra it will cost.
2. How much wastage I can cut down on.
3. How different the dishes taste compared to the lavish dishes I/society prepare now.
4. Can I save time in the kitchen.
5. If it's really possible to live off Grandma Ellie's diet* (recipe books) or something that really needs to be left in the past.
6. With today's availability of food, can I find ingredients as close to what was available to Grandma Ellie or find equivalent ingredients so I can stick as close to these recipes as possible?
7. Health wise, how does my body react to the diet* in regards to general well-being, weight loss/gain, energy levels, emotion etc?
8. When cooking for more than just me, how did the other consumers react to the dish/es?
9. Would I try doing this again?

I would really encourage you to help me in my experiment... I'd love your feedback, based on the above nine points I want to answer for myself.  If you are interested in participating in this experiment and/or know someone who might be, please pass this information on to them as well - please help spread the word!

I am collating all the information needed for the experiment on a page on my blog dedicated to "Cooking Like Grandma: The Experiment".  Keep this link for your own reference, and pass it on to anyone you think might be interested.  Head over there now to get more information (including details on a giveaway!) and to register your participation!

(Over the coming days/week, I'll be building up the resources needed for the Experiment, so be sure to subscribe to my blog, so you stay updated!)

Who Are You Influenced By?

Obviously we all have people in our lives who influence us.  Generally when I'm asked that question (or ones similar: "Who do you admire?", "Who do you aspire to be like?", "Who had a great impact on your life?" etc), however, I've always found it difficult to answer.  It's hard to pinpoint particular people because I've had people influence me in subtle ways, not necessarily in life changing ways.

If you asked me that question over the past couple of weeks though, I would actually have an immediate answer for you, for once!  So, go ahead and ask me!

"Who am I influenced by?  What a great question, and thanks for asking!"

It's actually my grandma.  Grandma Ellie - my mum's mom.  She died in 1979.  I was 2 years old.  I only met her twice - once when Mum took me to the USA to meet her (I was about 16 months old) and once when she came and visited us here in Australia a year or so later.

Top left is Ellen (Ellie) with her brother, Virgil.  The man in the other pictures is her husband, my grandpa, Henry (Hank)

So, how could a woman who died when I was 2 be influencing me now?  Well, if you've been keeping up with my blog, you'll know that I was very excited to receive a package from my aunty a few weeks back, which contained some recipe books from my Grandma Ellie.  I've been devouring them ever since, again, as you can see from my most recent blog posts!

Each of the books/documents has me thinking deeply about how we view food now.

There are so many resources out there devoted to healthier eating... and many varied and differing views of what actually is healthy for us - eat less salt/sugar/fat; eat only organic; don't eat meat; eat meat; avoid preservatives & additives etc, etc, etc.  I've never really been passionate about one particular health scheme.  Yes, I've tried a number of diets, but nothing ever really 'clicked' for me.  I was following a diet, but it didn't really change my way of thinking, so that made it hard to commit and actually change my lifestyle and how I was eating.

But, then along came Grandma Ellie's cookbooks.  I can't believe how passionate I have become about the thoughts that have been flooding my brain.  The bottom line is I want to cook like Grandma Ellie.  I want to get back to the basics of food, back to raw, unprocessed food and start from scratch. Get rid of all the food containing preservatives and additives.  I love that Grandma Ellie has stirred this up in me.  I love that I've become passionate about being more healthy instead of trying to eat healthy because we should.  Now I want to eat healthy!

Okay, so we've established that I want to start eating healthy, but now we need to define what I mean by healthy.  There are so many conflicting bits of information about what's actually healthy for us.  I think that we can all agree that fruit and vegetables are very healthy for us, but that's even disputed about how much we should be eating of each of those.  My vision of healthy is getting back to the basics... purging my kitchen of preservatives and additives.

What I would like to try to start doing, is cooking from scratch as much as possible.  Not buying any pre-packaged items unless I can't duplicate that product, and where I have to buy pre-packaged, find the item that has the least additives and preservatives.

Thanks to Grandma Ellie's cookbooks, that should be a lot easier though.  Back when the books were published, everything was made from scratch... you couldn't go buy something pre-packaged.

I'm not planning on cooking up big meals full of sugar and fat all the time, but my biggest focus is cutting back on/getting rid of the additives and preservatives from our diet.  I'm curious to see what this will look like...

Which is why I'm going to start an experiment!  And I would really love for you to join me!  I'll post again regarding all the specific details etc, but in brief, I'm going to set up a menu plan using Grandma Ellie's cookbooks and cook for a week using her resources.  Please consider doing this experiment with me... I'd really like to get as many people as possible involved as I'm keen to get feedback on other people's thoughts as well.

Stayed tuned in the coming days/week and I'll start giving more information on the experiment.

And on that note, I'll end this little essay and head out to our family day of fun at the Cairns Wildlife Safari Reserve!

Cake Secrets

Sorry folks, I went quiet on my blog for a little while and am making up for it with a passion at the moment... you might feel I've inundated with you posts and I just hope that what I've said hasn't gotten lost amongst the the flurry of posts.

