July 20th - Lucky Snapping week 4 - Nostalgia - Food Memories

This week is Kathy's challenge week with us looking back at our past. food memories.
This week she asks us to look at food we have eaten as children, what we liked and hated and why. Family favourites and traditions we may have past on to our family

I was a end of war baby born in 1945. My memories as a child was we had an eating pattern during the week. On shopping day we started with a full nutritous meal but as the week ended we had' make do' meals such as egg on toast / or homemmade soup and a steamed pudding and custard. My mother only shopped once a week and it was make do at the end of the week.
I often laugh as I open a large tin of baked beans to eat alone or share with my husband. My mother had the smaller tins of baked beans and that tin was shared with 3 of us with one toasted slice of bread!

My mother had a baking day too. That day I would come home form school and she would have baked 3/4 different kind of cakes for the week which then went into all the tins to last the week (no freezer in those days!)  She was a good cook.  I still have her recipe book with all the homemade recipes for cough mixture/ lemonade drink, confectioners custard and cream etc during the 2nd world war, I have to confess I have never tried them. What I love is that in that recipe book are recipes that she wrote down when given by me and embraced when I went to train as a cookery teacher and for years later when I was teaching.

Foods were very nourishing but seasonal never as adventurous as those we have today from round the world and that we can buy all year round and also freeze. Like Anne and Kristina I had to eat everything that was on my plate and there was never an alternative!  For that reason I hated brussell sprouts and cabbage until I became an adult (I love both veg now!!)

We too had very little money for luxury food and drink. My mother never worked and was the housewife at home. Special treats were icecream which was bought at the corner shop and wrapped in newspaper and then run home to immediately eat for dessert and lemonade was only bought for special occasions such as a birthday party.

Desserts if we had one was mainly steamed puddings and custard, milk pudding (ugh!!) or cake but instant whip became a popular dessert on the weekly menu during the 60's. I loved butterscotch whip with banana slices in it,  one of my favourites!

Well what about school dinners. They made a lasting impression on some dessert foods I never eat- custard. milk puddings and blancmange! We had a school dinner and came home to a sandwich and cake every day, no 2 cooked meals a day. I do remember suppers which my parents had. Every evening there would be around 9o'clock  a cheese sandwich with HP sauce which my mother and father ate!! no wonder he had a massive heart attack at 60 and my mother a massive stroke at 63!!

Over the years with my career being a Home Economic teacher and therefore with a great interest in food and travelling too, I have loved trying and cooking foreign foods and my favourite is Italian food.
In France I always choose steak to eat out as the French cook it to perfection... but why oh why do they always serve it in restaurants with over cooked beans and french fries when their markets are full of such wonderful vegetables? (sorry Anne). Why also do Americans eat such rubbish fast foods and how difficult it is to eat vegetables there too?(sorry Joy)

Anyway over the years I have been a serial dieter. I suppose cos I just love food but now having discovered SW this way of eating suits both Peter and I...mind you at the moment we are trying to shake our bodies up and doing our hair dresser's 'boxer diet' of 6 days strict regime but sensible and healthy eating and 7th day anything we want to eat and drink, today is our 7th day and this week we have each lost around 6lbs!

I love tomatoes so here is my lunch today on my last 6 days I couldn't eat them as they were high in carbs(sugar!)

Foods we didn't eat this week were 2 desserts that I made and took to our housegroup social

Raspberry and white chocoate roulade with a coulis

 Mary Berry rich bread and butter pudding made with brioche and mincemeat

Now what  we have been up to this week as the UK is experiencing a wonderful heatwave with temps daily around 28/30C!

We took 2 Granddaughters out on Tuesday aged 17 and 3 yrs, everyone had a great time

On Wednesday we had our housegroup social where we said goodbye to Mary  as she and her husband Chris (our vicar) leave our parish after 18yrs

 Chris and I 

 Chris and Mary 

A wonderful sky on our hottest day on Thursday

 Our first cucumber nearly ready in my friend Carol's greenhouse. We have never grown them before!

.