Any memories of "poor people food" from your childhood that you still crave?

[QueenDairy]

My mother was amazing, raising three children all by herself. We were very poor, but simple and happy. I have very fond memories of the different things she would concoct to feed us! Some of it I still think of, and want to cook again.
She used to make sorullos ("cigars" ) with yellow corn meal dough. She stuffed them with American cheese and ground beef if we had any, and fry them until golden brown. I used to love those as a child, imagining they were submarines, or fat cigars. Haha! :D They were very yummy and crispy.

Here is a recipe similiar to what she made, except for the filling:
http://www.justbestrecipes.com/casser...

Also, she used to fry little dough patties (flour, adobo, water) and serve it to us on a bed of white rice and beans. Another variation of the fried dough used flour, water only, fried and dusted with sugar and cinnamon. I used to love those! There are so many "poor" meals I've enjoyed, and still make today, simply because they are delicious :) Do you have any?

[SevyF]

Every now and then I still crave a bowl of top ramen noodles, or a hot dog.....but thats rare really really really rare. When you live on that for years it just makes me sick to think about eating it at times

[Bivalve88]

Oddly enough, for us it was shellfish. Lobster, crab, and oysters. Growing up on Cape Cod, you could just walk out on the flats and eat you up some oysters (or have a buddy dive for your lobsters). It's what we ate when we couldn't afford a pizza or a chicken. You'd think I'd be tired of shellfish by now, but I still can't get enough.

[yakittyyak]

This is positively the best question ever!!
I wish all the responses were made into a book, so I could take it to bed with me and read it till I fell asleep! So many good memories.
We were very poor when I was a child...but I think that 'poor' can mean a lot of different things. Let's say I was one of the 'lucky poor.' We certainly never went hungry, because my mother had a huge garden, and canned or froze the vegetables. My father and I hunted and fished, and the only meat we ate were the beef products that were really cheap at the time, because not a lot of people cared for them in rural Canada. When I was little, I learned very quickly not to tell the kids at school what we had for supper! If we had had brains, oxtails, pickled pigs feet, boiled tongue with homemade BBQ sauce, kidneys, stuffed heart etc. the night before, trust me, you don't want to tell your friends. Especially if you were the obviously poor kid that was wearing altered hand-me-down clothing that was originally made for your 50 year old aunt!
One time the grade 3-6 kids from our school went on a field trip. My Mother had packed me a 'special surprise' in my lunch and told me not to open the paper bag until lunchtime. of course, I couldn't stand the suspense, and peeked in the bag when we were half way to our destination in the school bus. I immediately yelled out "OH WOW!! I GOT CHICKEN FROM THE STORE!!" It's still kind of embarrassing because the other kids all laughed at me, but trust me, when you never get to eat anything that you didn't produce, 'chicken from the store' is a Great Big Deal!!
Christmas eve was our one holiday when we had special snacks...it was so exciting!! We had a tin of smoked oysters, green olives with the pimento stuffed in, celery sticks with cheese whiz, and 'Bugles' (cracker things) that we loaded up with Kraft garlic chip dip. I always have that now at my house at Christmas, because it just makes me happy!!
We're pretty well off now, but one good thing about being poor...If you have ever been really poor, you Never forget how to manage. A big part of why I'm doing well now, is because many of those 'poor people' habits die hard, and the next thing you know, you're doin' OKAY!! :)

[sueatmo]

I love your story! Thanks for sharing.

I agree that this is a great thread.

[jpr54_1]

thank you for sharing!

[DavidA06488]

As others have said, thanks for sharing. Some have good memories, some of us, not so good. The important thing is to remember how those things have turned us into foodies. From what I can read from your comment, your experiences taught you to be open to a variety of foods that many have never experienced or learned to appreciate. Thank you.

[marymac]

My mom used to stuff green peppers wih bread stuffing

[DavidA06488]

I remember our mother having us gather what we thought of as weeds in our garden and using them in salad. she also had us save grey corn fungus when we spotted it on ears of corn. She served it to us in a cream sauce. We thought she was trying to poison us. Now I know she was serving us lambs quarters greens and huitlacoche , which are a delicacy, and taste like truffles. I guess it just takes time and perspective for us to appreciate some of our parents' ingenuity in trying to feed us.

[Benita765]

We were poor but didn't really remember knowing that :-) mom cooked pinto beans and fried potatoes every single day, it's all dad wanted to eat. Us girls used a lot of ketchup on the potatoes and beans and to this day I do not like ketchup I remember my grandparents coming for a visit which wasn't very often and they would bring a pickup load of groceries with them . Granny home-canned veggies and they would process a hog and chickens every year and they brought plenty of that and eggs , milk and homemade butter. She would bring us treats like tang. Tv dinners and pop tarts.

Has anyone ever ate chocolate gravy? Mom would fix it for us three girls with homemade biscuits. Mac and cheese in a box, still won't eat that today nor do I like potatoes. Lol mom made a casserole that had canned mixed vegetable with some type of gravy baked that had a crust on the top and bottom like a pot pie I guess but without any meat. I remember cutting up hotdogs and placing them on lettuce with mustard and ketchup and rolling it together and thinking I invented something great. Dad would gather "poke" at certain times of the year and roll it in cornmeal and fry it, can't say I remember liking it. This thread has brought back a lot of memories!!!

I just remembered gravy made from cornmeal!!!

[POAndrea]

Gravy. On EVERYTHING. Potatoes. Bread. Fried bologna. Hardboiled eggs. Fried cabbage. It was milk gravy if there was milk, or just plain old brown gravy if there wasn't. In the summer there might be garden tomatoes, and in the winter it was onions if we had any. I used to despise gravy or anything even remotely gravy-like because we ate it all the time and it meant we had no money. I told myself "When I have my own, house, I'm NEVER gonna make anyone eat gravy EVER." Well, now I kinda like it again, and not just because it is cheap. Go figure.

[pine time]

My Dad was raised poorest-of-the-poor, and he felt the same way about rice. Refused to eat it once he was on his own. Which is funny, 'cause we weren't exactly rich growing up, and Mom served rice to us kids pretty often. Dad would substitute plain old white bread for himself.

[John E.]

My dad is the opposite. He craves the food of his youth. They ate a lot of potatoes, beans and kapusta (kraut) with maybe a ham hock or trotter thrown in.

[pine time]

On the meats: both Mom and Dad did their fair share of butcherin' as kids (I think the letter "g" wasn't invented when they were "coming up"), and they still loved the snout to tail meats, long before that phrase was in vogue. Dad still loved his potatoes and beans, too, but just not the dreaded rice!

[John E.]

You reminded me of some stories from my parents. My dad grew up in NE Minneapolis but they actually had a barn and livestock. When they butchered a pig, it was my dad's job as the youngest to catch the blood in a bucket to make blood sausage. (The location of dad's homeplace now has a small strip mall with a grocery store. I told the meat manager that my dad was born in his department.)

My mother grew up in a town of 500 in the woods of NW Wisconsin. They ate a lot of wild game and fish that my grandfather caught. He also gathered and processed his own wild rice. When my mother was school age, they went home for lunch which was the big meal of the day. In the fall they would frequently have roast duck with wild rice stuffing. They did not know they were eating gourmet food. 

They didn't have a lot of extras during the Depression, but they did ok. 

(My sister was 13 years older than me. She used to say she hated it when our mother would make rice. It was her job to clean up the rice that ended up on the floor.)

[Squrrel]

My mom used to make these cornmeal type, pan fried, biscuits for lack of a better word. They were heavy and hot! We would slice them open and slather them with fresh butter, OH, yea!!!!

[lyagushka]

Believe it or not...wienerschnitzel. My dad was out of work for a year or two when I was about 10 years old. Back then veal was really cheap, so our family ate it more often than any other proper meat. My mom had spent some time in Germany and learned to make wienerschnitzel over there. I remember listening to her pound out the cutlets very thin with a meat tenderizing hammer, and getting all excited for dinnertime. I was pretty much the pickiest eater EVER as a child. (I mean, it's surprising I didn't come down with rickets or something similar.) But I loved meat, and wienerschnitzel was right up there near the top of a very small heap of favorite dishes. Hot dog sandwiches kept us fed too. I'm sure if I'd been less picky I'd have memories of a wider "poor food" repertoire.

[Resplendent]

OMG Queen Dairy, I know this is an older thread, but I had to respond since you are the very first person who seems to possibly know what I'm talking about... in your OP you mentioned that your mother used to "fry little dough patties (flour, adobo, water) and serve it to us on a bed of white rice and beans".... my Aunt & Mother did the same thing for me growing up (along with the Sorullos de Maiz) and in my family the fried flour dumplings served with beans as a dipping sauce were called (and I'm spelling the second part of the name phonetically = "Johnny Cleh-kahs".... did your mother happen to call them that (if not what did she call them if you recall)? I swear I've spoken to so many people of a latin/hispanic background who look at me weird as they never know WTF I was talking about pertaining to the name let alone themselves never grew up with the fried dough patties served with beans and rice. I've been trying to come up with the proper "known" name for these patties to look up a recipe because that is pretty much the only thing I don't know how to make in the correct proportions and it wasn't ever handed down to me as a traditional family recipe (I'm Puerto Rican) and my Mother passed when I was young so I can not ask her and all my other relatives are also long gone who would know.... your insight would send me over the moon if you knew the correct name or perhaps could share with me a good recipe for the fried patties. Many thanks in advance!

[wonder_full]

It could be a Puerto Rican variation on a dish very popular in Cameroon, Burkina Faso and other parts of Africa. The dish is called Beignets Haricots in French. It's basically flour dumplings with beans as a dipping sauce.

http://traces-et-memoires.com/traces/coifcuisine/images/AC_Haricots.jpg

A recipe: http://www.macocote.com/2011/12/beignets-haricots-puff-beans/

Different recipe: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBTapA...
Hope this helps!

[marymac]

My mom would stuff green peppers with bread stuffing

[fara]

Sometimes all we would have in the house was some canned creamed corn, which my mother seasoned and I loved.
Something else I remember, I don't know how cheap it is but toasted pita with mayo and sprout sandwiches.

[pine time]

Today's a cool, rainy day, so 'natch, I had to bake a cake. As I carefully measured ingredients and checked the oven temp, I thought of my grandmother's delicious cakes: wood stove, no temperature regulator-control, fresh-churned butter and gathered eggs. She measured nothing, just pinches of this, a handful of that. She'd always leave a good cupful of batter in the bowl for us kids to devour. Incredible buttercream frostings, ingredients measured-by-sight.

My careful precision could never begin to match her cakes!

[sueatmo]

I'm sure your cakes are wonderful. Perhaps your cakes don't measure up to your wonderful memories of them. If you are doing same for your family, you are passing your Grands' tradition down. Good for you.

[afridgetoofar]

I like this thread. :) Dunno if it was "poor people" food but my (poverty restricted) mom did the best she could with limited resources. I recall casseroles baked with rice and seasonal vegetables (and "gov't surplus" cheese). As children my siblings and I brought home sacks of "found" fruits, crabapples, gooseberries, pears and plums, and my mum had friends with orchards and gardens and hens who brought her produce and dairy items, because they cared about her. She made preserves of tomatoes that have spoilt me to this day with their outstanding flavor. I wish I could cook as she did. Her food offerings stand out in memory (mine and my siblings) and I weigh them against any others for flavor and how they made me feel health and energy wise.

[hill food]

I think 'surplus cheese' is better than its commercial counterpart (starts with a V).

[mamachef]

I think this is a lovely tribute. Thank you for sharing it.

[Lmaoingeneral]

I have so enjoyed reading this. I grew up in the Palouse in Eastern Washington, the product of late 1800s homesteaders of German descent who were very self sufficient and frugal. Summer gardens/orchards were enjoyed fresh and surplus preserved; beef, pork and chicken were raised; and basic cheese products from dairy produced, as well as eggs.

Some of my fondest childhood dishes were the old Volglan German.

A thick crepe, "schmarnz" (sp?), made with 1 egg, 1 c flour, 1 c milk and fried in butter or bacon fat and served slathered with butter and homemade jam, rolled up and sprinkled with powdered sugar or just plain sugar.

Simple dough turnovers filled with homemade saurkraut. Wish I could find a recipe.

Wilted lettuce -- fresh red lettuce from the garden, doused with bacon, grease, dash of sugar and vinegar.

Potatoes and onions and cream and bacon fat and potatoes and onions and cream and bacon fat -- oh, to count the ways.

Boiled wheat berries, honey and cream for breakfast.

Peanut butter, Miracle Whip OR Miracle Whip and liverwurst OR Miracle Whip, bacon and tomato OR Spam, onion and dill pickle salad sandwiches, all on Wonder bread.

Hot milk over toast with salt and pepper.

Homemade noodles sauteed in butter or bacon fat and tossed with toasted bread crumbs and cottage cheese.

Big fat sugar cookies.

So simple: basically flour, butter, sugar, bacon, milk, and a few veg and fruit.

Mister Wizard, take me home! Low carb be damned ;)

[sueatmo]

Enjoyed reading your memories! Your mom knew how to cook! I too have eaten wilted lettuce, but made up as a salad with hard cooked egg and bacon and green onions. I still make it once or twice a year because both Mr. Sueatmo and I like it.

[mamachef]

Sounds like you need a pickled cabbage knish recipe.....

[PHREDDY]

MC....send that reciepe my way, if you have one...please

[yakittyyak]

I still love SPAM!! lol!...but I don't mention it in 'polite conversation'...it's almost a dirty word now! LOL Perfect Spam sandwich: lots of butter on the bread, and mayo, and Keens mustard, with iceberg lettuce and tomato and cheddar cheese on the side. Straight from the 60's, and brings back many happy memories for me when I eat it...camping holidays, fishing trips, etc.

[sqmr3]

My mom was a single mom raising four kids. My favorite then - and still one of my favorites, but no one can make it like hers - was "creamdriedbeef" I was well into my 20s when I realized it was three words.

She just used milk, flour and the carl budding drief beef.

[drguitar]

How about Ranger pudding? From MRE, add instant coffee, cocoa mix, creamer and sugar, then mix in water....a delicacy in the field ;)

[Lillipop]

We were not really poor but my father was a union carpenter and in the wet rainy California winters sometimes he could not work at the job site so either a small paycheck or no paycheck. My mother was a fabulous cook and she also knew how to stretch every dollar to the max. She would go to the bakery near our house and buy a gunny sack of "day old bread" for $1.00. There was french bread.....sliced breads...pastries etc.Then she would get creative and toast the french bread in foil in the oven and spread a bit of peanut butter on the warm toasted bread and my brother and I thought it was the best.Our freezer was usually filled with all types of great bakery products. She also used to make chocolate frosting with Hershey's cocoa and frost graham crackers with them and make us little graham cracker sandwiches.Later when she took a seasonal job in an apple cannery and was able to bring home every fresh apple known to man she would make huge apple pies...apple cakes....apple butter and so on. Someone wrote about the white rice raisins sugar and warm milk concoction.......my mom did that for us too...so good:)

[Ruthie789]

Would you happen to be a baby boomer? A lot of Mom's were stay at home Mom's and they really new how to economize and make a meal out of nothing. The BÌG meal was the Sunday meal usually. Although times were strict, meal time was sacred, and we all cherished the time around the table. I basically have to force my son to sit still, he is always on the go.
We used to live in Northern Quebec and we ate fish every Friday. Sometimes the fish was free as our neighbour across the street would fish and we were lucky to get part of his catch. An image forever remains in my mind of the fish in the sink waiting to be scaled and gutted. Fresh fish, free, potatoes and a can of green peas, how good is that?

[Ruthie789]

As far as I am concerned food is food. The simpler the food the better it is. My Mom used to make a Ham and Cheese casserole with lefover ham, macaroni, tomatoes cheese, bread crumbs. So good. Today this is not that cheap to make, and all food is expensive even burgers.

[Bill Hunt]

At one time, we were not "poor people,," but then, a few years later, we were.

For me, collard greens, fried chicken, local fish, caught that day and fresh, hand-shucked black-eyed peas. Crowder peas could be classified in that group too, as they were plentiful

Hunt

[jpr54_1]

I didn't go thru all the posts-

my mom made a great jewish eastern european dish called petcha-jellied calves feet
I still make it when I can find the calves feet

[FreshAirInspector]

Putupap - white cornmeal porridge, a staple of the Zulu diet, eaten with sugar and milk.

[JLBeans]

Dad would make the best Noodles and Egg - leftover spaghetti with a scrambled egg poured on top and cooked until it looked like a Frisbee, served with ketchup. I still make them when sick but never quite the same.

The five of us would have 1 box of mac & cheese with a package of Sizzlean (fake bacon) and ONE bottle of 7-up for dinner. Well, maybe I could do without that meal again.

[Mariposa410]

I am convinced our taste changes as we get older! Things I ate as a child and loved, I do not think I could touch now. On the other side, there are things as a child I would not touch, little alone eat, and now I love them!!!

[sueatmo]

http://tinyurl.com/73a9sdx All Churned Around How buttermilk lost its butter. By L.V. Anderson

Article on Slate about buttermilk. I'm a bit miffed with the chosen illustrative product. That particular product is the best buttermilk I have ever drunk. I also think the writer mistakes a rural "poor" food for a typically "Southern" food.

It does indeed make a beautiful batch of cornbread or biscuits. Somewhere I have a recipe for a very good buttemilk cake. The Organic Valley version is just as good as plain yogurt. Maybe slightly better. I think it would make a very good smoothie with the right ingredients, most of which I cannot eat in the proportions needed to do this.

I like about a half cup right before bed, taken plain.

Does anyone know if almond milk can be soured, like regular milk?

[foiegras]

Hmm, I don't know, but doubt it. My understanding is that regular milk cannot be properly soured anymore, given current pasteurization.

