This is a cook book I have had for a number of years. I bought it while on a fact finding mission to Tennessee. I have scanned through it a few times but never really took it seriously. I believe now is the time to experiment with it.
The inside cover says: Strong family ties, hard work and good old fashioned cooking sustained folks through the 1930's. these are the recipes and precious memories of those who lived through the Great Depression.
It was published by a company called Reminisce Books. I have the address if anyone is interested in purchasing a copy if they are still available.
It contains your basic chapters, and introduction, a chapter on Vegetables and Salads, A chapter on soups, one on Breads and Biscuits. The next chapter is the one that interests me most at the moment called This and That. The food budget was tight, but cooks of the day found was to make filling fare out of some unusual ingredients!
The next chapter is Casseroles, then Meat Dishes, the best loved one Desserts followed by Canned foods and lastly Cherished Family Favorites ( a place to add and preserve my OWN families tried and true recipes from the depression era.
Spiced through out the book are stories from those who have come before me about life during this time. The stories may be even more interesting to me than the recipes as I am a people watcher, even if it is from generations bygone.
I am finding it interesting to see things that were "staples" and "just what was around" that are going to be much more difficult for me to acquire in my day and age.
From the chapter on This and That however, I plan to immediately try the Candied Cranberries recipe as I have a bag of fresh cranberries in my fridge that I don't want to go to waste but have no idea what I want to do with them.
There is a recipe for Lemon Crackers that sounds good as well however Im not sure what baking ammonia is. Could it be baking powder? Anyone know?
To my friend who is going to teach me to can V-8 style juices, There is a recipe for Tomato gravy using a quart of tomato juice in the ingredients... Interested in the rest?
There is a recipe for making your very own grapenuts.... can you imagine?
I cant wait to try a drink called Switchel and can you imagine something called Irish Potato Candy?
It uses yes, an Irish potato, confectioner's sugar, peanut butter, chopped nuts and red and green cherries.
There are a few more recipes in that chapter that seem pretty ordinary to me. Cinnamon Pancakes, Homemade noodles with Peas, Cornmeal mush, Buckwheat Cakes, Scrapple.
I have to do an inventory of my kitchen and freezers to see which way to go first, and I want to try to include some nutritional information with at least part of these if I can figure out how as we really do want to get healthier with our eating this year as well. This will mean that many of the recipes in this book that are Deep Fried, will have to be sparsely used, but that won't mean we CAN'T.
I REALLY cant wait to get started. Feeding people is one of the most important things in my life. I love the looks on the faces of happily, full people.
