Wednesday 6 January 2010

Coping with shortages of... everything

The bad weather continues. Although no new snow has fallen, the 3" from yesterday remains on pavements (compacted to ice) and on roads further inland. This has given me a lovely taste of World War II conditions: shortages.

I went out to get something - I wasn't sure what - for dinner. But most of the local shops are closed, and those that are open have bare shelves. I managed to get 2lb of potatoes in poor condition, two sad-looking carrots, two apples, 5 frost-burnt tomatoes, two tiny onions and a loaf of bread (thereby beating my Cheshire-based friend David who can't even get that). I had had ideas of doing a lavish soup followed by a small "cold collation" (as they used to call salad). This is clearly out of the question.

What to do with those ingredients and whatever rations I've already got in? I'm thinking that I can cobble together a carrot soup, eke out a rarebit and even make baked apple for afters. The rarebit will require quite some eking, with only 2oz of cheese available and only Household milk to make it. But, with some oats to thicken it (Marguerite Patten even suggests some mashed potato will make it go even further) and a slice of tomato on top, I think I'll've beaten both the weather and the panic buyers. I'll get back to you on whether it works.

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