[sueatmo]

http://www.ehow.com/how_4506892_sour-...

Here are directions for souring milk. One cup milk to one teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar.

[foiegras]

Let me rephrase that ... pasteurized milk will not properly sour on its own. The taste of sour milk can be replicated in the way you mention in order to successfully make the old recipes that used real sour milk.

So I suppose, since it's all about the flavor components rather than the actual souring process, any milk should work.

http://www.cookingmanager.com/spoiled...

[DunkTheBiscuit]

Yorkshire pudding with onion gravy, or pancakes with sugar used to be staples of my childhood.

Also, something called - in my part of the world - Sly Pasty, which was basically currant slice with finely chopped fresh mint. Two flat sheets of shortcrust pastry with a layer of dried fruit and mint between, stabbed with a fork to stop the pastry rising unevenly, then sprinkled with sugar when it came out of the oven.

Rhubarb pie was a frequent visitor to the table in season as we had a monster rhubarb plant.

Jam, syrup or marmalade steamed sponge pudding.

All of those packets of concentrated carbohydrate still appear on my table to this day. But not too often. Pure comfort food.

One that I don't make very often these days is eggy bread - which was ALWAYS eaten with soy sauce. I'm not sure why it's not in my usual repertoire because I remember loving the stuff. I should make it more often.

[hill food]

sly pasty sounds goooood. (yes those extra 'o's were required)

[DunkTheBiscuit]

It is very good! Add as many extra o's as you want :P The fresh mint gives just enough of a lift to what is otherwise a very heavy slice. It's real stick to your ribs stuff. I can't really give you proportions because she never wrote down what she did, and when I make it I just use what I've got, so it varies every time. I know from experience that dried mint really isn't a good substitute for fresh, though :(

[hill food]

it never is...

[Ruthie789]

That all sounds soooo amazing especially the current slice.....

[Jperryrt]

Fried bread dough. No sugar. Served with an over easy egg and runny yolk. This was a treat when my dad was not home that night.

[Mariposa410]

I've had fried bread dough, and even made it myself for my kids, but I have never had it with over easy eggs. It sounds great since I love to have the yolk runny so I can eat it on my toast!!! On fried bread, it would probably be really good!!!

[cathodetube]

What kind of dough is this? Do you make a bread dough and let it rise and then fry it? I am intrigued.

[Jperryrt]

Heck no, that would be too gourmet to make Mom just got the frozen dough at the grocery store. They sell it in freezer section comes like 3 loaves of bread per pkg.

Let it thaw then fry palm sized pieces in veg oil till golden brown.

[Mariposa410]

My Mom and Mother-in-law used refrigerator biscuits a nd rolled them out and cut them into 4ths and fried them!!! I have also done frozen bread dough that was thawed and rolled ot and used a cookie cutter or a glass upside down to cut out circles to fry up! I also found a recipe recently to make Easy French Biegnets doing this with frozen Bread dough, They have you knead in some powdered sugar to sweeten the dough and fry it and then sprinkle with powdered sugar! These are really good warm with a nice hot cup of coffee in the morning!!!

[Leepa]

Link to that beignet recipe, please. Pretty please?

[Mariposa410]

I have found this recipe in several places, but try www.mrfood.com where they refer to them as Mardi Gras Beignets.

[Leepa]

Thank you!

[HighHeels]

hotdogs right out of the package. I don't indulge now but every once in a while I get a fond memory of my mom telling me to grab a weiner out of the fridge and split it with my brother. I hated them boiled like she used to do when she was making them 'proper' lol

[QueenDairy]

Yes, hot dogs right out of the package are tasty. Back when me and my older brother went fishing, we kept a package of cold hot dogs in the cooler. My big brother would slice up one of the dogs into tiny bits and we'd use this as bait. It worked suprisingly well. As the hours ticked in the hot Florida sun, we succumbed to our hunger and would eat some of them. You would think that cold, plain hot dogs are disgusting, but sitting in that heat, starving half to death, it tasted heavenly to us! =D We also shared a large can of cold pineapple juice, sipping it straight from the hole on the top of the can. Those canned juices are still my favorite. haha good times!

[edelynn]

I never remembered a shortage of food in the 60's, dad worked at the mill when he wasn't layed off. Mom had to leave her family and stay with relatives at a very young age. Don't know if it was poor people food, but I did have some favorites. New here, so forgive please if these were mentioned before... Fried Scraple for breakfast with syrup - (loved it till I learned later what it was as an adult) . After church we often made "monkey tails" Toasted separated hot dog buns topped with cooked bacon, american cheese slices, broiled until brown and topped with a bit of our local ketchup. Yum. Also loved for picnics "cherry delight" basically graham crackers, dreamwhip and philly cheese. Guess i never realized how good we had it.

[seanelle2]

Quite a different background- jewish on dad's side, mom was raised southern baptist. Grew up eating "meat chops" not knowing it was pork (not permitted if one keeps kosher). Somehow don't think jewish grandmother was fooled though!. That being said, father didn't work/couldn't keep a job until in late teens- and no alcohol! Just lazy. Mom had to go to work to support us, which means I started cooking for the entire family at age 11. But always loved to bake with jewish grandma- still would rather bake than cook, but cooking is.. necessary!

That being said, we were on really tight food budget. No hamburgers for a meal- waste of meat for individual burgers. Casseroles, casseroles, casseroles- meat loaf, meat balls, etc in the ground beef department -- meat loaf was stretched by adding a can of Campbell's vegetable soup or chicken gumbo- oatmeal if it was on sale, since it could do double duty for breakfast food, whereas bread crumbs were a luxury-

Summer meals very similar to others' here- corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, and cucumbers and watermelon/canteloupe if on sale- BUT! you have to put BOTH salt AND black pepper on the fruit! no meat a lot of times- but fresh picked vegetables are the best! I can still eat this way in the summertime!

Or.. instead of bean - fresh green beans, with cubed potatoes and back then, 4 pieces of bacon fried, then crumbled and added to the beans and potatoes- in pressure cooker my mom did these in about 45 minutes- on stove i cook them down for about 12 hours- served with cornbread with lots of margarine- Jiffy mix- it was cheap then and can still get on sale sometimes for 3 for a dollar or 2 for 88 cents.

Sloppy Joes- but homemade sauce, not Manwich or something similar - canned vegetables were ok but canned sauces my father refused to buy/pay for- said it was a waste even though he wasn't paying for it, my mom was, and eventually myself as I contributed my babysitting money towards the food budget ... best sauce ever! about 20 years a friend called, she was going to make sloppy joes for her boys, didn't have manwich, asked if i had any - asked her if she had ketchup, mustard, vinegar, sugar, and paprika- she said yes, gave her the recipe- it smelled so good cooking her boys were dipping it out of the pan before it went into the sloppy joes! Tooping was' .. pickles- either hamburger dill chips or sweet gherkin small rounds!!

Cheap summer dinner and still a guilty pleasure- Ritz crackers, beef bologna, and velveeta- tear or cut up bologna (thin sliced only!) put one piece on Ritz, top with thin-sliced piece of velveeta- another slice of bologna- on the side- small sweet gherkins cut into fourths! about 4 is dinner's worth!

The Hot Dog and Beans that others comment on- only difference is mom "gussied up" the beans by adding some brown sugar, ketchup and mustard, maybe some canned mushrooms and onions (fresh) sauteed first and dumped in with a big can of beans in a dutch oven on the stove- simmered on low for about 45 minutes- meanwhile the hotdogs were broiled then cut up in small pieces- if it was too hot for the broiler, then the hot dogs were fried! then cut up into the beans- still crave this today- a lot more expensive to make with kosher hot dogs and pareve Bush's beans though!

Desserts were infrequent (except at grandma's)- mainly jello - lime jello with .. grated cabbage or carrots or if we were lucky canned pineapple, orange jello with canned mandarin oranges no cool whip/reddi whip- just the jello, please!

Rarely if ever ate out- McDonald's was maybe twice a year and I'm talking when hamburgers were 15 cents each!
\
No pop/soda in house! Kool-aid if lucky! Iced tea/sun tea depending on season!

I was well aware that I didn't eat as well as the jewish kids I knew from Hebrew School, and was well aware that finances were pretty bad. Still, we were never hungry.. The only time I was really hungry was a friend invited me to stay over in 3rd grade. They had 7 or 8 kids. Dinner .. for everyone-- was .. just a pot of lima beans (which I can't stand!) no meat, no hocks, nothing- everyone had a bowl and there was ketchup on the table to squirt in for flavor- no bread/rolls/ .. not a darn thing- i was pretty hungry when I made a beeline home the next morning! Now, that was poor - I have to respect my mom even though it was a tense pretty bad childhood for feeding us as nutritiously and with tasty food as possible given her limited finances-

due to ill health, my finances are limited and I get food stamp assistance, but even so I shop the bargains and still make mostly casseroles, soups and things that stretch the budget, working with dietary limitations- kosher, no/low salt *high blood pressure), and lowcarb for my diabetes - nothing wrong with salmon patties either except it's too expensive now- even on sale it is $5.00 for 2 cans which makes only 8 small patties !

OMG- i totally forgot about butter and sugar sandwiches- didn't get those at home but a nearby neighbor who was also poor=- that's what we had at their house for breakfast- mighty fine!
Love reading all these memories!

[Cremon]

I remember eating butter sugar sandwiches growing up in Thailand. There's no way I could eat one now.

[magpiiie]

Cucumber sandwiches. Quite yummy actually.

[GraceW]

We lived near a Hostess Store.. so sometimes they had day-old bread on sale for probably less than a dollar. We would have buttered-whitebread sandwiches.

Although I cannot forget my mom's story about growing up poor: on Fridays, her dad would take the leftover deli meat and dump it on a Tombstone frozen pizza.

[pine time]

Mom used to talk about her early married days with Dad--poor, so they went to some food warehouse, where mostly there were canned goods with no labels. They'd buy a mystery caseful. She'd laugh about how one night they opened 8 straight cans of beets, so that was dinner.

[GraceW]

MY GOODNESS: I would have found that very exciting as a child--the very mystery of what each can might be. That is a very good story. Thanks!

[pine time]

One more: you wrote about the day-old Hostess store. For some crazy reason, Mom called those the Used Bread store.

[cathodetube]

What is a day old Hostess store?

[staughton]

LMAO!!! I know what the Used Bread/day-old Hostess store is!!!! White cinderblocks, complete with painted-on Wonderbread dots. Further proof of my W.T. ness, pine time. Was there a Wonder-Hostess corporate connection in the 60's-70''s that I didn't know about? Is there still? The beets story is fantastic. I can't wait to tell it at dinner tonight! Thanks.

[hill food]

may still be a connection. there is a factory/bakery where we went on school trips every few years (I'm guessing they were bribing us on freebie Ho-Ho's)

the outlet stores are clustered around there. an economically hard-up nabe.

they dropped one of the names, can't recall which, don't go that way much these days.

[woodburner]

There is one of those in Elmsford, NY, on Rt 9A south of Rt. 119. Still. Today.

[piebird]

Slum Gullion. It was great to us because it was one of my dad's specialties - scrambled eggs, tomatoes, bits of lefover meat, onions, all stirred together. Sometimes he called it garbage soup to tease us. He also made "white" pancakes with no eggs and we loved them.

[Vidute]

My parents both came over from Lithuania after WWII. We had a lot of potato dinners. Potato pancakes with some sour cream on the side. Kugelis, a baked potato pudding with some bacon in it and sour cream on the side (leftovers sliced and fried up for breakfast). Cepelinai, a potato dumpling with some meat in the center, sour cream on the side (leftovers sliced in half and fried up for breakfast). Koldunai, Lithuanian pierogi. Koseliena, a jellied aspic made from pigs feet and ears. On hot summer nights, we would have what my parents called "mutinis"- very stale Lithuanian black rye bread broken into chunks, sprinkled with some sugar, and covered with water. School lunches would oftentimes be a "juicy" scrambled egg (fried in bacon grease) sandwich on white bread (imagine reaching into the sandwich bag and grabbing onto a fistful of eggs in walpaper paste). Frequently made soups were split pea with potatos and some sliced up hotdogs, oatmeal soup with sliced carrots, and beet soup with a ham hock and potatos. Although the ingredients were inexpensive, I never considered these dishes "poor peoples' food". To this day, except for the scrambled egg sandwich, I prepare and enjoy these foods of my childhood and my heritage.

[Mariposa410]

This has to be the BEST question asked! I have been reading many of the answers for days now, and have even made some posts. It really brings back so many great food memories of my childhood and of my Parents and how they "made do" in some not so easy times! I really do miss some of those days, but more so, my parents who are deceased now!

[pinehurst]

I totally agree with this...beautifully said. I remember during the "gas rationing" days of the 70's, my dad was working all kinds of crazy hours...some nights 3-11 and then 11-7. My mom would serve breakfast for supper and I thought it was a treat. Cold weather, it was pancakes or cream of wheat. Hot weather, it was saltines and milk and wild blueberries which our neighbor let us pick on his property. Like folks on this thread, I was not wealthy in cash but very wealthy in good parents...a great mama.

[PHREDDY]

My folks are still around....90 and 83...I am lucky...very lucky....although they are both re-married, their spouses are right there as well....they live two zip codes away in south Fla...me I am in NYC...I make some soups, baked goods and special dishes that I freeze , pack them in cold packs and send it to them once or twice a year...I get these huge kisses and hugs by phone and e-mail....as my mother says to her friends....Which one of your sons sends you soup via federal express?.....

[pine time]

+1, Mariposa. I check back into this thread now & again, just to rekindle some fond, fond memories of growing up. Isn't it amazing how much food is part of our childhoods?

[dianne0712]

By the time I was born my parents were well-to-do, but definitely not so for the first 7 years of their marriage. My mother handwashed and hung to dry my father's only shirt. In the morning she ironed it. No haircut or chewing gum for her for 7 years, BUT she wax a dab hand at feeding them in style. She would buy what they called a 3 way roast which when taken apart gave you ground meat and a rib roast and filet. When the middle sister was a baby my mother was feeding her a lot of cooked egg yolks mashed which left a ton of egg whites leftover. My eldest sister asked her what was for dinner. When she heard the answer she uttered one of our favourite family lines"Not filet mignon and baked alaska AGAIN!"

[cleobeach]

My mom didn't really cook, she heated things.

Her staple was plain white rice, topped with boil in the bag turkey rounds in gravy packets. It was a major milestone when I was allowed to use the scissors to cut my own fresh-from-the-boiling-pot-packet open.

Another staple was meat pies. I can't remember the brand but their were personal sized meat pies with top/bottom crusts in aluminum tins. We were allowed to take those into the living room to watch one of our 3 tv channels. I would love to nibble on the crust right now.

[sueatmo]

Swanson's made both chicken and beef "pot pies." They still do. I believe Consumers' Reports did an analysis of these, a number of years ago, and disclosed that there was not enough protein, per gov't. recommendations, for a single serving in one pot pie. I liked them as a child though. Very starchy and comforting, eaten hot out of the oven. Because of the CR report, after that I never served them to my family.

[cleobeach]

Yes, Swanson's! I can picture the box.. I used to pick off the top crust and save it for last. It had the perfect combination of crunch with gravy on the bottom.

[John E.]

When I was a kid I remember my best friend's family eating those pot pies quite often. I don't think their mother really cooked. I have not had one of those since I was in junior high, I certainly never go them at my house. My mother mostly cooked from scratch back in those days. I do remember a few times when we got Swanson's TV dinners, back when they had the original aluminum tray and they were heated in the oven. If I recall correctly, we only had those on the nights my parent's were going out and either my big sister was watching us or after she went to college the sitter was coming over.

[PHREDDY]

This was back in the early 60's, it was a night where it was mom and dad's night out sometimes together or to seperate events (bowling,ma jong, cards, etc.)
When my mom went shoping we were able to tell if mom and dad were going out that week. My brother and I loved them, because we got to eat them in front of the tv on snack tables! my brother liked Salisbury Steak, I liked the turkey. They came with three compartments, and then later on went to four with the fourth containing a baked crumble of sorts, either cranberry, apple or peach. We were also allowed to have a bottle of soda, what ever flovor or brand we wanted. (we were permitted to drink it straight from the bottle. Since then I don't think I have had one since...by the way, I never served them to my kids....I guess they will say I deprived them of the finer things in life LOL!!!!!

[John E.]

I remember the TV dinners from the late '60s. As we got older, I don't remember the TV dinners so much probably because it would have taken at least 2 of them to fill up my older brothers and the oven would not hold enough of them at once.

The most interesting thing I find in reading your post is the comment you made about soda. Are telling us that you have not had a soda in 40+ years? I don't even know how that is possible ; )

[PHREDDY]

I am sorry ..to clarify "have not had a TV Diner"... but, you know what I think I am going to try a TV Diner real soon....my only problem is that if I eat in front of the TV and turn on the news I will probably puke...not from the food!

[jeanmarieok]

Ditto here - we ate pot pies and tv dinners on nights the baby sitter was coming. I still remember how delicious those mashed potatoes were.

[PHREDDY]

With the fried chicken....and if you recal, the potatoes had a melted little pool of butter in teh middle, when you pulled of the foil to reveil the meal!

[Cremon]

I grew up eating the chicken ones. My mother would make them and she told me that as a toddler that was the one food she would make where I would clean my plate. The flavor has not changed in over 40 years.

I make savory pies now myself (steak and kidney as well as chicken pot pie with leeks). My crust is exactly like that on those old Swanson pies. I make mine two crust pies because like you - I have to have that gravy with that crust crunch. It's just as much a matter of taste as texture for me. Very pleasant memories growing up with those pies.

[Sally LaRhette]

Wonder bread, peanut butter, marshmallow, RUM TUM TIDDY , a bread,tomato cheese dish, tomato juice,toast,for a long time american cheese in a grilled cheese, spaghetti, mac and cheese, applesauce, it all com in back to me!

