Pearsons Progress

An interesting e-book

On my KINDLE recently, I downloaded an interesting & FREE book. It was written in 1878 by Juliet Corson. It’s entitled: Twenty-Five Cent Dinners For Families of Six.  Interesting! Here are some of  her comments, she starts off with this:

TO ECONOMICAL HOUSEWIVES: The wide publicity which the press in different sections of the country has given to my offer to show workingpeople earning a dollar and a half, or less, per day, how to get a good dinner for fifteen cents, has brought me a great many letters from those who earn more, and can consequently afford a more extended diet. (spelling and punctuation as written) Interesting again!!

Here are some one-liners:

The cheapest kinds of foods are sometimes the most wholesome and strengthening…

Good food, properly cooked, gives us good blood, sound bones, healthy brains, strong nerves, and firm flesh, to say nothing of good tempers and kind hearts.

No hungry man will spend money for what he knows will not satisfy his appetite, and a natural appetite can always be trusted.

I wish to call your attention to the following important fact. The hardy and thrifty working classes of France, the country where the most rigid economy in regard to food is practised (as spelled), never use tea or coffee for breakfast, and seldom use milk. Their food and drink is BROTH. Not the broth from fresh meat, for they do not often eat that; but that which is made from vegetables and perhaps a bit of bacon or salt pork.

In order to be healthy we must eat some fresh vegetables; they are cheap and nourishing, especially onions  and cabbages.

Homemade bread is healthier, satisfies hunger better and is cheaper that bakers’ bread. Make bread yourself if you possibly can.

A good allowance of bread each day is as follows; for a man 2 pounds, costing six cents; for boys and women one pound and a half, costing five cents; for children a pound each, costing three cents.

Anyway… I could go on and on.. it’s a great book and I really want to try some of the recipes.

Cherry Clafoutis

My Cherry Clafoutis

Last weekend I hosted a dinner party/committee meeting here at our home. As I planned my menu I was looking through this wonderful French cookbook that our kids Anita & Neil gave to me for Christmas.

Here are some of the reasons I like this recipe:

1. It’s easy
2. it can be prepared early in the day
3. it’s not too sweet
4. it’s creamy & luscious

Cherry Clafoutis

¾ cup of thick cream

1 teaspoon of vanilla

½ cup of milk

3 eggs

¼ cup sugar

2/3 cup flour

1 Tablespoon of kirsch (cherry brandy)

1 lb of cherries ( Used 1 jar of pitted cherries drained)

Confectioners sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350°. put the cream in a small saucepan. Add the vanilla and heat gently for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat, add the milk and cool.

Whisk the eggs with the sugar and the flour then stir into the cream. Add the kirsch and cherries and stir well. Pour into a 9″ round baking pan and bake for 30-35 minutes or until golden on top. Dust with confectioners sugar when ready to serve.

Serves 6

It’s super easy, yummy and very french.

Chicken meals #4 & 5

We keep eating off those 3 whole chickens I bought last week… this time pan fried chicken breasts with diced tomatoes for me… low-carbing it…that’s #4 meal and #5 is using the last breast for a chicken salad spread for sandwiches. I still have wings & a few legs & thighs to use up this week. Right now they are resting in the freezer. I also have chicken stock for a soup. It sure feels good to use every scrape and keep our grocery costs down.
I heard on the news today that people are living on 6% less money this last year since the year before. Our income has slowly gone down over the last 4 years but thankfully frugality has keep us going just fine!

Meal #3 from chickens

Stewing Chicken Backs

Meal #3 is made from the backs of the chicken. I usually make rolled tacos with this meat but this time I’m trying out a recipe from this OLD cookbook I bought at a yard sale about 35 years ago. It was originally published in 1948 with a revision in 1965. It doesn’t use ingredients one would often find in today’s cookbooks; like: chocolate chips or canned soups and they are generally simpler. This is exactly how the recipe reads and in red font I will add my changes

Tamale Pie

1 cup cornmeal~I will use polenta

4 cups water

1 teaspoon salt

1 medium onion

1 green or chili pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 ½ cups of cooked tomatoes~I will use canned tomatoes

2 cups ground cooked fowl~I’ll leave my  chicken in bits…not ground

1 teaspoon salt

Dash cayenne or chili pepper.

Cook cornmeal, water & salt in top of double boiler 45 minutes. ~I’ll cook mine on the stove not double boiler.

Chop onion and pepper and fry in hot oil.

Add tomatoes, meat, salt and cayenne or chili and cook until thickened.

Line a greased baking dish with half  the mush, pour in the meat mixture, cover with the remaining mush and bake in a moderately hot oven (375°F) about 30 minutes or until the top is lightly browned.

Serves 6-8~ this we’ll be eating for several meals. John will find this for breakfast with an egg on top!

I’ll use ½ of the chicken broth from the cooking of the backs to make a cream of broccoli soup which is made with the broccoli stocks in the fridge (I throw away as little as possible) + some water I used to cook broccoli. I added a potato to thicken it, seasonings and will finish with whole fat cream.

The old FABULOUS cookbook

3 chicken backs = this amount

Getting the most out of 3 whole chickens~Meals #1&2

Today I started out with 3 whole chickens for a dinner party/committee meeting I will host tomorrow and you can see some of what I’m going to do with them.

Today’s meal is fried chicken with the 6 wings + 1 thigh (John likes thighs): with pasta & green beans.

