Emily's Wartime Berry Shortbread & VE Day Tea Party

It's the 75th Anniversary of the end of the war in Europe!

Happy VE Day! Today marks the 75th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, and I've been looking forward to this day literally all year. Longer than a year, because what a good opportunity to revisit some of my favorite wartime recipes with a celebratory party with historian friends! 

Unfortunately, the party turned into me, my wife, and our cat (and Molly and Emily), but I think we still managed to make it a nice occasion. Read on to see more pictures, and learn how to make this simple, ration friendly twist on shortbread.

Emily's Oslo Lunch

Keeping British kids fighting fit during World War II!

I feel like September has always been a really rough month for the blog. I'm usually in the middle of moving, starting a new job, finishing grad school, or recovering from planning a wedding. 2019 had been especially unkind motivation wise, so this post is one of three that probably should have gone up way sooner, and will end up being backdated. Whoops. 

Anyway, one thing I've also been trying to do this September is eat better. As I've discussed before, historical recipes and eating "better" by modern standards often aren't really compatible. What was considered healthy for a pioneer family in 1854 is vastly different for an office worker in 2019, because I'm not getting up at the crack of dawn every day to do backbreaking labor like every member of the Larson family would have been. One period that does have surprisingly healthy - and often surprisingly not that bad, if not good - recipes to offer is World War II, especially when looking into British dishes, where rationing was a lot more intense than it was in the United States. Read on to see an experimental meal that helped British school kids stay healthy in spite of food shortages!

Emily's Lentil and Parsley Soup

An authentic WWII recipe that could have done with some workshopping...

One of my favorite things to pick up on my various adventures are historical cookbooks. I've acquired quite a number of them since I started this blog, to the point of where my cookbook shelf is overflowing and I can't bring myself to Konmari any of them because they're all such nice publications! 

This year, I'm doing my best to try and dust off a few of them, including the one I got today's recipe from: Victory in the Kitchen: Wartime Recipes. It was published by the Imperial War Museum, one of my very favorite museums. Visiting their impressive exhibits in the early 2000's helped get me really excited about World War II history, so I was eager to try something out. 

The results... weren't exactly what I was hoping for, but hopefully it'll be interesting for everyone to get a look at what kind of stuff you might run into when trying out another historic recipe.

Emily's Uncooked Chocolate Cake

No eggs, no milk, no bake, no fuss!

Happy VE Day, everyone! Did you know VE Day and Christmas are the only two holidays I’ve always done posts for on this blog? Hopefully now that I’m finished with grad school I can add a few others to the list of “I need to do this post every year.” 

That’s right, I’m officially done with grad school! It was quite the experience, and my friends and I were all kind of desperate for a way to let off some steam and take our minds off our final projects. I also wanted to dive back in with a weird, historical recipe for this VE Day, so I did some digging around and discovered one that’s easy to make and can be thrown together from ingredients that are probably already in your pantry! Win, win, right? Read on to find out more.

Emily's Everyday Cake

A ration friendly treat that would have been a fun change of pace for this Brit!

In Brave Emily, the book that accompanied Emily dolls when she was available from American Girl, the spotlight is on how Emily Bennett has been adjusting to life with the McIntires after the events of Happy Birthday, Molly! One of the stand out moments for me when I first read it was Emily’s observations on how the McIntire children felt about their breakfast options. 

Although rationing was an annoying reality of life for Americans during World War II, Emily was used to much stricter rationing and more shortages. In the narration, Emily mentions that she hadn’t even seen a banana in several years before coming to the United States. That moment meant this recipe for an “Every Day Cake” in Rosie’s Riveting Recipes reminded me of Emily, and made her the perfect host of this tasty treat. Got any ideas why? 

Hint: there are no bananas in this cake.

Emily's Cream Tea

The perfect light meal, any time of year!

I really enjoy tea, both the drink and the semi formal meal by the same name. Living in the States, it's relatively uncommon to be invited to or have an afternoon tea that comes with sandwiches and treats unless we're going out of our way to have a special occasion, but the handful of times I've had opportunity to enjoy high tea, boy, have I enjoyed it.

As it turns out, there's a simpler, more informal version of tea you can enjoy that's known as cream tea, Devonshire tea, Devon cream tea or Cornish cream tea. The tradition's history is a little murky, but it seems to have gotten its start in Devon back in the 1100's with just bread and jam, well before tea had been imported to Britain! Essentially, it's just a scone (or scones) with cream, jam and tea, and it's a nice way to tide yourself over if you've had to skip lunch or are having a late dinner... or if you're just in the mood for some tea and a tasty baked good!

