Kitchen Nostalgia.....................

Sometime back I shared a little about this special cookbook 

and its wonderful author - Marguerite Patten's POST-WAR KITCHEN.

Not only filled with the most interesting recipes using rationed items and the simple ingredients available to British cooks following WW2, the book is an amazing history of my very own childhood! The best news is that author Marguerite Patten - Britain's first TV "celebrity chef" - is still with us and will turn 99 this year!

While under the weather last week, I decided to put my feet up one afternoon, sip my lemon ginger tea, and spend a few minutes looking through the book again. Well that turned into a couple of lazy hours, but time well spent because the years covered by this wonderful book, 1945-1954, were such special ones to me. The book is rife with photos and illustrations, advertisements for everything from foods to clothing, and so much associated with those years of my childhood. Although the recipes are interesting as cooking was more simplified back then, historic happenings and the stories of hardships still facing the British housewife, especially in her kitchen, due to rationing of many, many items and ingredients, were even better!  

Later, while chopping all those great veggies for the Winter 'hotpot' in my previous post, I gave much thought to all I had read in this priceless cook book. Don't you find chopping veggies gives you a good feeling of doing something basic, unadulterated by factories, and so nutritious, using the bounty nature provides from the earth? Like me, I know you are thankful for the farmers who work so diligently to supply us with delicious, healthy food. Fond memories came flowing back about the little 'market garden' across the street from my home. It was there I would walk with my mother, and when older go alone, to buy vegetables fresh from the earth, along with free range eggs. 

   

As we have a garden I still try to compost most of my veggie peelings, along with other assorted bits and pieces which help amend the soil. The hotpot's ingredients provided the above treasure to toss into the compost bin. This process alone brings good feelings from the kitchen, and mealtime prep becomes more worthwhile, not a boring or wasteful time at the sink!

Raleigh's Yellow Dog bakery offerings - perfect artisan breads to munch with your Winter stews and soups!

So, if you love to cook but also enjoy cookbooks with more to offer than recipes, and definitely if you are a 'World War II baby' still in the UK, or an ex-pat now living here in the USA, or in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France or any other country, I think you would enjoy this amazing book. I purchased mine in England, the version published by Past Times a few years back. Sadly, Past Times lovely bricks and mortar shops have now closed, however I see that other versions of this book are available from Amazon, along with more of Ms. Patten's many books. British bookseller WHSmith purchased Past Times in 2012 so perhaps the book is available in their UK shops. 
Click HERE to read more about Marguerite Patten.

This gem is definitely history between the pages of a cookbook.