My blog might lead you to believe that I am stuck in a time warp and that I see the past through rose tinted glasses of happy stay-at-home mothers in their pinnies with their brood of smiling children all happily making cakes, jams and jellies.
Regardless of my fond childhood memories I am under no illusion regarding the hardship and sacrifices made by housewives of the 1950s/60s. Once married, women could expect to spend up to 15 hours a day on household chores and many referred to manuals such as the Housewives' Pocket Book which encouraged a ritual of cleaning, shopping, cooking and at the end of the day 'tidying herself' ready for her husbands return home.
Virginia Nicholson has penned a book: 'Perfect Wives In Ideal Homes' in her quest to compare that of her mother's generation with the role of women today.
It's a much covered topic, Nicholson states the obvious, housework was endless with many womens lives being played out beside the washing line, around the stove or at the kitchen sink. Modern cons like fridges, washing machines, dishwashers, the use of a car, microwaves, the things we take for granted, weren't available to the 1950s housewife.
Personally I find books such as Nicholson's a bit patronising, comments about women being unfulfilled and only aspiring to snare a husband and a home, denigrates the 'choice' those women made to selflessly care for their families. It sadly makes me question whether my own mother was truly happy and fulfilled, catering as she did to mine and my families needs. Typically, women like my mother, never bemoaned their lot, so I shall never know.
What really interests me is how having become so liberated, women have become less kind. I've recently been following a much despised celebrity on Twitter and am amazed that so many women are posting comments of a really vile nature. It's a contradiction in terms, the celebrity is an outspoken feminist (isn't that what we fought for? Freedom of speech and opinions and the platform to express them.) Yet regularly the same women are posting threatening, abusive comments, is that what fulfilled, erudite, happy women do? Calling an insignificant celebrity a c..t and w...e! God help anyone that is a real enemy of these vicious women. I cannot imagine my mother ever taking time in her busy day to abuse her worst enemy but I guess she was too busy donkey stoning her step!
Yes we have freedom and opportunity our mothers could have only dreamt of, but do we use them wisely? I spoke recently of young mothers who have no inclination to cook and this started with the American import in the late 1950s of self-service supermarkets. Housewives were enticed by all the new products, brands such as Birds Eye were offering Quick-Frozen meals, Lyons ready-mix cakes and puddings, Sunblest sliced bread which stayed fresh for days, Cornflakes and Ready Brek, Kraft processed cheese already sliced........it was the thin end of the wedge.
I don't know that we will ever reach a perfect status quo, most of my female friends who work tell me they are constantly chasing the weekend when they can be home with their families. What I do know is that by eschewing all 'womanly' roles such as cooking, we are left wide open to a food industry which encourages us to feed our families on a cocktail of chemicals and preservatives and allows us not to think of the animals we are eating as sentient or cognitively agile beings but purely as fodder to satisfy our convenience.
I have posted all manner of recipes this past year but I have come to understand that many women can't even make a basic tomato sauce and will buy it ready-made in a jar. A basic tomato sauce can be added to pasta and is a meal in itself, interestingly, when I was a young single mother this was an absolute staple in mine and Bert's diet, it was cheap and easy yet nutritious, I could add the sauce to a pizza base with some added cheese or to some mince or chicken. I like to add chillies to my sauce or sometimes herbs such as basil or oregano, really it's a question of playing around with it, adding ingredients you like. What I will say is that red wine really adds depth and flavour to many sauces, however, if you don't drink red wine, I would suggest buying a cheap bottle of table wine and pouring it into an ice cube maker and freezing, that way you can use a couple of cubes each time you make a sauce, it's well worth three or four pounds in the long run!
Basic tomato sauce
Recipe
Makes enough for 4 servings of pasta
4 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 onion
100g tomato puree mixed with 600ml of boiled water
A glass of red wine, or 4 wine cubes
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Chop onion and garlic then blitz in a food processor
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and garlic and sweat until softened
Add wine and reduce for 2 minutes
Add tomato stock, season liberally and simmer gently for 25 minutes
I add a handful of Parmesan cheese for extra flavour but it is optional as are chillies, herbs or any other ingredient you might wish to add
You can make a large batch of this sauce and refrigerate for four days
Serve over pasta alone or add mince for a bolognese or kidney beans for chilli or top bruschetta or a pizza base, the variations are endless
'A harmonised life these days sounds like a tall order. Between housework, homework, workwork and busy work, there are perpetually too many things to do, and not enough time to find that mythical balance. Nothing is more frustrating than feeling like you're doing doing doing but getting nothing truly done.'
- Jack Canfield
Love Donna xxxx
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