Although this tradition is especially popular in Devon and Cornwall, it's not unusual to hear people talking about a Devonshire tea in the UK or other Commonwealth countries like Australia. It was kind of a dark, moody day, so I decided it seemed like a good day to give this tradition a whirl.

Emily's Scrambled Eggs "James Bond"

Who knew that the real question wasn't shaken or stirred, but scrambled or over easy?

Sometimes I feel a little funny saying I'm a James Bond fan. I'm very well aware of how the various incarnations of the character are problematic from a number of angles, and some of the movies are pretty bad, and I haven't seen every single one of them, so labeling myself as yes, I am a huge James Bond fan has always felt a little weird.

That being said, I have seen many of the movies, read all of the Young Bond books, which are very good, and I own and have read all of the original novels written by Ian Fleming. It started on a whim, because I was curious about how similar Casino Royale was to the film version, and then I realized the books are both entertaining and a really interesting piece of literary history, even if they're never going to be held up as an example of great British literature.

The thing is, I went in expecting the books to be a lot like the movies, full of action and Bond seducing extremely attractive women and narrowly escaping increasingly elaborate death traps. And all of that's in there! But that's not what Bond seems to spend most of his time doing.

The international man of mystery actually spends a ton of time eating food.

Emily's Woolton Pie

Want to win the war? Eat more vegetables!

We've done a lot of talking about rationing in Britain and how much worse Emily would have had it than Molly, or just about any middle class kid living in the United States during the war. Something we haven't mentioned in detail is just how often people turned to vegetables for sustenance. The Ministry of Food didn't just encourage people to eat their carrots and potatoes at virtually every meal, they also promoted things like Wheatless Wednesdays and - the horror! - Meatless Mondays, both of which were going to help conserve supplies for the war effort.

This might sound horrifying to my non-vegetarian readers, considering most of us come from societies where meat is pretty much the star of almost every single meal. Remember, this didn't just mean eating a bean and cheese burrito on Monday and calling it a Meatless Monday, this meant vegetables. Lots and lots of vegetables.

And one of the most advertised means of getting these vegetables was named after the Minister of Food himself, and that's what we're making today!

Emily's Wartime Eggless Christmas Cake

Doing your bit on the home front with carrots!

Now, there's no question that Christmas during the 30's and 40's meant slim pickings on the holiday table for most Americans, but Christmas in wartime England was no picnic either. As we've already discussed, rationing in Britain was a lot stricter throughout the entire war and so kids like Emily had to learn to make do without the traditional sweet treats most people expect around the holiday season.

But just like Molly and Kit had recipes for inexpensive Christmas cakes, the British government, professional chefs and home cooks came up with plenty of solutions to give people what they were looking for without using all their rations on one sweet treat.

How did they manage this without free access to sugar, eggs and milk?

Emily's Celebration Trifle

A time consuming, but surprisingly tasty wartime treat!

Happy VE Day, everyone! May 8th, 1945 marks the 70th anniversary of the formal surrender of Nazi Germany, a day celebrated all over the world back in 1945... except maybe in certain parts of the Pacific, where Allied troops were still engaged in deadly combat and would be for the better part of two months. But for civilians and troops in Europe and on other Allied home fronts, today was a day to party, and parties always mean good food.

But for countries that had been at war for the better part of a decade, good food wasn't always easy to find between rationing and shortages. England in particular was a nation without much by way of luxury food items - being an island nation at war with an enemy that had a tight grip on shipping lines for years made shipping in supplies difficult, and shortages didn't improve even after the Battle of the Atlantic had been won and supplies from the US and Canada could come across the ocean. Each person was allowed one egg per week, so deciding how those real eggs would be used became very, very difficult. Even making icing for cake was illegal, as it was considered wasteful!

On VE Day, all those attitudes about stretching your rations and forbidding wasteful food went out the window for people in England. Communities pooled together to bake cake with the previously forbidden icing, make sandwiches and concoct unique sweets like carrots dipped in melted sugar and eaten like a lollipop in one big explosion of fun and excitement, and one of those recipes is what we're going to be looking at today.

This recipe is a war time version of a classic British dessert, which was kind of a hard sell to my family, but ultimately turned out to be a pretty big hit. Our enthusiasm wasn't exactly the same level as it would have been if we were back in 1945, but I don't think it was a stretch for anyone to be able to see how this would have been an incredibly indulgent, satisfying way to celebrate the end of the most devastating conflict in human history.

Emily's Trench Cake

Don't let the name scare you off!

