Posts Tagged ‘comfort foods’

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Plum Delicious?

February 17th, 2011

Stirred custard with plums

This plum pudding looks and tastes exactly like my childhood! Even the tablecloth is one my mother used!

What persuades us that “bigger is better”  and “more is better than enough”?

These questions came up because I’ve been cooking from my mom’s old cookbook, the TNT Betty Crocker Cook Book circa 1950-something.  The recipes for various dishes are considerably smaller than recipes in today’s world.

No wonder obesity is such an issue…but, I digress.

Someone asked me what to do with dried plums.  They make great lunchbox snacks, that’s for sure.  And you can “stew” them by letting them soften in water that’s brought to a boil and let them steep just like tea.

My mother used to do that to dried plums.  Then she would strain the liquid and save it for breakfast juice to be drunk the next morning.  Sometimes she would use dried plums WITH pits; Dad liked to chew on them! :)

I remember Mom making custard to pour over them, too.  She would often make baked custard but that has a texture that is very different from stirred custard.  Baked custard is firm; stirred custard is soft and goes well with fruits or as a filling for layered cakes.

Here is something straight out of my childhood you will enjoy.  Bear in mind that it makes enough for 4 modest servings.  I might have doubled the recipe but my double boiler would have been OVER full, had I fallen to my temptation!

HARRIET’S STIRRED CUSTARD

4 eggs, slightly beaten

2/3 cups sugar + 1 teaspoon

1  teaspoon flour  *I rounded my spoonful; the Kitchen Police did not storm the room…

2  1/2  cups scalded milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

2  teaspoons vanilla

Combine the eggs and sugar.  Add the flour.  Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly.  *I used a whisk.

Stir constantly as the mixture cooks.  You want the water in the double boiler to be HOT but you don’t want it to boil!  As soon as the custard is thick enough to coat a spoon it is ready for the salt and vanilla.  Chill in individual bowls with plums or plumped dried cherries or raisins.  This yields 4 delicious servings.

*If you want to have just plain custard, the Kitchen Police will not object and neither will those who share your table!  grin

This recipe is perfect for users of WIC or SNAP; it will be valuable for those who have food commodities or have food from a food pantry because it is simple and very inexpensive to make.  It is nourishing and it would surely classify it as a comfort food!

Have you had the time to cruise over to Living On a Dime or Saving Dinner yet?  Both are offering some interesting product sales if you are interested in saving money on your food and household expenses.

You might also like to jet over to Rainy’s blog to thank her for the interview she put up there for us!  She, like you, GETS the value of the Food Stamps Cooking Club and was eager to promote it!

Many of you have been promoting us on your own by encouraging those in your circle to submit names and email addresses in order to receive our series of cooking tips and occasional email messages.  We thank you for this.

We are equally grateful for messages that come to our inbox: foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com hint/hint   grin

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.



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Food Stamps Cooking Club: What Do YOU Heart?

February 7th, 2011

Valentine Day is fast approaching...might the sweethearts around your table like this simple treat?

If you have popped by the Club House recently, you know we have been talking up cooking from “scratch.”  Today we depart from that theme.  The reason?  My dear, bawdy and bodacious aunt sent me the recipe for something my kids made when they were little.  I’d been thinking about that recipe in connection to Valentine’s day…

SIDEBAR:  Back in the day OUR kids called it “VALENTIZER’S”, for whatever reason, and that name has stuck to this day!  END SIDEBAR.

It’s true that ‘from scratch’ is far superior.  But we are talking dessert here and VALENTIZER’S is a good day to depart from the norm and splurge a little!  Even if you are a user of good from a food pantry or food commodities or have goods from SNAP or WIC via your EBT card, you most likely have a cake mix you picked up on sale awhile ago.  Even the most frugal amongst us who watches the food budget carefully or a user of Angel Food Ministries might have stashed one of those mixes when they were dirt cheap at the local market.  This dessert is worth pulling that out for a special VALENTIZER dessert.  grin

Please note that neither the Kitchen Police nor the Fun Police will come and break down your door if you substitute strawberries for cherries.  Use what you have, for heaven’s sake, and be grateful.  grin

AUNT SANDY’S DUMP CAKE


1  yellow cake mix  *Remember, the kitchen police don’t care what flavor you use, so long as it’s moist…

1/2 cup butter, melted

1 can cherry pie filling, 21 ounces  *Or whatever…

1 can pineapple  crushed,  8 ounces


Heat oven to 350.  Stir together cake mix and butter in large bowl until crumbly, set aside.

Spread pie filling and pineapple in ungreased pan,  13 x 9 x 2.

Sprinkle cake mix evenly over fruit.

Bake  at 350 degrees or until light brown.

Mother Connie has such delicious memories of our young children putting this together  for the family! We were living on a dime then, too! Here’s hoping YOU make some delicious memories with YOUR family for this love holiday that’s fast approaching!

We thank you so much for coming by the Club House, making your comments and emailing us:  foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com !  We are also happy to have new faces here!  All you need to do is submit your name and email address to receive our series of cooking tips and occasional, VERY infrequent email messages.  EACH of YOU is building community and that is a precious thing to have for each of us in these trying times!

