Making ends meet

[Guest]

I still cook my Mums wartime specials: butter a Pyrex dish,two tins of baked beans,one onion diced,two rashers -lay on top.. place in oven for 40 minutes.

When I worked nights at Gerrards my Mum used to scoop out one of those huge spuds-fill with grated cheese and an egg,when I arrived home at 6.30 the egg had fried in the butter and cheese had melted..open the tin foil..heaven!! I draw the line at rag rugs and gooey soap in a jar as shampoo!!

[colly0410 1,180]

It was basically sliced spuds, layered up with a bit of grated cheese, and maybe slices of boiled egg. The assembled dish was topped up with milk and baked in the oven.

I loved it and have made it a few times since, though nowadays I can afford a bit more cheese.

Col

I love that & we call it 'Australian spuds' as when the in-laws went over to visit his sister in Joondalup they had this for dinner/tea quite a few times. They said they also scoffed red snapper & chips, bit different to cod & chips..

[MargieH 7,423]

Ian, I remember shampoo powder in a packet! It was in a green and white packet - ?Palmolive or was it Vosene - and you poured a bit of the powder into warm water in a cup and stirred it until it had dissolved. Paul says he only had soap to wash his hair when he was young.

I suspect that some people still make trendy rag rugs (possibly the same people who knit their own muesli!). I think I saw an article in a magazine showing how to make them...

[Guest]

Indeed Margie,they are trendy now! I remember my Mum making fire bricks out of sugar bags and cement.Funny I used to keep telling my Dad the war was over!!

[Compo 10,185]

#10 Blists Hill: When I went you could buy old pennies for use in the pub. The beer was IIRC two old pence per half pint. If you happen to have soem old pennies at home be sure to take them with you for a cheap pint!

A cheap meal for us in the fifties was corned beef fritters. Make batter using only self raising flour and water and dip your slice of corned beef into it before deep frying. Serve with ships and, if you can afford it, peas or beans. Yummy, scrummy.

Margie #34: My mother and her mother used to spend hours making rag rugs together. I don't know what they did with them all but I know we had a few of them scattered around.

[EileenH 496]

Oh yes, and pegging rugs would keep your knees warm while you were making them.

[NewBasfordlad 3,599]

I was/am a Spam fitter fan. There's a chippy on the Huthwaite Road at Sutton still does them, thick slice of Spam in crispy batter in a big buttered cob, salivating even now.

[dgbrit 258]

No need to make do anymore just got our pension increases me 25p the wife 12p

Ps. that's a WEEK .

[carni 10,046]

We have been to Blists Hill three times now and I still love to go and visit. My favorite part is going in and out of the houses and smelling the coal fires, generally looking at the furniture and realising how much of it was still around our houses when we were children. The fish and chips cooked the old fashioned way in "Beef Dripping".

When we changed our money in the bank we expected to get real old pennies, but they were more like tokens with the old value stamped on them, good fun though. We had a bit of fun with the copper, he followed us around, threatening to arrest me.! I think he took a shine to me, because I had a funny accent!! Not from round these parts then MyDear he said. Who me........Naagh.... Nottinum Miduck.

Dint like the look of his Handcuffs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXu2V4WX0w8

[FLY2 10,106]

Had a nice surprise this afternoon when I unexpectedly bumped into a good friend in Arnold whom I hadn't seen for ages.

Then on returning home, I had a call from my youngest daughter telling me of the new man in her life. Fingers crossed for her.

Then in the garden, I noticed two birds nests snuggled in the climbing Montana going over the top of the front gate.

All in all a good end to the day.

Sorry folks, wrong topic. Should be in How's your day.

[Compo 10,185]

Carni: I still cook my chips in beef dripping. Problem is that Julie hates the smell of beef dripping so I have an old cooker out in the shed where I cook my chips

[carni 10,046]

I could just eat a big plate full with a couple of fried eggs and fruity sauce. What time are you frying!