Happy Veteran's Day, everyone! Also, happy Armistice and Remembrance Day, as November 11th is called all three depending on where you are. To those not in the know, November 11th marks the date hostilities in western Europe stopped in 1918, thus ending the First World War. It's celebrated world wide as a day of remembrance not only for the causalities of that war, but of all wars, and the first celebration was held in 1919 at Buckingham Palace in England.

American Girl doesn't have a character who's specifically from America's involvement in World War One, but some of the characters do have connections to it - Rebecca's aunt, uncle and cousins leave Russia for America out of fear that her oldest cousin will be conscripted into the Russian army, Kit's dad fought in the trenches with the US Army, and Emily's grandfather served in the Royal Navy. Although it probably would have been more appropriate to do a Kit themed post, it's been a while since I've done an Emily solo post, and I was interested to see what was out there for British recipes for this period as they were involved in the conflict a lot longer than the United States was. After doing some poking around, I think I found something that will surprise pretty much everyone with how good it actually is, despite bearing one of the most unappealing names I've ever come across.

But before we get to that, I've got a couple other things to show you all!

Pancakes with Bucky Bear

Sometimes, you really just need a stack of pancakes.

I'm about to make a pretty dorky confession, although considering this is a cooking blog taking inspiration from historical dolls? I figure most of you won't judge me too harshly. I participate in text based roleplay, and have been doing so on and off since I was in middle school. What this means is basically, me and a bunch of friends and acquaintances write stories together, but from the perspective of one specific character per player rather than simply writing a collaborative novel or something. It's a lot of fun, and it's a good outlet for my creative energies when I'm not feeling up to writing my own epic trilogy or penciling a comic series, which is basically all the time. I've never been good at finishing my own original fiction projects.

Since April, I've dragged out one of my favorite characters out of retirement, and he likes pancakes. A lot. To the point of where my RP gmail inbox is now trying to advertise IHOP and Denny's to me because they're having specials on pancakes. Needless to say, I've been doing a lot of thinking about pancakes lately, and after admitting this to some of my friends, they then admitted they've either been craving pancakes or have gone out and made them because of me and my character!

So, who is this character and what's that bear doing here?

Seventy Years Ago Today: D-Day

Kind of hard to believe it's been 70 years, isn't it?

I don't have a recipe to share today - I wasn't sure that would be appropriate, honestly, considering what event I'm calling attention to - but I wanted to take a minute to give a shout out to D-Day, which happened seventy years ago today. Now, it's my experience that most historians - professional and amateur - like to argue a lot about when the actual turning point in a military conflict was (Civil War battlefields take this to the next level by holding a competition for the bloodiest spot of the war, from street to field to lane to square foot), and I've always thought this was a little silly because of course something as complicated as a war would have multiple turning points. Let's stop wasting time debating whether or not Stalingrad or D-Day or the Battle of the Bulge was "the" turning point, and focus on the important things, shall we?

But that being said, Operation Overlord was certainly one of if not the most important movements of the war (and I would say it does deserve to be called the most important), and anyone who tries to downplay its significance has no idea what they're talking about. Learning from mistakes that had been made during landings in Operation Torch (North Africa), Husky (Sicily) and in Salerno and Anzio in Italy, the Allies were able to launch a successful, mobile amphibious invasion of France, which also happens to be the largest seaborne invasion in history. For a motley group of multinational armies that often fought each other worse than some teenagers argue about boys, this was no small feat, and it did really put the writing on the wall that Germany's sun was setting and setting for good.

D-Day is actually what got me into learning about World War II exactly ten years ago. My French teacher in seventh grade devoted the entire week leading up to the 60th anniversary to showing us videos and giving lectures on each beach, different technological advancements used in the assault, and personal stories from the men who were there. Up until that point, my interest in history was a lot more premodern in its focus and honestly, I partially blame Molly's books for not hooking my attention. They really don't do a great job of bringing the war into the story the same way Felicity or Addy's do, and thus this was the first real exposure I had to World War II outside of watching Stalag 17 as a kid.

I've been kind of disappointed to see how little attention it's gotten in the media and in general, considering how important this day really was not only to America, or France or Germany, but honestly to the free world in general. I feel like it's just another example of how people don't really care that much anymore, and that depresses me more than I can say. The men who fought and died on those beaches deserve more than that, and those that lived through it certainly deserve more than a two minute segment on the TODAY Show that focuses more on Edward Snowden than on what they fought for. We're officially reaching a point in history where World War II is almost as far away from us as the Civil War was for them. Veterans are passing away every day, and we owe it to them to remember and to listen so that this chapter of world history doesn't fade away into obscurity.