My menu tomorrow will be:

Starter: Shrimp Appetizer Spread with baguette

1st plate: Broccoli Swiss Cheese Casserole

2nd plate: Honey Baked Chicken From a really good cookbook (Dining on a Dime) my friend Judy gave me. I have made many of the recipes in this book. With white & wild rice, dried cranberries & toasted pine nuts. A friend will bring the salad.

Dessert: Cherry Clafoutis

This is just one of the meals I will get out of these 3 whole chickens.

I’ll use 8 quarter breasts, 4 legs & 4 thighs; allotting 2 pieces per person. Cutting up these 3 whole chickens took me all of 10 mins!! In the coming days, I’ll show you what I’m doing with the rest. I’ve calculated that I will get 7  meals (& one is a dinner party for eight) out of these 3 chickens and that is NOT including the  left overs, which will be substantial.

..

I took out of the freezer…

today…. the 3rd of January… I will continue with the help from the Lord and all who pass through my house… to REDUCE by food storage.. NEW plans are in the works.. NEW goals… NEW ideas, NEW stirrings….

so… I took out of the freezer:
1 small pk of cooked garbanzo beans (chickpeas for those who don’t understand the garbanzo word)
1 small pk of cooked turkey from Thanksgiving.

hmmmm… what would YOU do with these?

I’m going to make a rice with garbanzos… & coconut milk…. then… hmmm… a gravy o turkey with veg… a Thai twist? yeah… I’m ON THAT!! Thanks Anita for your Thai influence. She is such a creative cook!

Using up the pantry food~potatoes

   I have  a lot of potatoes. I bought a big bag for 5€ but they are  so useful! It looks like we’ll be taking some to Anita & Neil over the holidays.

• soups * or make any creamed soup and add 1 potato and blended with an immersion blender for a very creamy soup without the cream.
• baked potato meals
• side dishes
• breakfasts
• french fries for snacks

It just goes on and on. Here’s a good recipe:

Make-ahead potatoes

6 russet potatoes, peeled
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream (lite works great)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup diced green onions (scallions,
or red onions if you like)
1 cup grated Cheddar cheese
Cut the potatoes into thirds, cover
with water in a sauce pan, bring to a boil
and simmer until fork tender. Drain.
With an electric mixer whip the potatoes
with the milk. Add the sour cream, salt,
pepper, onions and 3/4 cup of cheese.
Beat together. Line a 9 x 9 baking dish
with foil first, leaving a few inches of
foil hanging over the edges. Put the
potatoes in, cover with more foil, and
freeze. When solid, remove the foil and
wrap the edges up over the top, then slip
into a freezer bag and label. Thaw and
bake at 350 F for 20-30 minutes or until
piping hot. Sprinkle with paprika
(optional) and serve immediately.

The sour cream cutout cookies… re-visited

For those of you who are new to baking and thought the dough to be ‘too wet’… it is! When the recipes says to  to roll out on a ‘heavily floured’ board;  well that means, add the flour needed to make it manageable to work with, but don’t add so much that the dough is tough.

Here are some of my photos from this recipe I have been making for over 10 years: I did these yesterday and will make up several packages to give away. This recipe makes a lot!

Moravian Love Feast & Bun recipe

A few years ago our kids Anita & Neil introduced us to the Moravian Love Feast. This photo is of our table with coffee & the buns, that our Neil took.  It was a wonderful time of fellowship with a few families.

John and I had never heard of a ‘Love Feast’ even though we grew up in the ’60′s! Here’s an explanation of a better Love Feast:

Love feasts originated in the first gathering of Christians after Pentecost. The early believers met and broke bread together, thereby signifying their union and equality. These meals of the church family were associated with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper, which followed them. They were called agape, from the Greek word for love, that is for the highest type of spiritual love. Gradually the agape lost its devotional character, and toward the end of the fourth century the Church gave it up.

Next week on December 23rd, there will be another Moravian Love Feast, this time hosted by Neil & Anita in France. We’re glad our plans are to be there with them.

Moravian Buns

• 1 medium potato , peeled and cubed
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 -5 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
• 2 eggs , beaten

Topping

• 1/4 cup cold butter
• 8 teaspoons sugar

The Pantry … I really want to clean it out!

Here are some freezer & pantry  items I will be working through:

• chicken wings- freezer
•  pie crust-freezer
• bean soup- freezer
• re-fried beans
• green chili salsa
• chalupas~ beans and shredded pork with wonderful southwest seasonings enveloped in a flour tortilla~ yum.

I had to market today and bought a package of napkins and 0% fat yogurt… but was all! It’s so nice to eat well with the food we have in the freezer.

Old Fashioned Tomato Soup Recipe

• 6 Servings
• Prep/Total Time: 20 min.

Ingredients

• 1 can (14-1/2 ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/8 teaspoon pepper
• Salt to taste
• 1 quart milk
• 2 tablespoons butter
• Minced fresh parsley, optional

Directions

• In a large saucepan, bring tomatoes to a boil. Add baking soda, garlic salt, pepper and salt if desired. Reduce heat; add the milk and butter. Heat through but do not boil. Garnish with parsley if desired. Yield: 6 servings (1-1/2 quarts).
• *2 cups of home-canned or freshly stewed tomatoes with liquid can be substituted for canned tomatoes.