[Cremon]

I was born in Alabama and lived there for 5 years before relocating to Bangkok, Thailand with my family. While still in Hunstville, I remember having fried frog legs and fried okra as a kid and loving it. Back then they were dirt cheap. I doubt those things are as comparatively inexpensive with regard to other foods today.

[hill food]

not hugely expensive, but finding non-frozen frog legs is almost impossible w/o your own pond. and even then the frozen ones are silly huge, like chicken drumsticks.

[RayShine]

My ma wasn't much of a cook, but what she did cook, she was a whiz at. My favorite thing that I'd ask for was just baked chicken breasts with rice and cream of mushroom soup. All warm and carby, although now I don't make it. I say its because cream of mushroom has too much sodium, but its actually because it never tastes quite like hers and it makes me a little sad.

[hill food]

I still make the cream of mushroom short cut dishes on occasion, I just make the cream of mushroom (or celery or whatever) from scratch, not being a snob, but I have the time and get to control the ingredients.

[HippieChick]

My Irish/Italian mom couldn't make real chicken soup like a Jewish mom, so she would whip up an approximation: she'd cook two or three pounds of chicken wings with an onion and rice with the broth cubes from several packets of Lipton noodle soup. I still make it like that, only with chicken breast meat, scallions and romaine. I don't care, it tastes great. Of course, back then you could buy a pound of chicken wings on sale for a quarter... We'd also have chopped potatoes sauteed with eggs for Friday night meatless Catholic supper, with fish cakes, but that I don't do anymore...

[tseptember]

Off the subject.... I worked with a girl a long time ago I called "HippieChick" when I worked as a bartender at a place called Phoenix Live. Cool name.. brings back memories for me.

[AMC1210]

My mother and father both worked long hours. At night if we had meat, it was frozen, and my mother would put the meat and the stuck part of the cardboard tray the frozen meat came in, into the oven broiler. When the meat was done , the cardboard part had softened and was full of the meat au jus. I would eat that cardboard along with the meat. My mother thought I was crazy. But I have to say it was full of flavor.

[hill food]

and fiber!

[AMC1210]

While eating the cardboard, my father (both mother and father immigrated from Swansea Wales while in their 20"s) would pour half a bottle of white distilled Vinegar into a bowl filled with chips (french fries). I being barely able to reach the dinner table just up to my nose. The fumes were over powering. To this day I do not eat anything that tastes or smells of Vinegar.

[pdxgastro]

I get you. I really disliked the vinegar fumes of salt and vinegar chips when I lived in England. But once you get over the smell, they taste good. Ketchup has vinegar in it, after all.

[AMC1210]

You are correct. But Ketchup smells like tomatoes to me. Its the smell, not the ingredients, of certain foods that bring back old momeries for me.

[Sally LaRhette]

hot dogs, saltines,,,actually on Sunday night supper might be crushed crackers and milk.
I still like legal seafood little bag of crackers with nibbles of extra dark chocolate.

[jethro stella]

Pinto beans with mayo, pinto beans in a glass filled with buttermilk and eaten with cornbread, mayo on white bread sandwiches, original Banquet t.v. dinners, fatback on biscuits with hot sauce, tomato sandwiches, sardines on crackers with mustard.

[tseptember]

I lived with my grandmother until I graduated from H/S. Every Saturday we would have burgers and fries, sit down for dinner and watch Hee Haw. At 6:30p, we would load up the car and leave for the sprint car or midget races at Manzanita Speedway. And at least twice a month, she would make fried salt pork, fried potatoes, biscuits and brer rabbit syrup. Man!!! I wish I had spent more time in the kitchen with her...

[wyogal]

Sounds like a fun grandma!

[Toni6921]

I remember bologna sandwiches and Koolaid, and buckwheat pancakes for breakfast. I hate buckwheat pancakes. Government cheese made the best grilled cheese sandwiches.

I still miss Grape and Cherry Koolaid with slices of lemon

[marymanchester]

We always had buckwheat pancakes (or buckwheat cakes, I guess). I think my father preferred them. I like them as a kid and didn't know they weren't "regular" pancakes. Haven't had them in eons. Maybe I'll give them a try again.

[John E.]

When I was 11 to 13 years old my brother and I would make buckwheat pancakes on Saturday mornings with our best friends, a couple of brothers who lived down the road from us. My mother would ask how come we never did this activity over at our friends' house. The response from them was, "our mom won't let us". My mom let us mess up the kitchen as long as we (mostly) cleaned it up. I sure do miss her.

[sueatmo]

Well, you had an enlightened mom. I miss my kids messing in the kitchen, that's for sure.

[teflontom]

As a very young boy, I recall my visits to my grandmothers kitchen for dinner several times a week. We did not have much and we ate at her house frequently. Her sons, (my father and uncles) had a large raised garden behind the house near a stream with beautiful produce. There was everything from tomatoes, peppers, garlic, (we're Italianas you may have noticed) zucchini,eggplant, squash, basil and oregano. Also there was a chicken pen. Eggs were available as was the bird. My grandmother would make pasta by hand, and bread, everyday. She was the best cook I have ever tasted. And I have eaten from Jean Georges to Sr Andres to Picard,Batali, Laprisse and Keller. And no disrespect to those greats by any means. She would barter with the local farmers for the cow offals in change for her pizzas, calzones sausages, etc. Then every once in a while,she would make what she called "sufriet". It was made up of cow intestine, lung and stomach(tripe), what we today call sweetbreads(pancreas and thymus and brain). At that age, I had no idea what I was eating, but I didn't care. It was the best thing I ever tasted. I have tried to duplicate that stew and have come close, but not quite. I'm not giving up, if it' s the last thing I do. As it turned out she opened a very succesful resturant in our tiny town and taught me all I know about cooking Italian. I hope to pass on those traditions and inspirations to my children and grandchildren. And to the chowhounders who have taken the time to read this. Caio e mangia!

[marymac]

When I was a young girl, we couldn't afford meat often. My mom would make stuffed peppers but would stuff them with bread stuffing instead of hamburger mix. Not bad.

[sueatmo]

for teflontom: What a great cooking heritage you have! I want to suggest that you loved her cooking because she loved you, and she put her whole self into doing the thing she did well for the people she loved. You may never be able to totally duplicate her dishes, because they are preserved in the amber of memory. But you will probably enjoy the process anyway.

[tseptember]

It wasn't something I grew up on, but something that was created when I lived with roommates. We were three days away from payday, flat broke and hungry. All we had in the condo was a can of cream of mushroom soup, a bag of hash browns and one pound of frozen ground beef. What came out of the skillet was (what we later named the Moe Special) not only glorious but became our signature dish at least twice a month. Hunger makes a great cook.

[wyogal]

Where did "Moe" come from? That's my maiden name! hahaha!

[tseptember]

Wyogal
Ron was from the Bay area. I do know his mother was from Germany. He or we never spoke about his father for all the years we were roommates and even now. I did find out several months ago, his father is in the Redding area.

[wyogal]

Our name was picked during emigration, from Norway. Not sure exactly where it came from, maybe the name of a farm in the old country.

[hill food]

the cool thing about 'poor people food' is how full of unprocessed grains and greens a lot of it is. oh sure there is some junk, but junk can be expensive.

[sueatmo]

I'm thinking about your comment. As a child I ate a lot of canned veggies and fruit. The fruit was packed in heavy sugar syrup. If there was a mix around, my mom was all over it. We used cake mixes, biscuit mixes. Cornbread was made of yellow degerminated Aunt Jemima corn meal. Fresh veggies were found in salad, but seldom in sides. We ate some fresh fruit--apples, bananas. But fruit cocktail ruled supreme in our household. I don't know that I would consider our diet unprocessed; certainly it wasn't particularly healthy. I think it was pretty typical of fifties' era cooking. It was certainly influenced by recipes for women's magazines.

[hill food]

I was thinking dirt dirt rural poor, as in foraged poke and dandelion greens cooked with some vinegar, beans soaked over night and simmered with a bit (just a bit) of ham hock. in summer stewed okra corn and tomatoes with a little hot pepper. in winter home-canned string beans and tomatoes. potatoes and onions in the ventilated root cellar bins (watch out for the black snake, we tolerate it as it keeps the mice in check)

that kind of thing.

[jvanderh]

I think you nailed it with country vs. (sub)urban poor.

[John E.]

It depends on the era and location when comparing rural vs (sub) urban poor. My father grew up just outside NE Minneapolis. Their house was right on the street car line yet they had livestock, a cow, ducks and geese, chickens, pigs, and a goat. They sold what milk and eggs they did not eat and had a large garden, butchered their own pigs, butchered the steer if the cow gave birth to a boy calf and basically took care of themselves. This was during the '20s into the 50s.

[jvanderh]

And I'm sure there are exceptions, like living near a great, cheap co-op or having a big garden.

[sueatmo]

OK, I'll buy that. My folks were first gen suburbanites, for sure. But one set of grands lived in a small city. Both sets of grands were born/raised in the country. I think my family is pretty typical of many families already in the States for a hundred years or so, with their move to suburbia.

Your food description sounds pretty familiar to me, but we didn't eat like that often, frankly. But when we did, the folks considered it very good food.

[hill food]

granted - that is an important distinction as when living in town it was more of the commercially canned stuff. cling peaches or bartlett pears in heavy syrup anyone? really? no one? (I still have a small craving for that every now and then)

[sueatmo]

I would be happy to never again see fruit cocktail, or canned pineapple. My family was only "poor" for my first few years. We seem to have passed through working class into the lower middle class some time in the fifties. My dad always had a "good job." This meant he brought home enough for us to live on, and my mom never did any food gardening or putting up produce to supplement our diets. And in fact, she taught school for many years, so we weren't poor by any standards. My "poor food" memories come from early childhood, and sometimes suppers at our grands, who weren't poor but had come through the Depression, and practiced thrifty food practices. I am probably unique to this thread in that I don't remember many home cooked meals from the fifties with much fondness.

I am impressed by the memories of others though. It is obvious that cooking the food you could lay your hands on was a mission of many mothers, and their adult kids still treasure the memories. I really enjoy reading these memories.

[hill food]

oh sheesh you should hear my aunt's stories (bit older than you but close) of eating potatoes like one would an apple.and liking it. no wonder sushi (basic maki nothing raw) freaks her.

[sueatmo]

In my family raw potato was considered poison, especially if they were green under the skin.

[QueenDairy]

When I was about 7 years old, I got violently sick after eating a potato. I washed it well, but failed to notice a tiny little sprout and a few green spots under the skin. An hour after chowing down on the boiled potato, I was vomiting nonstop and felt terrible. You would think that as an adult, I'd grow to hate them, but the opposite is true. I love potatoes, in any shape or form. :-)

[hill food]

I'll try a lot but raw potato is not on MY 'do' list. they were quite poor and her father worked in a grocery store...

[marymanchester]

That's how I got started on this interesting site - reading an article about not eating potato sprouts or the green areas.

[QueenDairy]

I still adore canned peaches on top of cottage cheese!

[cleobeach]

We were country poor-ish. There was never a shortage of food because so many people farmed or had huge gardens. I can remember being force-feed green beans until I thought I would puke. Green beans in everything. Ham and green beans, which included potatoes, was a weekly meal that was reheated over and over again. (My nana would make us a big pot.)

I never learned to appreciate dandelion greens. In my area, churches and social organizations still put on dandelion dinners as fundraisers.

My mom would buy processed stuff cheap at a warehouse type of cheap grocery store and those dishes are the ones I remember because they were a treat. Store bought applesauce was just the best!

[Mariposa410]

I would not consider my family as poor, but just working middleclass that had a "Depression Mentality" since both my parents grew up during the Depression in "middleclass" families in the midwest. Anyway, we also ate a lot of Tomato's, Potato's, Green Beans, and other "Home Garden Grown Vegetables". We also went to my Great Grandmothers in the summer, where my Mom, Grandmother and Great Grandmothers canned just about everything from the HUGE Garden, and the Apple and Peach Orchard on my Great Grandmother's small farm! I actually loved the food, which we rarely had "leftovers" due to a large family. They also had a huge number of different ways to prepare everything, so we did not always have things the same way over and over. We also had a lotof fresh eggs, because there were chickens, and many of our meats came from home farm raised animals that were locally slaughtered and then butchered for a huge Freezer my Grandparents had so we could all have meat (usually pork and sometimes chicken). They did not raise any cattle for slaughter, so Beef was not as common, unless "store bought". Though my Grandmother and Great Grandmother also knew how to "churn butter", we also had "store bought" Butter as well as other dairy products. I think that was because of the Pasteurization of many of those. My mother was a nurse, and in the early 50's, I think she felt that was much safer for those kinds of products for all of us. frankly, I miss all of these great Home grown foods, and believe me both my Great Grandmother and Grandmother were "THE BEST" Cooks!!! Both had been cooking since I think they could walk, and had been on huge farms where they cooked for a lot of people at a time. I do not remember them, especially my Great Grandmother (who lived until I was in College!) ever measuring a thing, except with their hand and fingers! To this day I cannot even match my Great Grandmothers homemade dinner rolls; they were the size of a Soft ball, and they just were so light and not too sweet, but just right!!! She also made homemade Chicken and Dumplings, that were the best I have ever had. They were the rolled out big noodle kind, but thicker and bigger than noodles. To this day, my sister and cousin (the only other girls still living that remember eating those dumplings she made) and I have never been able to duplicate them, and believe me we have made many attempts over the 50 years we've been trying!

[hill food]

that's a nice one Mariposa

[hill food]

to add: fruit trees don't last long (30 years?). the persimmons, peaches, plums, apples etc, are not to be found on our place anymore. I think the blackberries are failing as well.

[kireland]

Oooh! someone's mention of corn on the cob brought back a really fond memory of mine. During the dog days of summer my Mom liked to get up early and make salads to be eaten at dinner - potato salad, macaroni salad with tuna, coleslaw - the idea being that the heat from the stove wasn't so bad first thing in the morning and we'd have yummy cold salads for dinner. When corn was in season though she would fire up the stove even in the worst heat and make a huge pot full of corn on the cob that we'd eat with butter, salt and pepper and nothing else. On those nights Mom would come to the table in her bra - apologizing all the while, but saying it was too hot for anything else!

[MoxieLouise]

Haha, I can relate...I had forgotten the awful heat; back then air conditioning was about as accessible as a trip to the moon. Not even in school; we had to keep those huge old windows open and the wasps would constantly dive-bomb us. But we still played outdoors all day in 100 degree heat and then came in to a hot house to eat a hot meal and sleep in a hot bed. On the hottest nights Mom would let us pitch a make-shift tent in the front yard and sleep out there. Back then, fresh lemonade and limeade tasted like nectar from the gods. We are a nation of big panty-waists now, I fear ;-)

[QueenDairy]

^ love this

[Ozhit]

So many memories here. We had dried beef gravy on baked potatoes, creamed eggs on toast, most of what has been mentioned above, though not so much pasta or rice, more bread and potatoes. Mom did make bean salad from canned kidney beans with pickles, miracle whip and chopped eggs. We felt lucky to get fried mush at Grandma's and our version of the summer vegetable supper had yeast rolls an watermelon with iced tea. Damned good! Bean soup, with ham hocks and onions still is wonderful in my book. Stylishly nutritious these days, too!

I am sure some of this was not so much poor food as just dealing with feeding families quickly, but the fact that we are all writing about it now shows that it worked.

The mention of fried bologna makes me recall mom doing bologna cups and beans. We must have eaten enough VanCamp's pork and beans to float the house!

[inspector71]

This may sound incredible today, but trust me- we were poor. I grew up in southern NJ (the "Garden State"), right on a river near the bay, and not far from the ocean. Anyone who has ever enjoyed a South Jersey tomato, pole beans and other fresh produce knows how delicious the local food is. We grew our own vegetables, and hit the docks each day to procure fish that had been swimming just hours ago. We ate well on super-fresh seafood and equally fresh veggies. Odd as it may seem now, that was cheap eating locally in the 50s. How weird is it that such fine food was the steady diet of the "less fortunate?" I make a fair living today, but can't afford to eat like that now. As a typical kid, I had the attitude, "What? Flounder, clams, and vegetables AGAIN??!!!"

[gaffk]

Ugh, fish, tomatoes, corn on the cob and peaches . . . again! Flash forward 30 years: fresh corn, tomatoes and peaches? Yum. (Unfortunately the fish never came back :(

[marymanchester]

I grew up in NY - there were 7 in our family - but there were a lot of things my mother wouldn't serve because she'd had them when she was "poor" in the south so we never had okra, beans, cornbread, rice with gravy - southern foods. She used to buy a cheap cut of meat and cook it with Lipton's dry soup mix (onion) and Campbell's cream of mushroon soup. She called it California Roast. When I was little I ate "Friend's Beef", meat from a can. Has anyone ever heard of that? She served it with mashed pototoes and carrots. We had canned pears with shredded velveeta, she made bread pudding with leftover anything - starting with the leftover cake my dad always bought after church on Sunday. She'd add, left over fruit, cookies, jelly cereal, bread - anything remotely dessert-like. It was great! We were Catholic and on Fridays sometimes had tuna-noodle cassesrole. We called it Friday Night Chicken. Still love it!

[sueatmo]

I did not grow up in NY, but I remember a dinner "salad" that consisted of canned peaches, pineapple or pears, topped with grated yellow cheese and a dollop of Miracle Whip.

This must have been pushed by women's mags at the time?

[Mariposa410]

Oh how I miss those Friday night Fish Fry's! The local Catholic Church had them and sold the BIGGEST Fried Cod sandwiches. They were soooo... good, and one was so big it could easily serve two.

