1946 Cooking

I have been lucky enough to get my hands on some neat old cook books.  Unfortunately I could not bring most of them home with me on the plane because of weight restrictions, but I did bring a couple with me.

One is the 1946 Cook Book by the Women's Auxiliary to the Canadian Legion of Trail, BC.

 I took this one home as I think it is the oldest of the Auxiliary cook books. I like to imagine my Grandma pouring over these cook books trying to decide what to feed her family.  So I thought I would try out the recipes in this book. (And I bet they are yummy.  Those ladies could cook back then.)

I chose the Lemon Cake recipe as both my husband and I are total lemon fans so I thought it would be a good start.  Warning,  this along with most of the recipes in this book are not for the health conscious.  They are full of "terrible" stuff like butter and sugar and eggs.  Mmmmm...  Here is the recipe:

Lemon Cake

First Part

1 cup flour

1/2 cup butter (melted)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon water

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Sift flour, baking powder and cream of tartar, add sugar, butter and water.  Mix well together.  Press in greased pan.

Second Part

1 large lemon (juice and rind)

1 cup white sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon melted butter

Pinch of salt

Beat eggs and sugar together, add butter, salt, rind and juice of lemon.  Cook in saucepan until thick, set to cool.  Then spread over first part.

Third Part

2 cups cocoanut

1 tablespoon butter

1 egg

Mix together, spread over lemon filling. Bake in moderate oven 30 minutes.

---Mrs. A. D. Fletcher

This is what it looked like after the first part is complete. I made no changes.

The second part looked like this when it was done.

I did make a bit of a change. I used two largish lemons so there was more rind.  I would say I used between about 1/8-1/4 of a cup.  I also used the juice of 1 1/2  lemons (1/3 cup if your using juice from a bottle).  I really like lemons. :)

The third part had no changes although the egg should be beaten before adding the coconut and the butter should be melted.


I baked it at 350degrees for only about 20 minutes although my oven tends to run a bit hot.

It turned out like this:


They will get a taste test tomorrow!  Stay tuned.

I also did some gardening today. 

I have been growing flowers from seed this year and I felt they were now old enough to be planted outside.  I have been digging out these abandoned tires which were once used as planters so I can use them again.  They were absolutely over run with grass and weeds when I started.

Marigold (bought) surrounded by Pansies (grown from seed)

To be planted with poppies

Zinna (from seed) in yellow Poppies and Pansies in green pots

Random Rupert!

Today was Seafest and for the first time in the 2 1/2 years we have been here it was finally sunny for the festival!  Usually we watch the poor families out with their umbrellas in the cold and rain watching the parade and playing street hockey etc.  Rupert decided to surprise us this year.

We went down and watched the parade and plowed through the crowds (crowds are very abnormal in Prince Rupert.  It was a strange feeling.)

Unfortunately I left my camera at home.  Rats!

Just in case you wonder why I make such a big deal about the sun, here is a picture of my husband heading off for work in the morning.  Hard core rain gear!  Only in Prince Rupert can a store survive that completely caters to rain gear.  It is called "Slickers".

Yes, we do get the most rain in Canada per year.  What a claim to fame. :)