Wartime Cake

Hello Blog and readers, its been a long time!

Since I last wrote, I have finished my Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in History and started my MA in History, so its been pretty busy. For my MA I have been working on learning the new and exciting field of food history.

This week I presented a paper for my class in Modern British History on First World War Home Front Food. Cookbooks and recipes were important sources for my paper, and I really enjoy how food history allows me to create something from the past.

Ian Mosby, author of Food Will Win the War: The Politics, Culture, and Science of Food on Canada's Home Front, has a great blog post about "eating your primary sources." (You can find it here: http://www.ianmosby.ca/eat-your-primary-sources-or-teaching-the-taste-of-history/) Mosby talks about how he had his students pick recipes to cook for class as an exercise that allowed them to sense the past, while also allowing them to experience a primary source where misreading had immediate and tangible results. Like other primary sources, recipes need to be read in context and with a critical eye.

Armed with the great advice from Mosby's blog, I took to my kitchen to create a First World War era recipe.

The recipe I used was from an online article for The Telegraph where the author and a food historian created two recipes. The historian had found the cake recipe in a handwritten notebook from the period. (It can be found here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10982324/First-World-War-food-anyone-for-fish-sausages.html.) I chose not to use a recipe from one of my sources mainly because I wanted something that was simple, portable, and could be easily shared with my classmates. That and I had all but one of the ingredients.

Here are some things I learned while making the cake:

1. You first should know that I used shortening instead of lard because I knew I would be sharing the cake with a vegetarian. 

2. It says to cook the lard, sugar, and spices until the raisins are plump. However, the raisins soak up all the fat. 

3. Because the raisins soaked up all the fat, there was no way that I would be able to successfully bind the flour and other ingredients.

4. I decided to add about a 1/3 a cup of water as a binding agent. While this was outside of what the recipe called for, I realised that most cake recipes I had made from historical sources in the past contained water or milk, and it very likely would have been assumed that whoever the recipe was intended for would know the basics of making a cake.

5. A low oven is between 300-325 degrees Fahrenheit. I baked the cake for around 45 minutes. 

The cake was really very good, especially when it was still warm. It was a bit crumbly due to the lack of eggs. It was really fun for me to get back into cooking from historical recipes and I enjoyed sharing sharing it with my class!

This is also my post for the Historical Food Fortnightly challenge, "Make It Do or Do Without."

The Challenge: Make It Do or Do Without

The Recipe: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/10982324/First-World-War-food-anyone-for-fish-sausages.html.

The Date/Year and Region: 1914-1918

How Did You Make It: see above :)

Time to Complete: approx. 20 mins prep, 45 mins cooking. (That is an hour and 5 minutes.)

Total Cost: I only had to purchase raisins, so about $4 CND

How Successful Was It?: It was very yummy, lovely spice cake flavour. 

How Accurate Is It?: I think it is pretty accurate. I mean, I did add water, but that was a logical addition based upon my historical knowledge. 

How to be a (patient) Victorian

Yesterday after class my friends from work (all of us happen to be history majors and take classes at the same University, go figure!) and I visited the University Bookstore. From time to time I enjoy perusing the history section to see what new books are out. By chance, because I rarely look at the European History section, I happened upon How to be a Victorian by Ruth Goodman.

Today I purchased the book (using a gift card I had received at a history award event... nothing like some book money), and have read the preface. I am restraining myself from reading anymore until I am finished the semester... but oh I can tell it will be hard!!!

The author, Ruth Goodman, is what I would call a "practical historian." Ms. Goodman's involvement with the Farm series, particularly her time on Victorian Farm and Victorian Pharmacy, has provided her with first hand experience of everyday Victorian life. The Edwardian, Wartime and Victorian Farm shows have provided me with hours of entertainment, and have provided me with much inspiration.

I would love to do something like Ruth and her co-workers(stars?) have done one day - spending a year living on an historical farm would be a fascinating and unique experience.

For now I shall have to content myself with the excitement of getting to read about Ruth's experiences in How to be a Victorian... 

Waxing Philosophical and a Skirt

I have not been doing so well at maintaining my keener academic status lately... I haven't done any substantial research for my honours thesis in almost 3 weeks, I have somehow forgotten to do readings for my classes, I don't study French and I took an entire week to write a 5-page (double spaced) paper. Its just sad. Also I forget that I need to get groceries.
I have been looking to distract myself from the craziness that is life and school, when really I should just be using school to distract me from all the stuff that has been happening in life lately.
The future has seemed really close and important lately - part of the reason I haven't felt the necessity to push myself into schoolwork has come from the need to get stuff ready for grad school applications. The decision to finish my undergrad by August 2014 was rather last minute, and then came all the stuff that goes with it - like being able to assert what you are going to research and what it contributes to the field of history before you have even started. I have never spent so much time editing and re-hashing a single page of work. Ever.
In my desire to ensure that I have everything set for the next 2 years of my life, I have forgotten the things I need to focus on in the present; which , incidentally, have an impact on the future.

In an attempt to distract myself this weekend I decided to sew a skirt, because what else does one do with there are other, more important things that they should be dealing with? (It is supposed to be 1930s inspired.)

Okay, I am off to make myself a schedule... and have a nap.