[tim irvine]

Upon reflection my best friend's mother handing us an empty kettle, some string, a piece of bacon or chicken, and a couple of safety pins and saying, "Boys, go get dinner." was free dinner and, therefore, ought to qualify. The result, of ourse was a pot of blue crabs. That was on Crab Creek in Norfolk. I guess a good Gulf Coast approximation would be mud bugs...OMG.

[hill food]

I'd do that.

[QueenDairy]

I still can't bring myself to try a mudbug... the appearance alone gives me the heebie jeebies! I am ashamed, head hanging low with this confession. It is true, that I would like to try every dish, be worldly and all that junk, but... those eyes... insectile body parts. GAHH >8D

[Burghfeeder]

A wedge salad. Simply a wedge of iceburg lettuce with thousand island dressing. Not very nutritional, but still a comfort food to me.

http://burghfeeding.blogspot.com/

[sueatmo]

I grew up eating a wedge of iceberg with a dollop of Miracle Whip on top, as a salad. On occasion I've run into the new and improved version: a wedge of iceberg topped with blue cheese dressing.

You know there is something about iceberg lettuce. I almost never eat it any more, but it does have a fresh clean taste.

[MC Slim JB]

I think I miss the mindset of my younger self that enjoyed certain cheap foods more than the foods themselves. A lot of them haven't lived up to my fond memories when revisited as an adult.

Prime example: Armour Potted Meat Food Product. Had many sandwiches of that stuff on squishy WonderBread with mayo or Miracle Whip in my grammar-school lunchboxes. Cracking the pull-top on a can as an adult, I was appalled: that first whiff was ghastly, like cheap dog food.

The ingredient list offers a clue as to why: mechanically separated chicken, beef tripe, partially defatted cooked beef fatty tissue, beef hearts, water, partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue, salt; less than 2% mustard, natural flavorings, dried garlic, dextrose, sodium erythorbate, sodium nitrite.

Gah! Did it have that same hellish formulation in my childhood? Or is it just my tastes that have changed? Ah, well. Sometimes you can't go home again.

http://mcslimjb.blogspot.com/

[Veggo]

"Armour Potted Meat Food Product".....I love the name. Clever.

[mamachef]

It is, isn't it? It sure does pay to pay attention to labels. I wouldn't eat that with somebody else's mouth. It reminds me of "cheese food" which I always figured was what cheese EATS.

[pine time]

Funny, mamachef! Altho we also ate the Potted Meat Food Product when I was a kid. Glad I couldn't yet read the label then, though.

[sueatmo]

No potted meat in my childhood, but we occasionally had Underwood Deviled Ham, although it was deemed too expensive most of the time.

[BabsW]

Oh, my. I loved deviled ham. Piece of white bread with mustard and the deviled ham and then a slice of swiss on top and toasted in the toaster oven until bubbly, melty and browned.

[Popkin]

Well on the upside I do believe that heart meat is on the good side for you lol.

Incidentally FRESH frozen beef heart is a good growth food for many fish. My experience has been that the stuff you buy frozen for fish must somehow not be packaged well, as I had never seen fish really go for this food that was supposed to be quite tasty and good for them. Then one day my husband, who had been experimenting with adding a few home-made items to his fish's (um, any English majors are quite welcome to help me figure out the proper apostrophe usage on the word "fish's" by the way. I'm going for a plural possessive) diet, and we found that purchasing FRESH beef heart, freezing, then grating worked GREAT, the fish loved it.

Just in case we have any other aquarists hanging out on the boards lol

[foiegras]

I was an English major, and you are welcome to all my share of beef heart for your fishes' diet ;)

[thepriest]

We ate a slice of leftover corn bread in a bowl in the morning with milk poured over it! One reason why I can't eat soggy or wet bread today.

[Popkin]

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned my mom's big porcupine meatballs on here multiple times before lol, big meatballs made of ground beef, rice, oregano, and garlic, fried then simmered in a mixture of [any canned tomato product.... mom used tomato sauce], water, oregano, garlic, salt, and of course more rice. So it was a meal with a rice base served with rice-stretched ground beef lol but it is REALLY tasty.

Something else she used to make was pizza sandwiches: we always used the cheap wheat version of cheaptacular sandwich bread (you know the kind: still soft and squishy just like white bread with a slightly more brown colour), a bit of tomato sauce (usually a little spaghetti sauce) and cheese in the sandwich maker. I think we tended to have these when cheese was on sale lol not that anybody complained :D

Snow ice cream: fresh snow from outside + sweetened milk/half&half/etc... with a little vanilla added poured over it

[MoxieLouise]

Aaah, the porcupine meatballs! I always loved them as a kid, I guess the name enticed me too (did I think I was eating REAL porcupines??). But I brought that recipe into my own family and smiled when my 39 year old son asked me for the recipe last year. We use tomato soup with a little Worcestershire, minced onions, and serve them on buttery smashed potatoes...yum!! Comfort food with carbs galore...

[Popkin]

Yea I was STOKED the first time my husband responded to the "what do you want me to make for dinner" query with an enthusiastic "porcupines!"

[Kitsune_SD]

My mom used to bring home day-old plain doughnuts from the hospital she worked at and she would butter them, sprinkle 'em with cinnamon sugar and then toast 'em in the toaster over - so tasty! Grandma used to make these odd little cornbread snacks in a sandwich maker (the kind that seals the edges). She would mix up a batch of Jiffy cornbread mix and add cut up hot dogs, then pour it in the sandwich maker and cook 'em up. Miss those two things so much!

[pie22]

we had that sandwich maker growing up too and i loved it. we would always make monster grilled cheeses with tons of things inside like tomatoes, onions, hot peppers, etc and without fail we would burn our mouths with the first steaming bite into the bubble because of how sealed up the insides become...loved the crispy cheese edges though!

[small h]

This? I saw it and wanted it immediately.

http://www.zabars.com/replica-toas-ti...

[PHREDDY]

Day old , toasted rye bread, iceberg lettuce and Hellman's mayo....that was before payday, after we had it with tomato and bacon.....

[QueenDairy]

Oh how I used to love toasted ham and cheese sandwiches! I still crave them!

[cleobeach]

My mom used to bring home day-old plain doughnuts from the hospital she worked at and she would butter them, sprinkle 'em with cinnamon sugar and then toast 'em in the toaster over - so tasty!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Different variation - my mom would buy old bread at the budget bakery and freeze it. Breakfast was toasted bread with butter. cinnamon and brown sugar, dipped in real (made with milk) hot chocolate.

[CallAnyVegetable]

This reminds me of the time my dad spent a good while in the hospital and hated the melba crackers and litttle tubs of butter that came with his meals. He'd always unload them to us kids. They tasted like ambrosia to me (we always used margarine and cheap white bread).

[njmarshall55]

My Dad, who grew up during the depression, used to regale us with stories...but one dish that I can honestly say I DO enjoy is his "depression special"...white bread with brown gravy poured over it. No meat. Just gravy.

[Itsajerseything]

Ahhhh... I used to love this! We even fought over who would get the heel!

[Querencia]

Although in the time of my memory, the 1930's, my great-grandmother's folks had left the Appalachians a century earlier, "poor cooking" must have been in her DNA. A breakfast regular was "fried mush": yellow cornmeal was cooked to a mush then left to cool and set up overnight in bread tins. The next morning it was sliced and fried in bacon fat and served with jelly or syrup. For variety, she made "corn cakes", cornbread batter fried on a griddle. Both were delicious.

[hill food]

just call it polenta and most wouldn't know the difference!

[jvanderh]

I'm forever slipping and saying "cheese grits" in fancy restaurants.

[QueenDairy]

Sounds delicious!

[hill food]

jvdh and QD I do the same and agree. I just edit my speech to the context.

dang I really want some (garlic) cheese grits now!

[John E.]

We frequently have fried 'mush' for breakfast. Usually it's leftover polenta or cheese grits that we have for an evening meal in its soft state and then poured into a large ramekin then chilled and sliced into disks with dental floss and fried for breakfast.

[kubasd]

I wonder if it was just my family, but growing up we had cornmeal mush for breakfast. It wasn't left to cool and later fried, we just glopped some in the bowl and topped it with some a sprinkle of salt and strawberry jelly. I still eat this, usually on the weekends. Kinda like grits, but doesn't really taste like them. Did your family ever eat the "mush" fresh?

[sueatmo]

My exposure to cornmeal mush was formed loaf which my mother bought, sliced and fried. She obviously had eaten mush as a child. I tried it fried, but was unconvinced. Not my fave starch. It is a cheap starch, though. But I prefer oatmeal.

[kubasd]

hmmm so i'm still the oddity in eating "fresh" cornmeal mush in the morning. Ah well, more for me :) I'm thinking it is on the menu for tomorrow :)

[pine time]

No, we had it in the morning, too, with a goodly drizzle of pancake syrup on top! Goetta, too.

[kubasd]

yes! love it with maple syrup (now, pancake syrup growing up), too! :) Can't say we ever had goetta, though.

[mamachef]

Love Goetta. Wish we had it here. I haven't had it since I was a wee thing in Ohio.

[pine time]

Yup, I think goetta is a southern Ohio thing. Grew up near Cincinnati.

[mamachef]

Basically that's polenta.

[Leepa]

In Italy it's polenta. In the South it was called cornmeal mush. Which is not the same thing as grits....

[kubasd]

ya know, I was wondering if it was polenta. I figured because it was so "low brow" that there had to be a difference.

ETA: I have only heard of mush in the NE, and knew it as a NE thing.

[Leepa]

We called it cornmeal mush when I was growing up in TN. Perhaps it knows no regional boundaries!

[mamachef]

How do they differ, please?

[Leepa]

Which ones? Grits different from cornmeal mush? Or Cornmeal mush different from polenta?

If it's the cornmeal mush different from polenta, then physically there is no real difference other than oftentimes other things are added to polenta, such as herbage, cheese, etc., that aren't typically added to cornmeal mush. Other than that it's a difference in semantics.

If it's cornmeal mush vs. grits, then grits are made from dried and ground hominy and cornmeal mush is made from cornmeal which is ground dried dent (field) corn.

[Querencia]

Depression food circa 1935: a big pot of navy beans cooked with some "side meat" (salt pork?) in the pot if/when there was any. Peeled potatoes were added toward the end of cooking. Service: put a potato on your plate, mash it with your fork, and cover it with beans and the bean "gravy". Chopped raw onions were served on the side.

[sueatmo]

After reading so many posts about hating "warm tuna" (in another thread) and then eating a can of it for lunch with a pear, chopped celery, chopped almonds, mayo, etc. I thought that probably my tolerance for tuna comes from "eating poor." I will eat tuna cold or hot, out of a can, or gussied up. It doesn't have to be fancy Italian tuna either. I like the Costco tuna just fine. My most intense exposure to canned tuna came in my first go around with Weight Watchers back in the '70s. But I ate my share as a child. It is a good example of "poor food" that I still like a lot.

[foiegras]

Me too. I've never even had the fancy Italian stuff ... I'd upgraded to albacore as a young adult, but went back to the tuna of my childhood upon learning that it has much less mercury than big fish albacore.

[sueatmo]

This is true. The Costco stuff is albacore, and every time I eat it I think of that. What brand of chunk style do you eat? Most of the other stuff isn't very good anymore.

[foiegras]

I like Chicken of the Sea--it seems to be chunkier than the rest (certainly more than Bumble Bee--the worst). Sometimes I get the store brand at stores that are too chi chi to carry Jessica Simpson's favorite.

[sueatmo]

OK. At some time in the future, when all the Costco stuff has been eaten or given away, and I am in new digs, I will try Chicken of the Sea chunk style tuna.

[Antilope]

Bacon (milk) gravy, tuna (milk) gravy, hamburger (milk) gravy over toast. Fried potatoes, pancakes.

[sueatmo]

Well, I guess you ate a lot of milk gravy growing up! ;-D

[Antilope]

Yes, and it was damn funny.

[sueatmo]

I have eaten in my childhood creamed ground beef over toast. This is a recipe that I never replicated as an adult!

[Georgia Strait]

interesting topic, enjoy reading all the posts

the irony is that what we ate growing up in west coast was either grown or raised on our small farm, or picked from orchards, or traded with commercial fisherman - i could NOT eat fish for many years cuz it was poor people food (can you imagine, wild, fresh sockeye - kind of like the lobster story above.

sometimes we had so many eggs (in full summer laying season) ... well, what i'd give for a real farm fresh happy chicken egg now!

i remember being ashamed of our homemade bread and other things like cookies - now of course, that would all be considered hi end fancy regional cuisine. Real Ontario cheddar, fresh apples, squash all winter till it came out of your ears! Bananas and oranges (the one box of mandarins in wooden box at Xmas was exception) were not common in our house. They were expensive!

my parents would order a side of beef from a ranch and have it all cut and wrapped - we even ate the liver. i suppose it was safe to eat organ meat way back then ...

i suppose that mac and cheese would still be a favorite --- along with corn chowder (made with canned mushroom soup --- i think that's a better homes and garden recipe (the pink plaid book)

my friend talkes of her mid-western mom making Glop - a hamburger, tomato sauce and noodle dish, from what i can understand. Maybe some cheese? Not sure.

[tim irvine]

Two of our staples when in school were vegetable loaf and hot dog stir fry. The vegetable loaf is more of a glop: diced crunchy things (onions, celery, apples, carrots, bell peppers, etc.), home grown sprouts (Bean or alfalfa), honey, some government cheese, a few precious nuts, and a can of tomato sauce. An egg and some. Breadcrumbs to hold it sort of together. The stir fry begins with French fry sized pieces of potato, then onions, then bell pepper, then hot dogs sliced on the iagonal. The sauce was soy sauce and a little ketchup.

[ccmccall]

We ate something called "mock chicken legs." They were a kind of prepared cornmeal-crusted ground protein in the shape of a chicken drumstick with a stick where the leg-bone would be. They were just popped into the oven and baked and came out a little bit glistening and greasy. My little brother and I loved them. At the time, I thought the "meat" was ground veal, but that doesn't make any sense to me now...

I haven't seen them in a market since the early 70's but I would love to find them one more time.

My brother would turn on the gas burner and hold a fork with a slice of Oscar Mayer baloney over the gas flame for a minute or two on each side. The fat dripped down into the well of the burner, but we were kids and never gave it a thought.

[John E.]

I am sure your 'chicken legs' were some kind of soy product.

I remember roasting Vienna sausages on a fork over the gas flame of the stove when I was no more than 3 or 4 years old. I had been camping with my family and I knew what I was doing.

[Veggo]

Nothing like a 3 year old with a lifetime of experience!

[mookleknuck]

I just heard about this last week from a coworker (in his young 50s) whose mother still makes it. It's called "city chicken" in the Pittsburgh suburbs where he grew up and made with beef and veal. He said his mom forms the meat mixture around a stick and then breads and panfries them and serves them with a tomato sauce. It doesn't seem like veal would make sense, but back then, chicken was a lot more expensive than the alternative beef and veal. I will be asking for a recipe so that I can see if I can recreate this!

[BabsW]

This reminds me of these preformed, breaded cutlets that my mom told us were veal. I loved them, but years later, after actually having prepared and eaten them, I know that there is not way those were veal.

In actuality, they're probably mechanically separated meat held together with some sort of food-glue product.

[thirtyeyes]

Kool-Aid when we were small. At some point my parents decided Kool-Aid had to much sugar and we switched to frozen juice concentrate. I think actual juice was expensive so my Dad would mix grape juice or orange juice with Lemonaide. Lemonaide was cheap and you could make a gallon with one lemonaide and one other fruit. The only thing that was horrid was apple juice, didn't mix that one more than once.

[wyogal]

We used "nectar" which came liquid, I think a Watkins product. That was a Gramma's, we had Kool-Aid, but was surprised to learn that it was actually made with 1/2 the water we used growing up. Mom added twice the water amount. That's how we stretched that treat.
Otherwise, it was water or milk.
and if we were complaining of thirst, she'd say, swallow your spit (or get yourself a glass of water).

[Judyluvs]

Mom made many frugal dishes for us: "beefaroni" - browned ground beef mixed with cooked elbow macaroni and bound with lots of ketchup. Beefy "gravy" - browned ground beef with green peas added to water thickened with cornstarch with a dash of soy sauce for seasoning served over white rice. Spam fried rice. Braised chicken gizzards/chicken feet. Custard-like steamed beaten eggs and water. Sauteed shredded cabbage with bacon. The easiest meal was either a fried overeasy egg with soysauce over rice or a just a teaspoon of bacon grease and soy sauce stirred into a bowl of hot white rice.

[inspector71]

Does anyone remember the name of a product that appeared mid-60s, and was an ersatz knock-off of Kool-Aid? I can only recall the name of the grape flavor: "Goofy Grape." I assume that it was less expensive than Kool-Aid. Of course, we were told "its just as good, so quit whining and drink it!" Most flavors were the same as KA, but I seem to recall a Root Beer flavor as well. I hope someone can remember this, as most folks give me the "you're nuts" look when I mention it.

[John E.]

Funny Face Drink Mix. It was made by General Mills. They orgininally had Chinese Cherry and Injun' Orange. Those were renamed for obvious reasons. You can do an internet search and find out way more information about these products than you really desire.

[QueenDairy]

Haha yes! I remember that!

[inspector71]

Thanks, John!

