Just like Grandma used to make!

Just like Grandma used to make!

Both my grandmothers had lived through the Second World War and had provided for their families from rations so they knew hardship.

I was very fond of both my Grandmothers.

My maternal Grandma, Maud was the iconic little grey haired woman who wore either a dress or skirt and blouse with a full apron over the top. I remember her sitting with the blanket she was crocheting draped over her knees as she wove the crotchet hook skilfully through balls of wool. It was my job as a child to sit patiently with my arms outstretched with the skein of wool over both my limbs as Grandma wound the skeins into balls of brightly coloured wool. Sometimes I had to sit and hold a piece of knitted garment that one of the family had discarded whilst Grandma unravelled it and wound it into a ball ready to be either crocheted into a blanket or knitted into another garment . Nothing it appears throughout my childhood was wasted. I was the only granddaughter on my Mum’s side of the family here in the U.K. so these chores became mine.

Dad’s mother

My paternal grandmother was different. She was short, dumpy (she wouldn’t mind me saying that), dark haired and an excellent cook! I don’t ever remember seeing her with an apron on but I remember her telling me not to throw away paper bags and string! “They are all reusable” she used to stress. Her roast dinners were to die for! Her puddings made me eat all my first course otherwise you wouldn’t get any dessert. The rules were tough and were obeyed!

Nellie, was a cook at a school. When school children started to have meals at lunchtime my grandmother was welcomed into the local school with open arms.

Help from the garden

My grandfather Bert, Nellie’s husband was a guard on the trains on the London Underground and when he wasn’t working his garden was his pride and joy! The flower beds were neat and tidy, he grew amazing dahlias and chrysanthemums and at the lower part of the back garden was his precious vegetable plot. He grew every kind of vegetable that Nan would use in her meals. His sprouts were enjoyed with every Christmas dinner. Different varieties of tomatoes were either grown in the greenhouse along with the grapes or outside in the ground.

Every time we visited, Grandad would send us home with a selection of fresh vegetables as well as cut flowers.

My favourites desserts

My favourite puddings were mouth watering but now when I think about them they had been quite inexpensive to make. My grandma was often given Bramley apples that were surplus to requirement from one of her 9 siblings or friends. She would carefully inspect them and any that didn’t have specks or bruises on them would be wrapped up in brown paper bags that she had saved and then the fruit would be stored away on the cold shelf in the dark larder to be used at a later date.

Nell would prepare and cook baked apples, apple pies, apple crumbles adding spices and extras like sultanas if she had any.

Bread and butter pudding…. Oh how my Dad loved that! No wasted bread in that household it was sliced, cut into triangles, buttered and then cooked with spices, sultanas and a vanilla custard.

But my most favourite and probably the most calorific of them all was bread pudding! My mouth watered if I smelt it cooking on one of our frequent visits, I couldn’t wait to savour the taste when it came out of the oven.

My new skills!

Just over eighteen years ago when I was an extremely busy primary school teacher I cooked a roast dinner for my husband one evening after work. He wouldn’t eat it saying that it was awful! I had never professed to being a cook let alone a Michelin star chef. I never enjoyed cooking but it had to be done. In my usual fairly placid manner I told him that I would never cook him another meal and I haven’t. He has to cook now!

A couple of weeks ago I really wanted a baked apple so I made myself one and it was delicious, next is to be an apple pie, then bread pudding followed by bread and butter pudding. My new skills are emerging as I have never cooked any of these puddings previously except apple pie.

I am ashamed to say that we often throw bread away as it isn’t all consumed so hopefully my efforts will use up the unused bread.

Recycling

Recycling is not a new concept as you will have seen in this blog.

Whilst I grew up I saw how things were used over and over again, string was never thrown away along with paper bags. Newspapers were used for so many things from polishing shoes, to cleaning windows. Plastic had not been invented so liquids came in glass containers which were returned to the providers of drinks etc for sterilisation and re use.

I grew up wearing my cousins jeans and dungarees that they had outgrown along with their shirts and jumpers, no wonder I was a tomboy!

If you would like any of my grandmother’s recipes for any of the puddings mentioned please email me at susanstudd@btinternet.com

This photo is my paternal grandmother Nellie and her husband Bert