I think this will be my last review on specific books/documents from the package I received, but no guarantees once I've gone through the last books more thoroughly!

Anyway, getting on to this next book/document:

"Cake Secrets", by Igleheart Brothers (1925)

Background/Explanation/Blurb:
This booklet was published by Igleheart Brothers, who manufactured cake-making products (flour, bran and even cooking utensils).  The booklet is filled with many different types of cakes and with each recipe is a "complete description of what they are" by Janet McKenzie Hill, who is the Editor for American Cookery Magazine, plus variations of the cake and hints to make the cakes successfully.

My Thoughts:
It wasn't so much anything that was written in the booklet that got me thinking, but just the overall concept of the book.  Yes, there were a few different cakes and within them, numerous variations, but they were fairly simple and uncomplicated.  How they were decorated was appealing, yet simple.

Flash forward to the times we are living in now.  With so many recipe books out there, and cake decorating books, it can be quite overwhelming.  I grew up with the Women's Weekly Birthday Cake Book cakes and even before I was pregnant with my daughter, I had bought the book to ensure my recipe book collection was complete.

I love cake decorating.  I may not be any good at it (I'm certainly no perfectionist when it comes to anything creative!) but I enjoy it.  I love the challenge of replicating what's in the picture.  However, there's certainly a pressure on us today to have a theme cake, or something heavily decorated.  I'm not saying that it's wrong to decorate, but when I had the "Cake Secrets" booklet in my hands my immediate thought was that we've even managed to over complicate the humble birthday cake.

Big Spring and I were chatting after I received the package and running through with him all the thoughts I've now expressed here on my blog.  He certainly made an interesting point.  He said that back in the days of our grandmothers, food would have been used for nutritional purposes.  Now-a-days, it's used for entertainment.

Wow! I loved that thought!  I think it's so true!  Instead of simple meals with simple ingredients, it's all about complicated (sometimes) recipes, unheard of ingredients and a day in the kitchen preparing it all to make sure it's just right.  When guests arrive, instead of just focusing on conversation and fellowship, over a simple meal, its about fussing in the kitchen to serve up a lavish meal, worrying if it's turned out okay and what are the guests going to think about it - will you impress them?

Then it's time for the showdown... bringing out the food (possibly multiple times, depending on how many courses you have) and having your guests gush over how 'great it all looks' and 'how much effort you must have gone to' and 'wow, this tastes fantastic - what's in it/is it?'

If we could get back to the basics of it all, perhaps the focus might actually be on having those conversations and entertaining our guests ourselves, instead of letting our food do it for us?

I'm not saying that a lavish meal is wrong and they we shouldn't do it, but we shouldn't let entertaining guests/opening our house be something that we stress about for the week before.  Hey, don't worry... I'm guilty of this, just in case you thought I thought I had it all right and was telling you all how it should be done!  This post is as much about me needing to change my attitude, as much as it's meant to get you thinking as well!

All that thinking from a humble "Cake Secrets" booklet published in 1925!

The Pocket Cook Book

Continuing my theme writing about the books/documents I received from my aunty, I come to the next book:

"The Pocket Cook Book" by Elizabeth Woody (and members of the Food Staff of McCall's Magazine)

Another interesting and thought provoking read (okay, so I haven't read it thoroughly - 494 pages, but enough to understand the book's 'philosophy'.)

Background/Explanation/Blurb:
Published in 1942, this book was released "in order to cooperate with the government's war effort... [and] has been made in strict conformity with WPB regulations restricting the use of materials."  Woody published this book because "as a food editor I receive... many letters from women... One question has always left me up a tree:

"'Where can I get a complete and completely reliable cook book for a very little money?'"

Many cook books, it seems had been published that were 'complete and completely reliable', but none "until now has offered such completeness at a nominal cost."

The book is indeed very thorough, covering I think everything you would need to know about cooking, especially in war time (54 pages of thoroughness, in fact).  There was a whole chapter on "Good Nutrition Simplified" and went into great detail about how to buy, prepare and cook food to best preserve the vitamin and mineral content of the food.  Even a calorie counter was included (in my naivety, I didn't even realise that the concept of calories had been around that long!).  Unlike calorie menus of today, this calorie counter was purely on whole foods, back to the basics, not about how much a packet of biscuits would cost you in calories etc.  It was refreshingly simple and unrefined.

There was also a full chapter on "Leftovers".  Waste not, want not!  The first paragraphs of this chapter sum it up brilliantly:

"Somebody has said the mark of a good explorer is that he never has any dangerous adventures.  He plans so wisely they don't happen!  Similarly, it's the mark of a super-cook and a fine idea to avoid having leftovers...

"But it would take an archangel cooking for a family of cherubs to avoid leftovers entirely.  So what to do?  Certainly they should not be wasted!  And, to forget food value for the moment and talk about flavor, it's a well-known fact that good things often taste better in their second incarnation than they did in their first."