[terasec]

A few staples growing up were
Raw eggs with milk, sugar and I think Marsala, have tried to recreate it and can't
White bread dabbed with water sprinkled with a little sugar
Eggs in tomato sauce, still make that for breakfast quite often

[chowwbella]

I am so enjoying this topic--what memories! Tomato-mayo sandwiches are still one of my favorite summer foods. We lived off the land in rural Mississippi and had garden vegetables and game: quail, deer, whatever my hunter-father brought home. Definitely cornbread and turnips. Vienna sausages are still a guilty pleasure; I remember loving olive loaf and haven't seen that in decades, but I'm sure that is why I am such an olive lover now. And hot dogs with cheddar cheese imbedded lengthwise and broiled. The storebought products actually came into our meals after my parents divorced and my mother was raising 3 daughters alone in town on a teacher's salary. One of my favorite food memories is a barbecue sauce my mother made from the Victory Cookbook, must have had 20 ingredients including fresh herbs--and she poured it over a block of sliced Spam and baked it! In my adult years, I have often laughed about that combination of gourmet sauce and Spam. It obviously hid the shortcomings of Spam, because I would re-create it if I had the recipe.

[Querencia]

Terasec, eggs plus milk plus Marsala sounds like Zabaglione. Google it and see if I'm right.

[John E.]

I have never made a zabaglione, without the wine it's a regular custard, but if I'm not mistaken, and I may be, a zabaglione usesonly egg yolks and not the whites.

[sueatmo]

Had anyone mentioned pimiento cheese?

[kubasd]

Pimiento cheese is poor people food?

[Veggo]

Pimiento cheese sandwiches are a cross-over food that are enjoyed by both the 1%ers at Augusta National, and us 99ers.

[foiegras]

Aww, it's so cute when the 1% go slumming and eat 'our' food ;) What should we introduce them to next, I wonder ...

[hill food]

well you can trim all the crusts you want but I won't even touch the cucumber sandwiches...nosirree.

[Veggo]

Next, we are gonna feed 'em beans. I have a plan. Stick with me.

[foiegras]

I like the sound of this plan ...

[Ruthie789]

Yes, does it still exist?

[jhissom]

Creamed Tomatoes & Dumplings
Butter Gravey and bread or biscuits
corned beef hash
summer time veg dinner of green beans, tomatoes, corn cukes & onions in vinegar cornbread and fried new potatoes.

[hawkeyeui93]

I love corned beef hash!!

[Gary627]

I love corned beef hash as well.

I like to slice tomatoes thinly, and get a good American or Cheddar cheese. and some English muffins.

I form the hash into patties and then fry them in a cast iron skillet, toast the english muffins, then turn the hash patty and top it with a slice of tomato and a slice of cheese, then cover the pan so the cheese melts.

[sueatmo]

I've eaten that summer time veg dinner of which you speak. The exact menu, except i believe we might have also had fried fatback. This was at my grandparents' house in the 1950s.

[suze44]

We werent poor but my Dad was really poor and we ate some dishes from his childhood...At one time his family lived in a YMCA! One of Grandmas go to dishes was spaghetti....made with noodles and ketchup. My dad also had ketchup sandwiches. My grandma would throw anything out. One time when i was young she made us popcorn. Later I looked in the clear glass jar where she stored the kernels and there were weevils. I guess she just figured they would fry up w/the kernels and be protein!!! I was pretty grossed out but it was too late. A dish i remember from my own childhood was "eggy noodles". Mom would boil them, drain and then crack a few eggs in while the noodles were but still hot. Then salt and pepper.. It was SO yummy. And we had fried egg sandwiches for quick on the go meal before ball practices and ballet. Good memories :)

[wyogal]

Yes, catsup sandwiches! My sister loved them. Also brown sugar sandwiches.
The popcorn story reminds me of a story my mom would tell. They found some "powdered sugar" doughnuts, ate them up, then found out later it was mold, not powdered sugar.

[hawkeyeui93]

If you ate ketchup spelled "catsup," you definitely grew up with less ... I didn't know how to spell it right until I saw my first bottle of Heinz!

[wyogal]

What do you mean by "right?"

[hawkeyeui93]

I misspoke ... I do know that "catsup" is a proper variation of "ketchup." When I was growing up, the store/generic brands always used the spelling "catsup" while Heinz and Hunt's went with "ketchup." My single mother couldn't afford "ketchup," so I did not know of the variation until I was a little more worldly ....

[wyogal]

You mean, I was poor?

ha! I love how there was (and still is, hopefully) a time where there was the understanding that maybe it took someone at the house, in the home, to figure out how to do with less... instead of going out to make more $$ to pay for the things which cost more due to lifestyle. Slow food, frugality, it all takes time and effort. Which has value in the end.

[hawkeyeui93]

I took great pains to explain I grew up poor .... I wholeheartedly believe in being frugal when it is humanly practicable.

[wyogal]

No insult intended. What I meant was that our mothers were still able to feed us, and not "let on" that the reason we had boiled rice for dinner was because there was no money left for anything else. I had no idea that the lettuce sandwich I got in my lunch one day in high school was because there was no meat in the house at that time. Just thought it was my mother's unique sense of humor.

[hawkeyeui93]

I'm glad I didn't offend because I have enjoyed your insights. My mom was ahead of the curve in that she always had a large organic garden, as well as making us spend time as a family fishing, out in the timber looking for morel mushrooms and wild raspberries/blackberries, etc, I have grown to appreciate what my mother was able to do more with less with each passing day. There was a time that anytime we had something fried [e.g., chicken or pork chops], we also got potatoes or rice and gravy made out of the drippings. I now realize it was a great filler for the little bit of meat being served, but to this day I still love it when she makes her artery-clogging gravy!

[wyogal]

We had a big garden, too. I would be asked to bring up a vegetable from the deep freeze for dinner throughout the winter. I hated beets so would avoid them. Well, guess which vegetable was left to eat during April and May...... beets!

[Mariposa410]

Ironically, Italians make a very similar dish that I love and make at home often called Linguini Carbonara. Only difference is the Linguini noodle instead of egg noodle (though both are a wide noodle), and you also add cut up proscuitto (Italian aged ham) and some parsley!

[vestalis]

Oooooh, mashed potato sandwiches. Leftover mashed potatoes + butter + white bread + s&p. Yummmm.

[pine time]

Mom would "repurpose" leftover mashed potatoes into fried potato pancakes. No additional seasonings or anything. How I hated those things! I still can't get into them (altho' I love latkes, a whole different critter than mom's mushy taters), even tho' I've tried various iterations. Mom, I loved you, but you really couldn't cook well!

[vestalis]

That reminds me, my mom would also take leftover mashed potatoes, beat in a couple eggs, add salt and pepper, then fry them up in a pan with chopped up hot dogs. Not gonna lie, but I do crave it once in a while! Good with ketchup and mustard. (:

[hawkeyeui93]

My mother used to do the same thing, albeit she did use pepper. I was not a fan of them either.

[Epicuriouser]

Mom did not often make mashed potatoes- I'm sure for the reason that we did not have a use for the leftovers. The boiled potatoes in chunks could be fried later. Sometimes she would "Rice" the potatoes- just for something different. (They sure soaked up the gravy). Can't remember what you did with leftover riced potatoes. Maybe there weren't any.

[gaffk]

Mom would mix the leftover potatoes with diced onions, salt and pepper and fry them in butter until they got very crispy on both sides. Then we'd melt butter on top (I know, a real health food) and dig in. Loved them.

Even today, every so often, I skip the middle man, mash potatoes, let them cool, and then just make the potato cakes.

[PenskeFan]

Corn bread in milk was great for breakfast!

One of my favs was was the "welfare cheese" we sometimes got. Really much better than almost any American cheese I can find today, much more cheddar like. I don't think it is around anymore. The plain white can of "Beef, select" that we got was not quite as good, though it worked fine in La Choy lol.

[QueenDairy]

lol i loved the canned pork

[hawkeyeui93]

The Government Butter was great as well ....

[hill food]

government cheese can be found on occasion. but it's never predictable, usu in a mom n pop store unlabeled.

[JMF]

When I used to work as a wilderness guide 20 years ago we would sometimes get the huge blocks of government cheese. When it was cheddar from Wisconsin it was great stuff. I would wrap it in vinegar soaked cheesecloth, and then plastic, and the vinegar would pickle the outside and it would stay fresh for weeks during the summer.

[vanyo]

Oxtail soup. Oxtails were cheap. Just a plain old broth made with oxtails, carrots, onions, potatoes, cabbage, rutabaga, parsley, served with noodles.

[Shrinkrap]

Isn't it mind boggling how EXPENSIVE they are now? And we had all sorts of pig offal; what was a jowl is now a "cheek", expensive as well. I wonder if chitterlins have a new name.

Correction; jowl and cheek are not exactly the same.

[Mariposa410]

We had this too, minus rutabaga!!! My Grandmother use to make this a lot in the fall and winter!

[vestalis]

Brown gravy over a slice of white bread. Hot minute rice mixed with sugar, margarine, and milk. Tomato sandwich with mayo. A dollop of peanut butter in my bowl of cornflakes (with milk). Macaroni pasta mixed with mayo, ranch, and frozen peas.

[QueenDairy]

I still enjoy a good tomato sandwich. They are especially good with a tiny drizzle of ranch dressing!

[vestalis]

Ah! They're to die for made with homegrown tomatoes, garlic mayonnaise, and salt and pepper! Craving one now. (:

[chowwbella]

I am so enjoying this topic--what memories! Tomato-mayo sandwiches are still one of my favorite summer foods. We lived off the land in rural Mississippi and had garden vegetables and game: quail, deer, whatever my hunter-father brought home. Definitely cornbread and turnips. Vienna sausages are still a guilty pleasure; I remember loving olive loaf and haven't seen that in decades, but I'm sure that is why I am such an olive lover now. And hot dogs with cheddar cheese imbedded lengthwise and broiled. The storebought products actually came into our meals after my parents divorced and my mother was raising 3 daughters alone on a teacher's salary. One of my favorite food memories is a barbecue sauce my mother made from the Victory Cookbook, must have had 20 ingredients including fresh spices--and she poured it over a block of sliced Spam and baked it! In my adult years, I have often laughed about that combination of gourmet sauce and Spam. It obviously hid the shortcomings of Spam, because I would re-create it if I had the recipe.

[vestalis]

Not gonna lie, I do crave some "banana" sausages once and a while (what I called them when I was younger)....used to eat them on a sandwich sliced lengthwise with miracle whip and tomato on white bread.

Used to eat olive loaf as well as liverwurst...haven't had either in ages! The liverwurst I used to eat as a child was square shaped and had that odd ring of fat around the edges.

[Gary627]

Olive Loaf....yum

I had finished a job for a customer on a Saturday and it was a little after 12pm and I was hungry. My wife was with me and wanted to pick up a couple of items at the grocery store. We walked to the deli counter to order two sandwiches, I ordered olive loaf on rye with mustard. I haven't had that since I was a kid, great memories and fabulous taste.

BTW, my wife just picked up liverwurst tonight---looking forward to enjoying that on rye with mustard and thinly sliced red onion.

[JMF]

Up until I was around ten we must have been very poor. My parents were immigrants from Europe. Both had been trained as nurses, but when they came to the US they decided to put themselves through college and grad school. So when I was born my father spent six years going to school, and fitting in as much work as he could, while my mom raised me, and then 3 years later my sis, and fitted in work as whenever possible too. I never saw them both at the same time until I was around 7 years old.

During that time I remember a lot of meals of big plates of rice with butter, or pasta with butter, maybe some black pepper mixed in. It was a treat to get meatball soup, which was mostly meatballs that were more bread crumb than meat, with a little carrots and potato. boiled until it was a soggy mess, then dressed with butter to give it flavor. A real treat was fried meatballs, served with the buttered rice. The meatballs had soy sauce sauteed onion, some breadcrumbs, and a little milk and egg, salt and pepper.

I remember the first time my mom bought a carton of Tropicana orange juice, and we thought it was amazing. There was no soda in the house, ever. Milk or water.

Dessert or breakfast was rice pudding much of the time. Cereal later on when my mother and a friend started the first school breakfast program at PS 321 in Park Slope Brooklyn back in the late '60's, and she would bring home boxes that were only partially used.

After my dad finished grad school as a hospital administrator thing improved rapidly and we moved out to the suburbs. My mom still worked as a nurse part time, and went grad school getting her MS in Psych, and after that the standard of living went up drastically. but the food was still lousy because I found out my mom can't cook. But by the time I was 9-10 I was starting to cook, and by the time I was 11-12 I did most of my cooking and a majority of the families. by14 I was doing just about all the cooking, with my dad doing it maybe one day a week. I can't stand the taste of buttered rice to this day, but I love spaghetti in melted butter with fresh grated pecorino romano, garlic powder, and black pepper.

[hill food]

JMF - a classic story. truly nice.

[pdxgastro]

JMF, throughout this thread I was expecting to read more stories like yours-kids who hated the way their parents cooked (or tried to cook) and took over the job themselves.

[JMF]

I was just catching up on this thread and suddenly remembered that there was a two year period of time when I was in grad school fifteen years ago when I was dirt poor. I was living in middle Georgia, on a cove off Lake Sinclair. Me and two girls rented a three bedroom double wide on several acres of this backwoods cove. All of us were barely scraping by, working part time, going to school full time plus some. (I did a double masters, psych and education, in 15 months.)

One of the girls was a farmer and had a 1/4 acre truck garden growing all our veggies, plus there were some fruit and nut trees on the property. The other girl was a hunter. She would put out corn and scraps out back and would set up in her bedroom with her rifle first thing in the morning and poach any critters who came to eat. deer, squirrels, pheasant, wild turkey, etc. She didn't have a hunting license and just shot anything that was even mildly edible. I was told I had to be the fisherman, and I hate fishing, I just like catching. So she told me how to go about setting up a fish trap and sent me to the local hunting/fishing store to get set up. (That was a hysterical event as my northern accent was found laughable by the locals, and I could barely understand that middle Georgia accent. Feesh Trayup? Mess a blud n gutz?) So when I got the fish trap and the bait, which was a mix of pig blood and guts and ground grain, I set it up and tied a rope to it and threw it off the dock into the muddy water. (Any time you went swimming you had to shower afterwards to get the red/brown muddy film off your skin.) I would pull in huge catfish 3-4 feet long, and if I forgot to check the trap every day, snapping turtles would get in and eat the catfish. So we ate what we caught and grew. We had a huge chest freezer, and canned everything that we didn't freeze.

I had been a home brewer, and worked as an asst. brewer in a brewpub in Seattle during my first grad program, so I would make several 5 gallon batches of beer a week. On weekends we would throw all you can eat and drink parties for $10 a head. Fish fries, venison stroganoff, turtle stew, etc. This paid our rent, and for foods and drink that we couldn't grow ourselves. We even traded catfish to the local poultry farmer for chicken and quail. I remember trading several enormous catfish for the equal weight in quail, which was hundreds of them. We had a huge roast and fried quail feast with fresh from the garden green beans and corn.

We set up a small market on weekends during the summer and sold extra veggies that we didn't have room to freeze or can, and made some extra money so we could go out to a bar or country dancing. It was a damn good time, we had a blast, and while we were totally broke, we had the best parties and dancing out in the huge lawn lakeside. (I had to mow it 2-3 times a week, the grass grew so fast.) And if you have ever seen 15-20 drunk college kids skinny dipping by moonlight, to cool down after two stepping all night, you've seen it all.

[hill food]

sounds more fun (and more wholesome) than my college days

[QueenDairy]

What a wonderful story! You didn't have much money, but were rich in other ways. It inspires me to hear stories such as yours. Thank you sharing this!

[sueatmo]

What great memories! Thanks for sharing.

[JMF]

Oh, and this took place during the mid-90's.

[Cady]

My mom used to feed seven of us on "clam fritters", made with one can of minced clams, mixed in some sort of batter and fried. Might have been Bisquick, might not. She also fed all of us on 1/4 pound of burger, usually with mac and canned tomatoes.

Dill pickle sandwiches and "fried cabbage" - cabbage sauteed in margarine - also come to mind.

I also remember crappie season. All seven of us would jig off a local bridge for crappie, and we'd have battered fish and fried potatoes...food and cheap entertainment, all in one. Haven't had crappie in *years*.

And butter clams from the Puget Sound, split, cleaned, dipped in milk and cracker crumbs and fried on the half shell...huge platters of them. After eating the clams you'd gnaw on the edges of the shells for the toasty bits. My grandmother lived on the Hood Canal, so it was almost free.

Gah, now I'm dying for fried crams on the half shell and crappie!

[QueenDairy]

Sounds so good! *drool*

[lyden]

Oh man! Clam fritters were a special treat for me and my sisters back when. We would save up our allowance for a paper bag with four small fritters at the local boardwalk. The bag would be spotted with grease stains before we left the booth. So good! We would walk down the boardwalk and listen to the sea gulls crying above us, hoping we would drop some crumbs. I can't think of those fritters now without smelling salt air.

[hawkeyeui93]

I grew up definitely poorer during the Carter/Reagan era ... My mom made two variations of a filler lunch/dinner that my brother and I actually enjoyed as kids. Cowboy food, which was a little fried hamburger mixed with pork and beans and a little ketchup/mustard and Indian food, which substituted cheap hot dogs for the hamburger. Also, being of Irish descent, we ate potatoes in any and all forms. To this day, I love fried sliced potatoes and onions [fried extra crispy].

[Mariposa410]

It is so interesting as I have been reading through these many threads today, how many of us grew up eating potatoes in 100 ways! I think of the people who mentioned their nationality, most came from Irish or German descent (which I fit right in). My husband who grew up in a totally Italian (he is first generation American and his parents were Adult Italian immigrants in the very earl 1930's), grew up with a 100 ways to make Pasta! Kind of nice we meet and married 35 years ago, because to this day, I love the 100 ways to make Pasta, and could leave my potato's out of my diet. On the other hand, my husband loves the 100 ways to make potato's and could leave all the 100 ways to make Pasta out of his diet!!! In the end we eat both, and have added in many Rice dishes from Asia and Italy. Asia because our youngest son was born in South Korea and we adopted him from there when he was two! When he first came to us unless I had rice available for him with his meals for a while, he just cried because nothing was familiar. However, he did warm up quickly to many of the different meats I made for he and my other son (also adopted, and about 3 1/2 at that time).