So I hope you'll take a moment today to think about what it must have been like to wait on a tiny landing craft for the moment when you hit the beach, or to parachute out of a plane in the dark over a town you'd probably never heard of before shipping out, or waiting at home to hear what was happening and wonder if your son, father, brother or husband was involved, because Abraham Lincoln really did say it best in November of 1863: It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.

Emily's Smothered Sausages

Your courage, your cheerfulness, your resolution will bring us victory!

I've been promising a post like this for quite a while. Most of my other posts focusing on Emily Bennett have talked about food that - while British and tasty - she might not have been able to eat for the better part of her childhood, and every time I do one, I promise the next one I do... and then promptly chicken out and go with something that looks and sounds far more appetizing.

But today I finally make good on that promise by bringing you a recipe from a cookbook my grandmother purchased at The Imperial War Museum in London featuring war time British recipes! I mentioned in one of my last posts that the IWM is one of my favorite museums and I honestly have to say it's probably the best I've ever been to. Unfortunately, it's undergoing a major renovation right now and is therefore closed until July, so plan your trips to London accordingly!

This probably isn't the tastiest looking thing I've ever made for this blog, but I have to say, it actually wasn't too bad! It's quick, something different, and proof that I probably wouldn't have starved to death while living off what I could throw together with rations.

Emily's Beef Pasties

Not quite sandwich, not quite pie.

Although I'm not sure I can say I'm a huge fan of meat pies - I don't think I've eaten nearly enough of them to really consider myself an expert, anyway - I do really enjoy things like chicken or turkey pot pies, and have always been quite interested in the concept of savory pies, and especially hand pies. They're not that common in the United States, but they're quite popular in other countries, especially those with a history of English occupation. I've often wondered why that is, and I've also been enthusiastic about making one for myself.

This recipe turned out to be extremely tasty, and I've already got a lot of requests to make them again. While it turned out to be a pretty time consuming dish to make, I can't say that was enough of a turn off to turn down those requests! Read on to hear more!

Trick or Treat Cookies with Molly

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays, mostly just because I love an excuse to dress up in a costume without people thinking I've totally lost my mind. Despite being busy today, I absolutely didn't want to let it pass me by without doing something for it, and when I stumbled upon the recipe for trick or treat cookies from Not Martha.org, I knew I had my winner.

This definitely isn't a historical recipe, but it's still a lot of fun if you're looking for a creative way to serve sugar cookies, and can easily be adapted to fit any holiday or celebration's theme!

Emily's Shepherd's Pie

Another good dish to feed a crowd!

Tonight's dinner developed in an interesting way. Originally, I thought I was just making dinner for my family and a friend, and then my brother took me up on my semi-serious offer to invite one of his friends over, so she and her mom came while my original guest unfortunately had to cancel. I'm always nervous when I make something new for people I've never fed before or haven't seen in a while - I figure my immediate family and the usual suspects of the extended crowd will be more forgiving if it turns out to be a disaster.

Fortunately, things went more or less smoothly, partially because I had a very helpful sous chef and a guest photographer for a couple of the shots. There was still a bit of a slip up, but nothing that made the dish irredeemably bad. In fact, I'm looking forward to having some of the left overs for lunch tomorrow, and passing the rest along to my grandparents!

Emily's Lemon Tart

Happy (belated) birthday, Emily!

As I mentioned in my snickerdoodle post, September 29th was Emily Bennett's 80th birthday. Emily has been one of my favorite American Girl characters for quite some time, and even though I couldn't do anything for her earlier in the week, I didn't want her birthday to slip by unnoticed, especially considering (as anyone who's read Happy Birthday, Molly! knows) thanks to war shortages, she hasn't been able to really celebrate her birthday with a proper party since she was five years old. Molly offers to let her share her birthday, which they decide should be a proper English tea party, and promptly gets annoyed when she finds out that a proper English tea party isn't much like an American birthday party at all.

When the topic of what the main treat would be during a tea party, Emily suggests a lemon tart, which Molly turns down in favor of the chocolate cake she's been wanting all year. Since this is Emily's birthday, and I don't have war rations to work with, we're making a lemon tart in her honor.

Emily's Roast Beef Tea Sandwiches, Cheddar Scones and Short Bread Cookies

A great excuse to break out the china!

My grandmother loves tea. Actually, she really loves a lot of British - and specifically English - things, but tea is probably her favorite, so when I decided I wanted to do a tea for Emily's first feature on the blog, my mom suggested that we invite her and a couple other people over to try out the recipes with us.

This also means that this post features our first official guest appearance! Read on to hear what we decided to do.