The chapter continues with a fantastic index to recipes to use those certain leftovers.

Short on funds?  It's covered in Chapter Nine, "Penny Stretchers".  It includes recipe suggestions and hints and tips.

With a few more helpful chapters, we finally come to the recipe section... 405 pages worth of recipes in fact!  You can't go wrong with that!

My Thoughts:
So, like all the other literature I've been reading, it wasn't simply a matter of reading recipes from bygone years... it actually got me thinking and comparing the then and now.

Back in Grandma Ellie's day, wasting food was not really an option - it was money wasted AND not helpful for the war effort.  These days, we live in such a throw-away, 'land of plenty' society and we take for granted so much of what we are provided with.  We look at all the easily accessible food and see it as a right, not so much of a privilege.  We just expect it to be there.  Someone else has already done the hard work to get it on the shelf.  I'm sure Grandma Ellie grew up with growing many of their fresh produce in the garden (certainly hard work) and skimped and saved to shop for necessities at the grocers; again hard work.

I'm not saying that we, as a society, don't work hard to put food on our tables, but it's a very different mind set.  Perhaps I'm generalising too much but from where I'm sitting with all the prepackaged food and aisles and aisles of products in the supermarket, I see the simple life of my grandma disappear.

I'm not naive enough to think that we could time warp our food production and diet to that of my grandma's era, but I would love to see some of the simplicity of her own growing up and raising a family included in today's world.  Just something to think about! *wink*

Master Mixes

Another document that was included in the package from my aunty was a document entitled "Master Mixes - Save Time and Money (1972)". This was actually a document used by my aunty, not Grandma Ellie, as I first thought. Not that that matters... it's just as interesting and Aunty Ellen actually gave me some background to where the document originated and some lovely memories that went along with it.

Background/Explanation/Blurb:
This document (6 pages of notes) is a list of recipes to make 'master mixes' or recipe bases yourself instead of buying premix from the supermarket (Bisquick as it's known in the USA). Each pamphlet goes into detail as to how to make the base recipe and then what variations you can make from that base, depending on what ingredients you later add to it. It also gives a cost comparison on each recipe, showing how much you could save making your own master mix instead of buying it. The master mixes were:

• White Sauce
• Cornmeal
• Rolled Oats
• Biscuit (read: scones in Australia)
• Pastry
• Pudding (read: custard in Australia)
  

My Thoughts:
Like the previous document I reviewed, this document was very thought provoking... it got me comparing today with with the past. Now, it's quicker and cheaper to buy prepackaged things from the supermarket. Things that are mass produced and contain many more additives and preservatives that wouldn't be contained in homemade equivalents. Unfortunately because of the buying power of companies, it's often cheaper to buy their prepackaged recipe bases instead of making the 'master mixes' yourself. Not to mention the time factor... we are all so busy these days that anything that makes cooking quicker is appealing. But in that, I think we've lost an art - cooking an entire meal from scratch. We've become so reliant on prepackaged food, that we just take it for granted and don't even think that there's an alternative (i.e. make the base yourself from original ingredients).

As we don't have Bisquick here in Australia, I can't do a cost comparison to see what would actually come up cheaper today, compared to 1972 (I've assumed that buying the pack mix is cheaper, because that generally seems to be accepted rule, but who knows!). There are so many packet mixes out there these days, readily available, so the mentality is to grab it and use it without thinking, but I do wonder if spending a little more time, would save a little bit of money. In any case, I'm interested in using these Master Mixes suggested and see how they turn out!

Further Background/History:
The "Master Mixes" pamphlets (handed out by the "Extension Club") hold their place in Missouri history, which my aunty shared with me...

When her kids were all small, my aunty and her family didn't have much money. They only had one car for many years and the dad would take that to work 35 miles away everyday. That left my aunty at home with 3 pre-schoolers for several years. Other than her mother-in-law, she had very little interaction with other women (I expect partly to do with living in a very small country town).

"Extension Club" monthly meetings were my aunty's salvation. The meetings were held on a rotation schedule with a different woman hosting each month. It was ALWAYS a big deal. Aunty Ellen looked forward to it for the social benefit, but it was also educational. Here is the "official" description of what they were about:

The extension program concentrated on working with farmers and their families, which comprised the majority of the nation's population, to improve their quality of life and standard of living. Extension workers demonstrated how to produce more and better varieties of agricultural commodities; how to benefit from better nutrition, clothing and housing; and how to work together to bring about major improvements, such as electric cooperatives.

Someone at each meeting gave an informal talk on something they received from the University of Missouri, which started the extension idea.

The Extension Club did fun things too. Each year they had a "come as you are" party. No one but the appointed committee knew the date of the event when they would knock on Aunty Ellen's door yelling, "come as your are" and she was not allowed to change anything about her appearance which made for some very interesting attire. The committee member would drive Aunty Ellen to one of their homes for sweets and games and then take Aunty Ellen back home.

That certainly sounds like a lot of fun, but possibly quite nerve wracking as well!