[jeanmarieok]

My mom still eats potatoes every day. She pouts if she doesn't get a potato at dinner. It's how she grew up (irish / german) - I don't know how she could still love them so much.

[pine time]

Growing up, we had potatoes every single night, in one of those 100 ways. Had pasta occasionally. After marrying an Indian, who was used to 100 ways of rice, I now have potatoes occasionally, pasta rarely, and rice often.

[mamachef]

I had a boyfriend whose parents didn't have much money. His mom would make an amazing neckbone stew with green chiles, and how we gobbled that up. She was wonderful. Homemade tortillas, the whole bit. On special days, it was meat/potato tacos, and those were awesome.

[QueenDairy]

Oh, this made me remember the beef bone soup my mom would make. It was so tasty and satisfying. The marrow flavors the broth wonderfully. It was fun to eat as a child, picking out the meat from each bone. To this day, I still crave it. I'm not sure what she put in it, besides carrots and potatoes. Maybe it was love that made it taste so good. :)

[mamachef]

Absolutely it was love. You should try to recreate this, sweetie. But yes, you can cook love and care into your food just as you can cook your tension into it too. But I know from your posts that you cook with great joy. :)

[Mariposa410]

I remember reading somewhere very recently that any soup made with either meat on the bone or with bones from meat is very healthy as it does provide some very healthy for the immune system nutrients!!! It made me feel good that I do always add in the bones with the meat when I am making any kind of meat broth!

[CallAnyVegetable]

My immigrant mom used to make what she called "papas'" which was flour and milk and sugar and cinnamon simmered together on the stove into some kind of liquid custard thing. It would end up getting a 'skin' on top, it was perfect comfort food.

[mamachef]

Nomnomnom!! Going to try this, but with some nutmeg instead of cinnamon. It sounds like a posset, which is very oldstyle, but delicious.

[tiggermistyv]

My parents both grew up well off but there was little left by the time they were raising 6 kids. So we got "fancied up" poor food. My favorite example is when my mom would make cross marks in the top of a Spam, put in whole cloves and make a brown sugar/ mustard glaze. It wasn't until I was older that she was doing a fancy ham with the cheaper meat! And we'd always have it with Kraft macaroni and cheese. I loved that meal. :-)

I also loved the tuna noodle casserole with canned mushroom soup, tuna salad made with chow mein noodles and of course pizza night made from a kit!

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. This is a great question!

[MoxieLouise]

OH I HAD FORGOTTEN pizzas made with the kit!!! And add extra cheese and meat, that was pre-Pizza Hut so it was a big deal back then!

[QueenDairy]

lol @ criss-crossing and glazing the spam slices! That is too funny. I love it.

[yummykimmy]

I used to LOVE deviled ham mixed with mayo on white bread.....tried it again about 15 years ago and couldn't even eat more than a bite - reminded me of cat food.

[foiegras]

Kinda how I felt when I tried Spam again recently. I swear it's not the Spam of my childhood! They packed a world of chemicals into that little can I bought ... a little less process, a little more ham, please :)

[yummykimmy]

not that I have eaten cat food ....

[hill food]

I have (silly dare) and I'll pass in the future. bland, needs salt and garlic. aroma but no flavor.

[lyden]

Oh, deviled ham with pickle relish and mayo was such a "sophisticated" sandwich when I was young -- I felt so worldly when I ate that! I tried it again a couple of years ago and was amazed at how salty it was. But then, I used to put salt on ham when I was a kid -- didn't change my salt habit until pregnant & my doc told me to :)

[QueenDairy]

This morning, I baked a wonderful beer bread that turned out super delicious. It is extremely easy to make. Having self-rising flour in the house opens up so many options. It is so much cheaper and wholesome to just make it yourself.

[Leepa]

I love to try different things with beer bread. Whirl up some oats in a food chopper to sub for some of the flour, use oatmeal porter, add toasted walnuts and make a yummy oatmeal walnut beer bread. Use hard cider instead of beer, add some grated fresh apple and cheddar cheese to make an apple cheese "beer" bread. Add some dill and minced dried onion to make a dill onion beer bread. Lots of possibilities out there. I'd love to hear what others have done.

My mom made the best bread and added some all bran cereal to the flour. I've added that before to beer bread with good results. Also, I usually add a small amount of yeast - not that it helps with the rise, but it gives a nice full yeasty flavor.

[QueenDairy]

All of the above sounds wonderful, but to be completely honest with you, we are going through some very rough times right now, and have very limited ingredients. I haven't been able to truly experiment with the beer bread as much as I've wanted to. :-(

I was laid off about 8 months ago, and receive a measly $300 every two weeks from unemployment. Yesterday, my BF found out that his unemployment ran out, and they won't be renewing it. Times are very tough indeed, so we have to make do with what we have. When we go grocery shopping, it is mainly for the basics.

The apple cheese beer bread sounds delicious! I do have oatmeal, and usually press on a few grains to the top for added texture and crunch, and brush on a bit of melted butter to the crust when done. Considering how easy it is to make, it comes out phenomenal. That is our breakfast here. :) A slice of buttered bread, and coffee.

[Leepa]

I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply that one had to do beer bread with expensive ingredients to make it good. Buttered bread and coffee is one of my favorite breakfasts. Very continental!

[QueenDairy]

Oh, I completely understand. The possibilities are endless :) It makes me happy to find a fellow beer bread maker! There is nothing like the smell of freshly baked beer bread. And wow, does it yield alot. We will have bread for a while. Here is my recipe. Very simple.

3 cups self-rising flour

2 tbsp. sugar

1 tbsp. raw oatmeal

1 12 oz can of beer, any kind is ok.

In a bowl, blend all of the ingredients well. Butter and lightly flour two 6x3-inch loaf pans. Fill the pans with batter.

Put pans into the cold oven and set temperature to 350°F. The dough will rise on its own while the oven heats up. Bake for 60-75 minutes or until done. The crust will be crisp when it is done. You can tap it, and it will make a hollow sound.

I like to brush on a little bit of melted butter over the top. You can make the crust nice and glossy if you prefer, with a light glaze of beaten egg during the baking process. Really, with this versatile bread, the sky is the limit. :-) As Leepa said, there are many wonderful flavors you can add to it.

For a crisp crust- store in a paper bag.

For softer bread- store in a plastic bag.

It does freeze well.

[dolly52]

our nieghbors would get government assistance and were given big round cans of 'i think Spam', they didnd't like it and would give it to us. We weren't rich but my dad never wanted any assistance, but that spam was so good, fried with beans, sandwiches or burritos.

Loved it.

[karmelkake]

I can remember we had a large family. 6 step sisters and brothers. we kept giant bags of potatoes. we kids could even fix our own . It was either fried potatoes and onions and/ or the cheap biscuits and alga syrup. If we didn't have the syrup , it was sugar and water cooked until syrupy and that sufficed. We could make a meal out of things like pig tails, saurkraut and dumplings, and least not forget hot dogs and pork and beans with sugar

[QueenDairy]

Hah! I still make those drop biscuits from scratch. My bf would probably leave me if I ever stopped making them. "It was all about the biscuits... When you stopped making them.. I'm so sorry, but I can't go do this anymore."
**me, sobbing uncontrollably as he walks out the door** LOOOOOOL

[MoxieLouise]

I remember summers especially...my grandfather was a farmer so we had unlimited quantities of sweet corn, BLT's, and watermelon (much better than you get in the grocery store). I also remember the rice pudding and bread pudding; I've never been able to make it like my mom did. And also 10 cents a can Shasta cola, any flavor you could wish for. My favorites were creme soda and black cherry.

[QueenDairy]

This made me remember the farmers that sold huge piles sweet corn from the back of their pickup trucks. My mother would buy a bagful of corn from them for cheap. Oh, the wonderful things we did with that corn! My favorite was roasted corn slathered with mayo, chile powder, parmesan cheese and lemon juice. MMM!

[MoxieLouise]

Haha, yes I remember some nights mom would cook the corn in a giant turkey roaster and that's all we had for supper that night, but oh, so good! I won't go into the physical effects the next day, but hey, we were young and made a quick recovery ;-)

[Georgia Strait]

hi - i am curious about the method - was the corned shucked? (ie just cobs - or did it still have the husk on it?)

did she cover the roasting pan?

[MoxieLouise]

Actually she shucked the corn and used the roaster on TOP of the stove with boiling water, a little salt and sugar. And I think she covered it to keep the water temp hot, it was such a big pan! No wonder we had no sides...the corn took up all the room! But she would never waste anything and when my grandfather gave us an abundance of corn, she gave away what she could and we feasted on the rest. We didn't mind at all!

[lindsaymueller]

Kneffla? Don't know how to spell it but my dad had it when he was a kid ( born 1930) so he would make it for us. It was a real treat.
2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 cup water. Mix dough and roll out to 1/4". In boiling water add 2 medium potatoes cubed 3/4". When almost done cut kneffla in to 1/4" to 3/8" x 1 1/2" pieces ( I use scissors and just snip away). In another pan brown at least 1 cup of dried bread cubes in a 1/2 cup bacon fat ( I probably use more of both). Kneffla cooks fairly fast - 3-5 min. Check for doneness that the dough is cooked through. Drain and put in a large bowl. Add the bread cubes and bacon fat, Combine and serve with sourkraut. Thats the whole meal. Leafovers are heated in a pan and add an egg or two. Heat and serve. Yum.

[QueenDairy]

Sounds delish! Will definitely have to try that sometime.

[fryerlover]

I grew up 80's-90's and my parents were a one income family. My dad was laid off work when I was 12 and ended up retiring early with not much pension. We were middle income until dad was laid off, then became poor until we, the kids, went to work. My sister and I live in Southern Ontario and my parents were from the east coast. I lost both parents to cancer before I was 21 and I have a lot of great memories of them that include food. "Poor food", with rich memories of course. Hash, which is last nights left over veggies mashed up and fried for breakfast or lunch the next day. Kraft dinner, those beef/chicken pies with the gravy, lipton soup packets, potato puffs. Fried balogna. My mom made home made meat lasagna's and also scallop potatoes. We also usually had two meals a week that were full sit down home made meat and potatoes meals. We also ate TV dinners in the 80's. I remember my dad eating molasas with bread. I tried it a few times and found it horrible. He also ate those kippered fish in a can, which I will force myself to eat for health reasons sometimes. Before my dad was laid off, our treat was about $50 of chinese once a month from the local chinese restaurant. Those were fun nights.

[jsaimd]

Fry bread. Fried yeast dough with honey butter (margarine) FOR DINNER! Also loved the endless supply of day old Hostess bakery treats from the discount store. My kids will never have it so good.

i admit it took me awhile to get used to the flavor of real butter, but can't say I crave Blue Bonnet anymore. We weren't terrib;y poor but my parents were raised in the midst of WWII. We therefore canned a lot of our own garden and I miss home canned goods. We would also go scavenge for wild mountain berries. I love elderberries and even planted a bush. Hopefully it will produce. It is a gorgeous plant.

Don't miss - goop. All leftovers thrown into tomato sauce and served over macaroni, with wonder bread and margarine. Yuk.

[FrauMetzger]

And here I thought "goop" was something that only my grandmother ever made. Or at least that she was the only one who would serve something with such a horrible name!

[pine time]

Mmm, the joys of fry bread. I didn't discover it until I was an adult, traveling through Navajo country. Amazingly delicious and nutrient-free.

And the day old Hostess bakery stuff? We called it the "used bread store."

[happybaker]

"Used Bread Store". Love that!!!!!

[QueenDairy]

We used to go to a "used bread store" too. It really was a wonderland to me, with such an assortment of cakes, pies, muffins. But we only got plain loaves of sandwich bread. :-/
I remember the owner of the restaurant was kind enough to give my mother a box of Entenmann's donuts for free after he noticed me shamelessly ogling the sweets. LOL I was probably 7 years old.

[lyden]

Oh yes, fried bread. This was such a treat for us, served for breakfast on select weekends, with lots of melted butter. Mom would buy frozen bread dough and defrost overnight in a large bowl on the counter, covered with a dishcloth. Then we would fry it up on our gas stove, marveling at how it puffed up. We called it "shebockas" (?sp) after the name a Polish friend of our Irish family gave to it. I remember being amazed and slightly shocked when I later encountered an Italian version at a street fair, covered in powdered sugar. It seemed racy and somehow ... wrong.

[pine time]

Mr Pine did the apocrypha thing of ordering hot water at a deli counter than squeezing in (free) ketchup for tomato soup. The staff were accommodating to him and gave him extra crackers.

As kids with sweet tooths (teeth?), we'd take either butter or peanut butter, mush it with Karo dark syrup, then eat the concoction with bits of bread. I still like it on occasion.

[sueatmo]

OK, your fine post has triggered another memory. My mother and her father loved to eat bread and milk. I've seen this done with white bread, cornbred, and popcorn. It is apparently a cheap snack, or something to eat before bed. I think I tried popcorn and milk once. I don't remember if I liked it or not.

Another variation is to use buttermilk.

[hill food]

so we're back to the Laura Ingalls Wilder thing are we? there's a passage where A ponders why one can take equal amounts of popcorn and milk and get them to occupy the same container.

[pine time]

Of course: I had considered it normal, everyday fare: buttermilk with crumbled cornbread. Even better if the cornbread had bits of cracklins' or bacon. Good eats.

[Aislyn]

I just love this thread. It's warm, it's funny and sad, but most of all, it shows us that we all may be from different parts of the globe and with different backgrounds but when it comes to this subject, we all share a common bond. I'm enjoying reading each and every post, I am learning a lot (new dishes that I can't wait to try) and most of all, it makes me appreciate everything I have today and how I wouldn't change my childhood for anything. Thank you so much QueenDairy for starting this discussion. I hope it continues to grow. :)

[QueenDairy]

I have alot of love and gratitude in my heart for my mother, and so many fond memories that have turned me into the person I am today. I absolutely love reading about your own memories- the joyous times, heartache, humor. It's funny because as an adult your perspective shifts, and you think back on something from your childhood with a new eye. The revelations that come with that are profound. I feel honored... it is a pleasure to be able to share with my fellow chowhounds :)

[hill food]

my father grew up in the depression and his dad fished in the Mississippi a lot so for him fish has always been "poor people's food" (uhhh checked a grocery store lately?) as a result we rarely had it and I crave it so much when I stay with them. it's only cooked in the house if caught by oneself that day. I can live with that messy rule, still...

not exactly to the point of the OP but tangentially on-topic.

[QueenDairy]

This made me remember how me and my older brother would go fishing. My mother would take us to Biscayne National Park, and we would bring a styrofoam cooler (reused to death) full of ice (gathered from our freezer). Standing there at the edge of the rocky shore, we would catch so many fish. I'm not even sure how we were so lucky. They were huge, fully grown fish. lol

Every now and then we caught a croaker. Those fish are funny in the fact that they make a purring sound at you when you pick them up and look at them. Poor things! lol! So, into the cooler they'd go. At home, my mother and I would clean the fish and package them in zip-lock bags. We ate alot of fried fish with white rice. And the best part about it- it was free. Thank you, Mother Nature!

[John E.]

Your experience seems quite different from my childhood when I went to the lake across the street from our house and caught a mess of crappies. My two older brothers never would eat fish (to this day they do not) so my mom and dad ate them with me.

[hill food]

grandpa would pack the extras in old milk cartons and drop them in the deep freeze, y'know, in case.

[Munkipawse]

When i was about thirteen and helping my mom in the kitchen i rember once having read a story in one of the "Little House on the Praire" books about eating potato peelings. Basically the story goes, the family was snowed in and Ma was trying to conserve food and would save the peelings from one meal for the next. Well I rember this thought intriguing me and thinking it might be delicious... So of course the next time we had potatoes i convinced my mom to let me save the peels and make for our next meal. So from what i gathered from the short passage in the book all Ma did was fry the peeling up with salt and pepper in a little lard. So thats what i did ( adding leftover onions-- the outer layer right under the papery skin just to add "authenticity" to my prarie blizzard meal ;). Well sadly all those fried peeling fried in lard with salt, pepper and onion layer tasted surprisenly "dirty" and unwashed potato- like. Keep in mind i was literally working with just peeling with out a lot of actual potato attached. For what looked so crispy and fried potato looking the overall flavor was horrible. Needless to say only my dad continued to eat more but no one else. I never asked my mom about making a "prairie inspired blizzard" dish again. To bring this back on topic we ate a lot of potatos in various forms in my childhood and sometimes that was the entire meal. So on occasion i still crave a bowl of roasted potato chunks for a winter meal.

[QueenDairy]

lol wonderful story

[Tripper]

I too tried a "recipe" from one of the books...maple syrup on fresh snow. I didn't find it as wonderful as Laura did!

[John E.]

I grew up about 40 miles from the "Banks of Plum Creek" and I can tell you, as I mentioned up thread a ways, you don't want to eat the snow from that part of the country, it's full of soil. Unless it's one of the rare times that the snow falls when the wind is not blowing of course.

[QueenDairy]

Our snow here in Rockford, IL is pretty dirty too :-/

[Mariposa410]

I've lived at 9000ft in Colorado, and I do not know I would eat the snow unless I caught it in a cleaned container that was catching fresh falling snow!!! And I did not live near any major city then!

[pine time]

We ate snow cream as a kid, regardless of being in a city. In years since, when Mr. Pine and I did some hard core camping, we had to melt snow to make coffee (takes a LOT of snow). Even tho' it was hard-core camping, no way would we forego coffee, made over a "grasshopper" heater.

[foiegras]

My Little House on the Prairie moment came as an adult when my gas line and then hot water heater were being replaced, and I was boiling water to wash dishes by hand ;) I do remember from the books a very special celebration meal (4th of July I think) of fried chicken, fresh peas, and 'white' cake ... similar to what my great-grandmother made every Sunday. It was definitely slim pickings on the prairie ...