"Rural" Cemeteries vs. Rural Cemeteries

Today I have another meeting with my honours advisor. I get really excited about my meetings, because it is so exciting to share what I have been learning. This week I haven't actually done any reading... which is not at all good, being as that is kind of what my entire job is for this term. I have been sick and I was just falling asleep anytime I started to read or study anything. Also I had a mid-term in a different course, which was nerve wracking because it was a music listening exam, which is something I am not always confident on.

While I feel like I have been completely unproductive, I am also feeling kind of good about what I accomplished this weekend on my trip home to see my family. (It was my dad's 50th Birthday, my mom planned a surprise for him. It was awesome!) My mom and dad came with me/took me to see three cemeteries that are nearby our home. Sometimes I find it really hard to think that me going to cemeteries is actually me doing research because it is so much fun for me. 

First let me explain that when I am referring to "rural cemeteries" I am generally talking about urban cemeteries. A rural cemetery is generally found in urban centres that were cities at the turn of the century. They are laid out in a park like manner, with landscaped trees and pathways, maybe even a water feature. Rural cemeteries are often on hills, and are located away from what would have been the centre of town when a city was younger... perhaps it was even in what would have been the country. (Makes sense considering the land for the cemetery was typically purchased from a farmer.) There are typically no grave covers, and there are often no iron or picket fences around graves or plots either. The rural cemetery is not associated with a specific religious group, though they are generally the Protestant cemetery in the area, and they are laid out in a way that will offer people a connection that will help them to grieve by restoring a relationship with nature that has been lost in the busy urban world. They are as much a city park as a city cemetery.

Second, there seems to be an issue with calling cemeteries in rural areas "rural cemeteries," as they are more like the old church graveyards (and often still are church graveyards.) So I think I may have to call the "country cemeteries" to avoid confusion. That being said, there are some differences I have found in country cemeteries that suggests, perhaps, a different attitude towards death than was present in the city. I don't know if there is actually a difference in attitudes however, as it seems that a reason for creating a rural cemetery in the city was to give the city folk a place to escape to the slowness and heritage of the country that they have left behind. And as the country folk are still connected with the land, they are obviously not going to need to have a peaceful "rural cemetery." Additionally, the population being less, there isn't really the money to maintain a manicured and landscaped cemetery. 

There are some more physical things that I have found to be different in country cemeteries I have visited so far. There are, for one thing, more grave covers. I don't know yet why this is. Family plots are also a bit different, with the graves being very close together. Also there are a few plots that had trees planted on top of them, which would never happen in a rural cemetery, as there are rules in order to maintain the landscape.
(At this point the internet in the library cut out, so I have not idea what I was going to say after this...)

Here are some pictures:

We found this friendly black cat at the cemetery... I thought it funny.

Books and metal caskets

In a departure from my normal, uplifting sewing and creating posts, I have opted to tell you a bit about what I am up to.

This year I have started work on my honours thesis for my BA Honours in History. I had a topic change at the beginning of my summer from restaurants to cemeteries. It seems a far cry from each other, but the library assures me it is not as the books on death are strangely close to the books on tea and food... Go figure! (See above picture.)

Anyhow, today I finally finished reading my first book for my research, so I am pretty pleased. I have been trying to get through a bad cold for the past few days, and was feeling really unproductive with my time as I was falling asleep anytime I tried to read. So today I was worried about my meeting with my advisor, especially since I had been so productive last week with my readings and making contacts for research. To my surprise I picked up my book this morning and began to read "in the final chapter we will examine." Huzzah! Hope! I was feeling well enough to power through to the end! And I did! That was a great feeling. It is nice to be able to say I actually finished something on my route to writing my historiographical introduction to my thesis. 

Also I have been finding it funny how people think my topic, cemeteries and death in Southern Alberta at the turn of the century, (that is the gist right now, I am still working on what exactly I am going to write about and how), is morbid. I don't find it to be as all the practices surrounding death are for the living. Today though I did have an interesting morbid thought. In the late 1800s embalming became really popular, and people became increasingly concerned with preserving bodies. Some even ordered metal caskets that would help aid in the prevention of decay. I am just curious... Did it work? If we were to go dig up a grave with one of these fancy metal caskets with an embalmed body inside, would we find a successful attempt at prolonging the decay of an earthly body, or would it disintegrate into dust the moment we open the casket lid? 

Just some thoughts. 

Birthday Dress - Sense and Sensibility "Swing Dress"

So I like to wear dresses on my birthday, which was almost a month ago. So this year I decided to make a dress out of the beautiful blue flowered fabric I found in the discount centre.

There are some issues with the dress, I found that the fabric had very little stretch compared to the fabric I used to make the same pattern last time, and when I moved the snaps on the side popped open. I am going to replace the snaps with a zipper soon, and hopefully that will help.

I added some lace and buttons to give a bit extra to the dress, and I changed the sleeves to cape from the intended pattern sleeve.

Vintage 1940s Shorts!

I decided to use my denim from Fabricland's New Year's Sale to make a pair of 1940s Pin-up girl inspired shorts.

I used BurdaEasy 8488 pants pattern, but cut the fabric at shorten/lengthen line. The pattern was quite easy, and it took about 6 hours to complete the project from cutting to final ironing. I had planned to raise the waistline on the pattern, but because I am so short I didn't need to. The only problem I found was the thickness of the denim for the waist and front panel. The shorts turned out well, and I think I will be able to get great use out of them this summer!