[Compo 10,185]

No chips for me until Friday. However, that gives you ample time to get on yer bike and come up for a nosh-up

[Compo 10,185]

Sausage egg & chips

Sausage beans & chips

Fish & chips

Fish, chips & peas

Corned beef fritters, chips & beans/peas

Spam fritter, chips & peas

Why is fish put before chips but in other dishes the chips always come later on the line?

[carni 10,046]

Erm. I'll have to think about that one Compo. I see what you mean though?

[loppylugs 8,351]

Anyone of those menu items would go dahn quite nice, Compo.

[radfordred 6,278]

On 3/16/2016 at 6:33 PM, catfan said:

I'll bet Bulwell enterpreneur James Mellors got something to do with that wheel.

 

Whoooohay ........ New ride opens in Slab Square tomorrow The StarFlyer you'll all be able have a go youth before that meet-up? Only fiver a go 

 

 https://www.nottinghampost.com/whats-on/family-kids/new-ride-nottinghams-old-market-1206670

 

 

 

[catfan 14,782]

That ride was in Liverpool last year when we were there. Mrs C had a go on that, nearly broke my heart forking out a fiver !

[loppylugs 8,351]

You'd have to pay me a fiver to ride that thing!  

[PeverilPeril 3,171]

Yes, trips to the cobblers as a boy and watching my shoes being repaired, then polished on the leather belt driven buffing machine. Borrowing my uncle's hobbing iron and nailing Blakeys (sp) into the heals and toes of my school shoes. Buying cod roe because it was cheaper than the fish. Patching my bike inner tubes until there were as many patch repairs as there was original tube. Then when the tube had to be replaced the old one was cut up for elastic bands and to make new large patches. Lots more things that we did to survive in the 40's early 50's.

[MargieH 7,423]

Mum mixed the butter ration with milk to make it go further when spreading.

 

She also cut off  the toe end tops of my sandals so they would last a bit longer before having to  buy new ones.  (I actually still did this with my daughter's sandals when she was little in the mid 1970s)

[loppylugs 8,351]

Even during the fifties things were still pretty tight.  I remember going to the individual shops with me mam.  My dad got called back into the navy because of the Korean war.  So my mam worked afternoons at Boots to add a bit of cash.  I used to go to my grandma's after school.  My grandad had an allotment so we got quite a lot of fresh veggies in season.  I never really understood how tight things were, but I never heard any of them moaning.

[West Bridgfordian 126]

Back in the early sixties we didn't have a phone, but my elder brother (23 years older than me) had got married and got his own house with phone.

My parents used to give me a few pennies to go to the nearest phone box to ring him before going round to visit. I was scared stiff of being shut in one of the old phone boxes (the doors were really heavy)  so I used to hang around out of sight then go home and say nobody answered. I still have this phobia about going in phone boxes. Even as an adult (before mobile phones) if I had to use one I would keep the door wedged open with my foot.

[Cliff Ton 10,008]

38 minutes ago, West Bridgfordian said:

I still have this phobia about going in phone boxes. Even as an adult (before mobile phones) if I had to use one I would keep the door wedged open with my foot.

 

You'd be lucky to find one these days. I can't remember the last time I went in a phone box at all.

 

I agree you often needed to be a weight-lifter to get in or out. My memory of them is that they were always dirty and smelly. I definitely don't miss them.

[LizzieM 9,272]

1 hour ago, West Bridgfordian said:

I still have this phobia about going in phone boxes. Even as an adult (before mobile phones) if I had to use one I would keep the door wedged open with my foot.

My Mum was always petrified of being stuck in phone boxes, lifts and public toilets.  I remember being in town shopping with her and having to ‘stand guard’ outside the open door of the loo.   I’ve never had such a phobia, even though I did get stuck for ages in a lift at Vic Centre years ago.  It did make me sweat a bit as nobody arrived when we pressed the alarm button, then my boyfriend of the time used a big plastic hotel key fob he just happened to have his car keys attached to, squeezed it between the doors and forced them open.  Phew!