[Munkipawse]

Foie,

whenever i'd read FARMER BOY in the Little House series I would get so envious how much Almanzo got to experience and live as a kid out in the country. I esp liked the vivid detail of his chowhound upbringing. :) I agreeth with everyone else this is an excellent topic!

[hill food]

god I just re-read Farmer Boy and well, all the fried apples and onions has cast a long shadow on my cooking this winter...

[Munkipawse]

If dont mind me asking hillfood, was it a book you read as a kid and it still reasonates with you today? That book was definately a repeat read for me growing up and the food passages being the main reason. Those alone made me understand the family and love for each other in the book more. Warm memories indeed. :)

[jenscats5]

I LOVE the Little House on the Prairie books, especially Farmer Boy as it's the most food related. Even tho I'm 42 yo I still re-read them from time to time....

[hill food]

it's funny, except for the popcorn thing I never noticed the food themes through it and all her work (rumored to have been ghost written by daughter Rose Wilder Lane) but yeah my sisters had all those books, so I got the 'boy' one.

[Munkipawse]

Well i like and have the entire series but i've only repeatedly read FARMER BOY and a big reason was the food. I think it interesting for me whenever i'm reading a book and a meal is referenced it gets me to thinking what it looks like or tastes like, esp when it centers around a "simple" or poor siuation and the characters are making due or having to improvise. Odd huh?

[hill food]

it's all a fun read. and interesting to this thread as things had to be used sensibly. always.

[jenscats5]

@ Munk - no, I don't think it's odd at all.....I read Farmer Boy most often due to all the food references. And one of my interests that got sparked by the book is American History via food - I love to read about how people ate during the covered wagon days and even how the Donner Party survived.

[Munkipawse]

Ooooo Jenscats5 you've piqued my interest with that last sentence. care to recomend any covered wagon or Donner party books?

[hill food]

Donner Dinner Party book? I read not too long ago thatthe accounts were greatly exaggerated.

[jenscats5]

As Hill said, a lot of reports of the Donner Party were exaggerated & speculation. And the survivors didn't really want to talk about their experiences. BUT, there is some good info online really if you Google it - a survivors mother's journal, a timeline, etc. There was more to what they were forced to eat - shoes, boiled leather made into soup, etc. Amazing survival story.

[QueenDairy]

I'm glad it never came to that in our house!! jk

[pie22]

we did not grow up poor but my dad did and to this day he eats an indian version of fried rice almost every day, leftover white rice (we always have that on hand), oil, salt, mustard seed and chili powder, leftover veggies if available but not normally. i like the version with the veggies but when without i usually passed.
my dad in his college days in america would eat that rice, in a piece of bread with potato chips on the side, that makes me cringe.
personally, i love the cheap ramen noodles and eat them all the time though as i have grown older i have definitely cut down on the seasoning packet and also throw in leftovers.

[FoodChic]

We were not poor, but my mother grew up quite poor. She brought those foods to our lives, but couldn't stretch food the way my aunt could. It was amazing to see what she could do to stretch food.
I saw her use a couple packets of lipton noodle soup for lunch one day with Tuna in lettuce cups. The next day she chopped up some leftover chicken, added ginger and wontons to make it an Asian soup. The next day she used the ginger, wontons, and cabbage (leftvoer from her cabbage rolls two nights earlier) to make baked vegetable eggrolls with chicken chow mein using Chun King cannned products. I was amazed, as my mom did grow up poor, but never stretched food that way.

For things we ate, one of my favorties was (is) Spam. As big of a food snob as I have become, I still think about those spam sandwiches with Miracle Whip, iceberg lettuce and white bread. My mom would give me those with a bowl of ramen. I loved it.

The same goes for the cream of chipped beef my mom made me with Carl Budding corned beef. I'd never fed those things to kids now, but it certainly does bring back good memories.

[teezeetoo]

my mother could make the eagle on a dollar grin and she knew nutrition. we ate sardines and she'd get "trash fish" at the fish store (carp and the like) and bake it in tons of garlic. she made kasha varnishkes and noodles with farmer cheese and raisins. she made chopped salad out of anything left at the vegetable market and used cider vinegar with everything. we also were "dosed" with wheat germ. She didn't believe in juice before that belief was fashionable: "eat the orange you need the fiber" she'd say. And if it came in a package, she didn't trust it!

[Mariposa410]

My Mom use to make a small can of Spam feed 6 people, including two teenage boys!!! I will never figure out how on earth she did it!!! She must have had some recipe book for Spam dishes! I do remember one though that I actually liked that was called "Spam and Pineapple Bake". I do not recall exactly all that was in it other than some kind of breaded Spam and Pineapple that she served usually with rice!

[hill food]

very Hawaiian/Polynesian of her.

[iliria]

When I was a child we always had frsh produce in season only. We only got tomatoes in summer and dreamt about them the rest of the year. So in summer you saw a lot of young kids going out to play holding a chunk of bread, chunk of feta cheese and a nice big fresh tomatoe in their hand and eating. Nowadays I have tried to relive that experience but it just isn't the same anymore. You get tomatoes all year around and they taste like cr*p.

Another food we used to have was lamb brains coated in egg and fried. Not only are brains not allowed to be eaten nowadays but also if you ask for them people look at you as if you're some horrible cannibal.

[jarona]

We weren't poor, but we certainly we not wealthy. We were typical working-class. Daddy was a NYC cop and my mother stayed home to take care of the five of us kids. The inexpensive--or poor people meals that I can remember was her typical saturday night fare: Franks 'n Beans. She would pour a couple of cans of Campbells Pork 'n Beans into an aluminum baking pan, cut up a bunch of frankfurters and bake it in the oven. Then it was served with margarined Wonder bread. I especially used to love those one or two pieces of "pork" that came with the beans. We also had a lot of offal. She would make kidneys and eggs a lot and we loved it. Chicken gizzards, tongue....and my mother loved pigs feet but none of us kids did. Anyway, the other "poor" people food that really sticks out in my mind was "Slumgullion". UGH. This disgusting dish has been discussed on Chowhound from time to time. It is an atrocious mix of elbow macaroni, Chopped meat (beef), canned Del Monte tomato sauce and chopped green pepper. Absolutely worst thing I've ever tasted in my life....and it was a staple in our home when we were growing up.

[jenscats5]

We had Franks & Beans regularly ourselves.....always with fried potatoes & the margarined Wonder Bread! HAD to have that Wonder Bread...

[seanelle2]

SLUMGULLION- we grew up calling this "goulash". I've also heard it called "hillbilly goulash". Totally different recipe- cook elbow macaroni, drain, while cooking brown ground beef with lots of good strong onion ), drain grease .. put in electric skillet- and add (squished thru your hands- 2 cans (14 OZ NOW USED TO BE 16 OZ- LOL!) whole peeled tomatoes - add LOTS of black pepper- simmer in the electric skillet until the tomatoes are cooked down- keep one of the cans and put water in it in case you have to add some- i've had people ask if this is johnny marzetti (or mazetti) - it isn't- not baked at all- very similar recipe was in Ernie Mickler's first
White Trash Cooking" cookbook- he called it "slumgullion"... just this year was in physical therapy and somehow this came up when talking to my therapist- she called it hillbilly goulash and was ecstatic to have a recipe- said she used to eat it at poor people's house nearby as a kid-- we were poor but I think my mom (died 15 years ago yesterday) also cooked it because it was from "down home" besides a good way to stretch dinner for 2 adults and 4 kids- served with" canned DelMonte spinach.. and of course white Wonder bread with lots of margarine! See later post below on other "poor people's food"

[John E.]

We had this 'goulash' for school lunch. When my mother made it at home she always added chopped celery. I remember we were on an extended camping trip up the unpaved Alcan Highway and somewhere in the Yukon Territory my mother made a couple revisions and called it Campers Hotdish. She took a couple tall cans of Franco American canned spaghetti, browned hamburger, onions, celery and canned kidney beans. I think she also added some ketchup and fennel seeds. I remember the sweetness and the slight licorice flavor. She made it a few times a year for us for many years after that. I may have to make some and tell the kids it origins.

[Mariposa410]

I think we had Wonder Bread with butter at almost every lunch and supper meal when I grew up. It was definitely a must put on the table for almost every meal no matter how "carb ladden" the meal already was. It was a day and age that I do not think people knew nearly as much about nutrition as we do today! Maybe that is why they now say we are one of the most overweight societies in the world! Hopefully it will change now that so many are now aware of better nutrition for their meals and what a "balanced diet" should include!

[nikkihwood]

In New England, that's American Chop Suey, a weekly offering at many school cafeterias. oh, the memories...

[Toreii]

LOL This was a Sunday dinner treat at my house growing up, browned gr beef, chopped onion, garlic, tomoto sauce and cooked elbow macaroni with some salt and pepper. bake for an hour and serve.

[happybaker]

And what's wrong with that?! : )

[cleobeach]

My best friend's mother made a variation of that included a lot of sugar and she called it goulash

[cathodetube]

Did you put the cheese from the green container on it?

[John E.]

I just remembered an interesting (well, to me anyway) story about 'poor' food. When I was in college I was in a setting with a diverse group of students. One of the girls came from a wealthy family. She was telling a story about how much fun it was for her and her mother when her father was out of town. They would give the maid/cook the night off and they would cook macaroni and cheese from scratch. One of the guys in the group who was raised by just his mother said it was a special night when his mother would cut up a hotdog into their boxed macaroni and cheese.

[QueenDairy]

My bf made himself Kraft boxed macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dog for dinner tonight. What a coincidence! For some reason, I didn't want any. Well, I did taste a bite of the hot dog, but it didn't convince me. Oh well, more for him! :) I had a light salad with the same homemade croutons (see post upthread), olive oil, salt, pepper, and a squeeze of lemon juice. lol... Tonight was a marathon of Kitchen Nightmares for me.

[Aislyn]

Aww, that really makes you stop and think. Everything is relative I guess. Brought a little tear to my eye.

[EWSflash]

Ooh, those look good. My poor folks food was canned lasagna that a friend in the hood whose mom was the Last of the Red Hot Mamas and not home that much. It smels like barf t me now but back in the day it was exotic- because my BORING mom made most things from scratch. :-)

[srr]

I eat a few times a week a dish I call "poor people's stir-fry." It's basically cabbage (which I always have in my fridge) cooked in a hot pan with whatever vegetables we have finished with soy sauce and my homemade thai chili sauce. If we have any leftover meat, that gets in there too. I also eat "poor people's soup" which is basically the same stuff in a sauce pan with a small can of chicken broth. My husband, who is a chef, thinks I'm crazy because we always have the fixins' for something more elaborate, but it's what I crave. My mom and my aunt were big users of cabbage for everything. I love that stuff.

[Leepa]

Pork backbone. Yum.

[QueenDairy]

Another favorite- Rice with canned baby squid and black beans mixed in. The oily ink sauce colored the rice very nicely, and gave it a rich flavor. :)

[msgenie516]

I'm not sure this fits in this thread, but it sure is "poor people food". I previously posted but my husband mentioned this afterwards. He told me that when there was nothing else in the house, he would make sauerkraut sandwiches on white bread with mustard. However, he never "craved" them and doesn't now. I can't even imagine eating them! If there was no other food and I was hungry, I think I would rather eat the bread and the sauerkraut separately and forget about the mustard altogether!

My family wasn't as poor as some I remember (especially those that didn't have electric and it was the 1950's already) but they were REALLY frugal when it came to spending money on food. This meant we didn't have goodies, as the money spent on food had to go toward "wholesome" food. I don't think that would have included sauerkraut sandwiches!

[jeanmarieok]

I'd eat a saurkraut sandwich - I'm going to have to try this!!

[Aislyn]

In the late 50's and early 60's, I grew up in a small fishing village in Nova Scotia where the majority of men fished for a living and most women were housewives. The "poor man's food" for our village, believe it or not, was lobster. Back in those days, the demand for lobster was minimal so the price was much lower than haddock, pollock, cod, etc. As a result, most fishermen brought home the lobster to feed the family. This may sound bizarre but as kids, we would get so tired of lobster that when we had to take lobster sandwiches to school for lunch, we would always try to trade them off to the kids (whose fathers weren't fishermen) who had cheese whiz or deviled ham sandwiches! While to many people, lobster is a delicacy or a treat today, I could care less if I ever saw another one as long as I live! :)

[QueenDairy]

One man's "poor food" is another man's treasure. lol

[Aislyn]

How true QueenDairy! And to think as kids we used to sneak a couple of live lobsters out of the bag in the back porch and try to "race" them down a hallway until my dad would catch us. I guess it wasn't cool to play with your supper - not to mention risk losing a finger since they didn't even have bands on the claws!! lol

[QueenDairy]

That is too funny!

[John E.]

I don't know if it's comparable to your lobster reference, but my mother told stories about the noon dinners her mother used to make during the Depression. My mom grew up in northwest Wisconsin and while her father was never out of work, they didn't have much money either. The big meal was at noon and kids would go home for lunch. In the autumn my grandmother would invariably cook roast duck with wild rice stuffing. That sounds almost gourmet now but my grandfather shot the ducks and gathered, parched and processed the wild rice each autumn as well. When I was a kid we ate a lot of pheasant because my father was able to shoot them in the corn field next to his office.

[Aislyn]

Yes, John E., wild duck, pheasant and venison were always plentiful growing up for the very same reason you mentioned. Imagine all of the work your grandfather put into processing the wild rice!
Another common practice was to gather seagull's eggs in the early spring and use them in baking or in a custard. Actually, some of the "old folk" would actually fry them up for breakfast!

[John E.]

I would guess that the gathering of the seagull eggs is frowned upon these days ; )

[Aislyn]

I hope so :)

[QueenDairy]

I wonder how seagull's eggs taste? Like regular chicken eggs?

[John E.]

Since they both are scavengers and eat fish, I've heard that seagull eggs taste remarkable like those of bald eagles ; )

[QueenDairy]

I like mine over-medium, please... not rare. *drum beat*

[Aislyn]

They are larger than a chicken's egg and have a very bright orange yolk. Remembering back, I know that they made a very rich custard and that pound cakes and the like came out much nicer than with chicken eggs. If my memory serves me, you really couldn't tell the difference in terms of taste - they were just much richer. Fried, I am told, the yolk is a bit on the "rubbery" side as opposed to a chicken egg.

[QueenDairy]

This reminds me of an episode of Iron chef I was watching- the secret ingredient was cobia. The challenger side used a whole ostrich egg yolk to make pasta. When asked why he did it, he explained that it contains a higher fat content, resulting in a richer pasta. Here is the link to the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHA6yB...

If you skip to 06:40, you can see him breaking the ostrich egg with a hammer and chisel! lol... very interesting battle.

[yakittyyak]

Because of our circumstances, we simply did not go 'out to eat'...as I mentioned previously, we grew our food, and hunted and fished. I remember many years later seeing 'venison' on a menu, and saying "What the hell is THAT?" LOL! Where I come from, it's called 'Deer Meat'...noone Ever said venison!! haha!

[RevImmigrant]

My parents were ethnic German (north German) and Norwegian so we had boiled potatoes 6 nights a week and then the 7th night we had fried potatoes made from all the leftover boiled ones. we also had either Norwegian meatballs or Frikadellen once a week. I never thought of this a "poor" food; this is what north Germans and Norwegians eat. I didn't realize until I was in my 20s that Americans (not ethnic German or Scandinavian) thought meatballs were a great economy dish and was what you had when you couldn't afford anything else. We had roast beef (with boiled potatoes of course) every Sunday and always had some kind of meat, usually beef or pork, for dinner. My parents both worked and we always had good food, not fancy, but good.

[happybaker]

My grandmother was from a family of 11! kids. Her afterschool snack as a child? Boiled potatoes.

To this day, I have not had a boiled potato as yummy as she could make them.

[cathodetube]

My grandmother had the same snack as a kid! Her mother used to give them to her and her sister with mustard on top. She would make the same for me when she stayed with us. She was from Cincinnati of German descent.

Another after school she made me that her mother had made her was fried apple pieces. She used butter and sprinkled sugar and cinnamon on top. Butter and sugar sandwiches on white bread was another.

[John E.]

My mother used to tell stories about her childhood. They seemed to eat a lot of potatoes. Apparently they never ate baked potatoes. They had boiled potatoes for the noon meal and they always boiled enough so there would be leftover potatoes to fry for supper. I seem to remember my mother cooking boiled potatoes when I was a kid. We pretty much ate them the same as a baked potato, with lots of butter and s/p.

[mamachef]

QueenDairy, your OP brought tears to my eyes. I can absolutely feel how deeply you loved your very strong mother. And I want to try this recipe with picadillo. It might be too labor-intensive for work, considering I'd have to make at least 120 if not more, but it sounds wonderful for home dinner, so thanks!! One for the "must try" file.
We didn't have financial difficulties, but my mom (a) wasn't much of a cook and (b) gawd, she hated spending money for food. So once a week like clockwork, we had creamed tuna over some freakishly soft "toast", or saltines, or anything white that would absorb that sauce. And we kids gobbled that **** up. And I love it to this very day. ('Cepting, I use better bread and higher-grade tuna.)

[QueenDairy]

The sorullos are very tasty! You can make the dough ahead of time, as long as you keep it moist (plastic wrap helps).
My mom added 1 packet of sazon (without color) to the dough. Here is a picture. Upthread, I posted a recipe for another comfort food called Papas Rellena. So good. :) And yes, I admire her so very much, and remember all of the struggles we went through... some of which she claims to not remember now... Whew, now I am tearing up myself! LOL!! <3

[mamachef]

Aw, sweetie. Thank you for sharing. I did forget to mention that mom was the leftovers queen. She'd put 3 leftover peas in Tupperware, I swear she would. But she'd incorporate all the leftovers, from soup to nuts, into fried rice and with enough soy sauce it was purty good. Funny note: she made a graph of things she froze, and about monthly she'd yank it all out of the freezer and have a diner's choice dinner. I recall one time she pulled out a veal stew, sweet and sour meatballs, and something else.......but she'd only saved the gravy!! there was no meat in anything!! We laughed until we cried over that one.

[QueenDairy]

LOL

[Tam38]

Tuna & Creamettes: once a week it was a box of boiled elbow noodles with a can of tuna and a couple of spoon-fulls of Hellman's mayo.

[jeanmarieok]

Scrambled eggs with baked beans, and the leftover baked beans on toast with ketchup the next day - two dinners out of one big can of baked beans. Another meal stretcher was saurkraut with egg noodles and butter, sometimes with sausage, sometimes no meat at all. Appian Way pizza kits were a treat, too.

[foiegras]

Yes, my mother would do those pizza kits too ;) They weren't bad. I would've been hard pressed to remember the brand name though ...

[Mariposa410]

This is so interesting! I just ran across a recipe I want to try that uses Shredded cabbage and egg noodles!!

[jeanmarieok]

Cabbage and noodles is delicious - I fry up the onion and cabbage in a little bacon grease for extra flavor. We fight over who gets the rest of it.

[QueenDairy]

Yesterday, I baked some old bread dough that was sitting in the freezer for almost a year. I just couldn't bear to throw it out, and it was in a air tight container. They came out pretty good, just a bit too gummy in my opinion. Not good for dinner rolls.
I think most of the yeast died out, since the dough was so old. I can just hear my mother's voice, telling me not to waste it. I've seen other people throw out bread like this, and it is a tragedy!
Anyway, I cut it all up into cubes, spread some butter on the whole thing, dusted it with garlic salt, Parmesan, parsley, and toasted it well. Now I have the most perfect, delicious croutons ever. I will always be frugal, thanks to my mother. :) LOL

[tcamp]

I have a friend with whom I cook periodically. We call it "cooking 911." If we don't create the crisis, we're using up some death row ingredient. I love the challenge. Anyone can make a great meal with a $50 piece of meat.

[Mariposa410]

I'm with you! We recently bought some small bread loafs at a local grocery, and they got forgotten when we unloaded the grocery's from the car somehow. When we found them, they were definitely hard as a board! My husband wanted to just toss them, and I wouldn't let him. I ran them through the Food Processor and made perfect Bread crumbs, which we use a lot in baking fish (which we eat at least twice a week)!!!!

[QueenDairy]

Hah! I'm glad that I'm not alone in this! :D

[gator28]

We weren't exactly poor, but I have a feeling that there were times when we cutting it close with bills. My parents were very frugal and still are to this day, so meals were simple.

We ate a lot of breakfast type items for dinner. Over easy eggs and plain white toast, or eggs with hot dogs cut up in them. Lots of fried potatoes too!

My mom is Mexican, so we also ate a lot of plain bean and cheese burritos. Or mashed pinto beans and Mexican rice, flour tortillas on the side. I still crave those delicious mashed pinto beans! Mom always has them on the stove when I'm home - they are a staple.

[QueenDairy]

Pinto beans are the bomb :)

[joonjoon]

Even though I'm from Korea, I'm not old enough (33) to have experienced truly lean times there. And my parents were ridiculously wealthy at the time so we always had ample meat on our table growing up.

However there is one food item I always remember more fondly than anything my mother made: blood sausage, or soondae.

Even though my parents were rich they were very strict with my allowance. I got 100won a day, or roughly 10c by today's exchange rates. I loved video games, and at the time 100 won got me 2 plays. But instead of playing twice, I always saved half my allowance for a special treat on the way home.

There was an old lady around the corner from my school who was out there every day, rain or shine selling blood sausage and organ meats. 50 won (5c) would buy me a little snack size portion. I had no idea what I was eating at the time - didn't know there was blood in the sausage, had no clue what organs even were - but I knew that the little magical packages of offal she was selling tasted like no other food I'd experienced anywhere else. Looking back, I think that might have been where my love for food and adventure started.

Man I miss those times.

[QueenDairy]

Sometimes, the humblest ( is that a real word? lol) foods are the most delicious and memorable dishes.^___^

I've never had blood sausage before. How does it taste? Sounds really yummy imo.

[joonjoon]

Yes, the humble, cheap foods are the ones I always look back most fondly on.

What does blood sausage taste like....it's hard to describe. A little gritty, and a bit iron-y. Blood sausage is one of those foods that almost all cultures seems to have figured out on their own, if you look around for it you'll find it. :) I think it's well worth it!

[Mariposa410]

I'm pretty sure you are right about that! It may well go under some other name!

[msgenie516]

Since my folks were from the “old country”, we ate a lot of strange food (they weren’t known to throw anything out). When I was a child, there was a chicken farm down the road where we could buy a fresh killed chicken and we got everything with it. My favorite was the chicken feet, which we cooked in soup. We also cooked the gizzards, but quite a few of them, not from just one chicken. We cooked them in chicken broth with celery and onion, thickened the broth with corn starch, and added fresh chopped parsley and served this over rice--we ate a lot of rice! To this day, I love the gizzards over rice. Not only were most meals accompanied with rice, we also had a lot of rice pudding with raisins, one of the few sweets I was allowed. We couldn’t afford soda or ice cream, so we had none.

We also ate fried brains (pork, I think), beef tongue and kidneys (not favorites), pig’s knuckles and feet, and chicken, calves, and beef liver.

Now I don’t think this is considered “poor” food (my Mom considered it something special but I HATED it), beef Rouladen. You use a very thin cut of beef (possibly flank steak--I’m not an expert mostly due to my dislike of this dish), pound it extra thin, spread it with mustard, sprinkle chopped onions, arrange slices of pickles and cooked bacon. Then roll them up and tie them and brown them in oil, add beef broth, and simmer until tender. Many people enjoy this dish but since I dislike both mustard and pickles (I will eat mustard on hot dogs and pickles by themselves but that‘s about it), it’s something from my past that I have no yearning for.

I still eat the livers, pig’s knuckles and feet (love the knuckles in some type of bean or pea soup), chicken feet and gizzards cooked in broth (can only find them in Compare supermarket). I imagine that to folks not used to it, chicken feet sound “gross” but they really are good, just have to make sure they are good and clean!

I haven’t eaten (in AGES) fried brains, beef tongue and kidneys and Rouladen. I hope this brings back memories for someone, perhaps someone of German descent.

[QueenDairy]

Oh, it sure is bringing back memories for me, even if I am of Puerto-Rican-Spaniard descent ! :) Thank you for sharing.

[Jzone]

Oh dude... thank you for reminding me about chicken gizzards and on a related note, chicken hearts. We had those all the time. Mom would just shake'n'bake em and pop them in the oven. Served with a random veg and mashed taters. Yummm.

I love this thread. :)

[QueenDairy]

I miss chicken gizzards. Maybe it's time I make some more escabeche con moyejas... Yum!

[kimmer1850]

My mom did the steak roll, too. I still love them!

[TeriPie]

TOTALLY brings back plenty of memories for me! Only difference is: growing up in a Spanish/Basque home...NOTHING was wasted when Dad butchered his own LAMB! ;-) ...yeah...still can't stomach anything more than "well-done" grilled lamb chops with tons of garlic salt and pepper to mask that "lamb" taste and smell....ugh

[Mariposa410]

This makes me really miss my Mom!!! She use to eat Pickled Pigs Feet or New Years every year, and until she died, I was the only other one in the family who would eat them with her!! It makes me want to go and get a jar of them (except the jars are pretty big, and I would be the only one to ever eat any, so they would last a while, if my dear husband doesn't throw them out!!!!)

[jenscats5]

We weren't poor & I was an only child & my mom didn't work....well she worked for my dad at his co. but I'm not sure if she got a check or not......But my dad was in the Army also & in the Korean war - but I think he LIKED the food as he wouldn't allow my mom to use spices or seasonings when she cooked. Everything was plain plain plain! Now some meals were better than others but we always had a "veggie" (canned & boiled) + a meat + a veggie.

Some examples:
Spaghetti (mom made homemade sauce - a very sweet sauce - lots of sugar!)
Pot roast
Baked plain chicken with plain Minute rice
Pork chops (cooked to death) with baked beans, mashed potatoes & applesauce...My dad only chewed on the bones.....???
Monk fish + macaroni & cheese + kale + stewed tomatoes (Fridays) - or fish sticks
Turkey "croquettes" - some frozen thing

My dad made this one thing I called "dog food" - sauteed ground beef with a package of brown gravy mix mixed into the grease & served over plain boiled potatoes. I refused to eat it! YUCK!

[jenscats5]

Oh and we went out to dinner about once a week.....usually to this pretty awful restaurant where the food was bad & plain.....dad loved it! Always got a steak + a baked potato & a giant bowl of gravy.....I know someone know who remembers this place - food was known to be awful. Dad loved it!!

[QueenDairy]

this made me giggle

[Jzone]

Wow, bet you didn't know when you were having monk fish how trend setting you were! :) It's almost as expensive as many types of lobster now. Lucky you? lol

[jenscats5]

I don't remember how much it cost in 70's but wasn't it inexpensive then? Now it's expensive...

[scubadoo97]

The first thing that comes to mind is Mujaddara.

[QueenDairy]

:O if that's what I think it is- it is friggin delicious! I had a landlady that used to insist I eat dinner with her. It had basmati, onions, lentils, i *think* saffron, and some kind of grain... with lamb. Very flavorful. :)

[laliz]

cream of wheat: cooked and chilled in loaf pan, then sliced and fried and served w/margarine and pancake syrup
pancakes served same way
creamed peas on toast
creamed canned salmon on mashed potatoes
fried potatoes OMG endless fried potatoes
Chef boy ar dee boxed spaghetti dinner
canned baked beans w/little sausages
canned corned beef hash
Campbells vegetable soup, or chicken noodle, or tomato w/saltines (no homemade soup ever)
Navy beans cooked w/salt pork and served over white bread with ketchup

[QueenDairy]

During the holidays, my mother somehow whipped up the best meals for us. She really made miracles happen in that kitchen.

One of my favorites was escabeche con moyejas. She boiled chicken gizzards until tender, cleaned them out, and boiled it again with sliced green plantain, malanga, potatoes. When it was cooked well, she drained it and mixed in minced garlic, onions, olives, olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. This was refrigerated and eaten cold. It is delicious. I have not been able to find a recipe online specifically like the way she prepared it, but here is something similiar to it.

http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe...

Every recipe I've seen online does not include malanga or potatoes. Perhaps it was her way of stretching it... Either way, it came out SO delicious. For those of you that don't know what malanga is, it is a type of root that grows in tropical areas. It has a thick skin, similiar to a yucca, and is cooked like a potato. Here is a picture.

[kireland]

My Mom would die if she heard me describe the meals I had growing up as 'poor people food', but now that I cook for myself, I know how frugally she fed our family! I tend to think of my childhood dinners as having been ordered from a very limited menu with daily specials: Friday was always fish (though we weren't Catholic) 'fried' in a cast iron skillet and the leftovers were fried up with eggs the next morning. Saturday evening was always "Italian" night - spaghetti with sauce made from Ragu and ground beef OR English muffin pizzas (my sister and I loved when my mom cooked "Italian" because we had her convinced that we couldn't drink milk with tomato sauce as it would curdle in our stomachs, so we got to have pop!). The other nights were invariably some form of meat and potatoes - meatloaf, "Swiss steak" (eye of round cooked to death and smothered in an onion gravy), hash (ground beef with water to make a 'gravy') served over mashed potatoes, pork chops "Catalina" style (basted with Kraft Catalina dressing), breakfast sausages with canned stewed tomatoes over the top, and every steak I remember having was cooked in a cast iron skillet with 'mixed gill' (a mixture of green pepper, onion and mushrooms).

My mom was just being frugal, but my Dad was a different story! He had served in the army and had had his share of mess food so he would not tolerate anything that was "convenient" - only butter was allowed, no margarine (my sister and I were so bummed when we didn't get to have squeeze margarine on our pancakes), only whole milk, no Tang (awww man!), no instant anything! Canned vegetables were okay though and I remember he used to have my mom drain the liquid from the peas into a juice glass and he'd start his meal with that! He was also the one to 'clean' out the fridge, which meant scraping any mold off of things he deemed to be good and returning them to the fridge!

My mom is in her 80's now and lives alone, but she still cooks for herself every night - usually the old standards (which I now love - though seldom make), but she delights in the cooking I do with fresh vegetables and choice cuts of meat (she is always saying things like "my goodness you can AFFORD brocolli?!!). Good memories (whether the food was good or not)!

[caseyjo]

Your family sounds a lot like mine! We were a single income family, and since my dad works freelance we were often down to "sticks and stems" between his jobs. I never realized how frugally my mother fed us until I moved into my own apartment!

My dad was in the army, so he refuses to eat a much of the convenience foods they served. The biggest offender was spaghetti, which we only got on special occasions when he was out of town. Sometimes, we'd get spaghetti AND sloppy joes (another of his "never again" foods) the same weekend! I found out years later that sloppy joes were my mom's way of using up the leftover spaghetti sauce.

[QueenDairy]

No Tang? :O Sadly, that was our "orange juice", and we loved it to death. My mother would make a container of Tang last forever, as she made it very dilute and would squeeze an orange into it. LOL!

[kireland]

I know Tang isn't a treat now, but when we we're kids we wanted it soooo badly! My sister and I used to come home form friends houses and complain that they had all the good stuff - like macaroni and cheese from a box and cookies from a bag! What brats we were!!

[cgarner]

Home made bread gone stale, then toasted in the oven and had warm chocolate milk poured over. I thought I was eating like a queen. Mom was using things we had in the house to feed us.

Patata Uova (which was just potatoes and eggs) though it wasn’t done tortilla style, it was just scrambled eggs with leftover boiled potatoes in it.
Sometimes we’d have pieces of grandpop’s home made dried sausage in it too (oh that was amazing)

My grandparents had a HUGE garden so we ate well, even though we were “poor” (according to my mother)

We always had fresh vegetables, overflow from the garden and apples and pears from their fruit trees.

Sometimes that was dinner… I remember having cauliflower (with velveeta cheese on it) for dinner on more than one occasion.

We had lentil soup a lot, because it was good for you and filling.

I also ate a lot of the “peasant food” that my grandparents continued to make, even though they no longer were considered “peasants” here in this country.. why? Because they were delicious

Swiss chard and potatoes
Tripe in spicy tomato sauce
My grandmom’s version of what’s today called Ribollita

These were all staples on our table.

[QueenDairy]

Lentil soup is the best, and as you said, very filling. The very first time I had tripe in a hispanic soup made by my mother.. the texture appalled me. But it grows on you, and the different flavors in the menudo are wonderful.

[cgarner]

We always had a meal on the table, and a roof over our heads and clothes on our backs.
Mom was on a tight budget and did without lots of things. She learned to sew and would mend/repair, “repurpose” clothes for us kids and for herself. She would budget every dime (literally) and if she couldn’t get something like hairspray (in 1970 was very important) she’d just do without till she had the extra FIFTY CENTS to spend.

We didn’t have chips, or ice cream at home (it was a great at the grandparents house though) NEVER had soda, or sugar cereal, Milk was for breakfast and you drank water if you were thirsty and if you wanted a snack, you could have an apple from the fruit bowl

I feel I’m sounding preachy, so I won’t go on. I think what I’m trying to say is that we were really lucky, because even though there were so many things we did without, we never knew that were “poor” kids and there were families that were worse off than we were.

[QueenDairy]

Amen!! <3 I love this post! :D

[pdxgastro]

Cgarner, you would enjoy reading Gay Talese's tales of how his Italian family ate during the depression. He describes how they would all go to the ocean and get mussels, which his mom cooked in a tomato brodo. I can't remember which book it's in though.

[cgarner]

@pdxgastro, my grandparents were suspect of shellfish, LOL they lived in a farming community before coming here to the United States
When they were first married they lived in a little neighborhood which consisted mostly of other relatives and people that came from the same town as them in Italy. They had their own version of ‘foraging’ back then… there was a big open field near the state hospital that had tons of dandelions, as soon as they started to come up, they’d pile in a car (whoever had a car) and bring their pillow cases and pick the baby dandelion greens from the field. There were mulberry trees that they’d gather fruit from too.

My grandfather was friends with the butcher, who would save him the stuff that was otherwise going to be discarded, heart, lung (which you’re not supposed to eat) intestine, stomach, blood, it’d all go into buckets and left outback for my grandfather to pick up (pops was a freegan before his time)
He’d boil the crap out of all of it, and then fry hot peppers onions garlic and add the cut up pieces of offal, with tomatoes and blood and let it stew forever… they called it sofrito, which I believe has different meanings in different cultures.

They also had a ‘community garden’, someone built an outdoor brick oven which they’d fire up and the ladies would come out and bake their breads in, they had a grape arbor, and they’d all pool their funds and buy a pig each year together as a neighborhood. (the original Nose to Tail Chefs!) By Easter they only had little pieces of whatever was cured or preserved, but it was nearly time to buy a new pig, so after 40 days of lent, they’d all gather their pork scraps and make Easter “ham” pies, with lots of eggs and farmers cheese baked in either a yeast crust or just a crust of flour and water (because they didn’t have butter, olive oil was a premium and used sparingly and the lard by then was gone)

they were simpler times…as tough as it was for them, they had their family and little community, everyone helped each other in some way shape or form… though I don’t wish that kind of economic scenario on anyone, I do wish “we” could return to that sense of community which they had

[QueenDairy]

Wonderful story. Thanks for sharing this :)