Connie Baum


The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Mixing It Up In The Kitchen?

January 11th, 2011

Humble as it seems, THIS is comfort food. Especially if there's bacon to be added!

Do you have a favorite comfort food?  If biscuits and gravy satisfy your craving for comfort food, even though the budget is tight, you will love today’s offering.

For those among us who depend on their EBT card from SNAP or WIC to fund their food costs; for those of us who regularly order Ange Food bundles; for those who keep a tight rein on their food budgets cuz they are frugal by nature – we can all benefit from the money saving Magic Master Mix in the previous post.  For those of us who avail ourselves of food commodities or depend on food pantries from time to time-this is totally affordable for all of us!

The Magic Master Mix is the basis for this Biscuit recipe. It is super easy to put together and ever so easy to use.  It is extremely cost effective, as well.

For biscuits, here’s the 411:

BISCUITS Using the MAGIC MASTER MIX

*See previous post for MIX recipe

2 cups Magic Master Mix

1/3 to 1/2 cup water  *Mother Connie prefers using MILK here but the Kitchen Police will not care what you use.  Especially since there is powdered milk in the basic master mix recipe.

Measure Magic Master Mix into a bowl; add a cup water.  Stir.  Add more water if needed to form soft dough.  Knead gently about 12 times in the bowl or a surface that has a sparing amount of the Mix.  Roll or pat to 1/2″ thick.  Cut into circles using floured biscuit cutter **Mother Connie loves Maxine’s idea of using the top of the baking powder can!.  You could also use a tumbler; you could even use a knife and cut out triangles or squares.  Bake in a preheated oven at 450 for 12 to 15 minutes.  Makes 10 to 12 biscuits.
Prepare to be delighted.

Biscuits lend themselves to a variety of pleasures.  Of course, a staple in the olden days when Mother Connie was growing up was bacon gravy over biscuits.  Another fave: biscuits with honey, paired with bean soup.  Biscuits make wonderful breakfast sammies-just slice them between the top and bottom  and fill that space with scrambled eggs.  Or eggs and cheese.  Mini pizzas are fun, using biscuits in place of pizza dough, too.

Thanks to all who have taken the time to enter their names and email addresses so as to receive our series of cooking tips and very infrequent messages.  We LOVE your mail, too! Just shoot us a hey at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com!   We totally love having you leave comments on the blog, as well.

Our sponsors appreciate you, too. And you might like to cruise by our sister sites:  Mother Connie Sez, where  there is info regarding health and healing,  The Healthy and Wealthy You, which is pretty self explanatory.  There are a couple of other blogs but we’ll save those for another day!

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Breakfast is Served?

January 3rd, 2011

Breakfast can be easy and interesting but still be under budget!

Bless Maxine’s buttons!  She is just full of great ideas and how-to information about how to make delicious and cost effective meals from scratch with a minimum of muss and fuss.  You might think it’s ALL ABOUT breakfast but breakfast can be “ordered” any time of the day or night!

Here is here latest offering, given with our sincere thanks:

“Pancakes or waffles, syrup and poached eggs–we’re cooking breakfast from scratch today.  Maybe we’re even having breakfast for dinner.

You’re not going to get drummed out of the frugal corps if you use pancake mix. But you really should try making pancakes and waffles from the ingredients in your cupboard. It’s quick, easy and cheap…and sooooooo good. Even if you only make them when you’re out of mix, knowing how to make pancakes and waffles from scratch is a useful skill.

Making your own pancake syrup is a snap, too. It’s a lot cheaper than even the cheapest store brands, and believe me…it’s better. A lot better. The only ingredient that you might not have in your kitchen is maple flavoring.  Crescent Mapleine is one brand; a bottle costs about the same as a bottle of pancake syrup, and it lasts a long time.

The recipe for pancakes and waffles is from Donna McKenna’s $30 Week Grocery Budget booklet, which she self-published about 20 years ago. The recipe for syrup is straight off the Mapleine label, with my own addition of vanilla.

PANCAKES and WAFFLES
2 cups all-purpose flour
5 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1-3/4 cups milk
1/3 cup oil or melted margarine
Combine dry ingredients.  Add liquid ingredients and stir just until blended.

For pancakes: heat griddle over medium heat until a drop of water “dances” when dropped on it.  If using an electric frying pan, set heat at 350 degrees.   Lightly grease with oil. Spoon batter onto griddle and cook until the bubbles on top burst but don’t fill back in. Flip pancake to cook other side.  Adjust heat if pancake is too dark at this point.  Continue cooking until second side is browned. Serve immediately.

For waffles: heat waffle iron and spray grids with nonstick spray. Spoon batter over grids, close lid, and cook until done. Makes 4 waffles.

1/2 recipe–1 cup flour, 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1-1/2 tablespoons sugar, one egg, 3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons milk, scant 3 tablespoons oil or melted margarine.


HOMEMADE PANCAKE SYRUP
1 cup boiling water
2 cups sugar
½ teaspoon maple flavoring
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Bring water to a boil and dissolve the sugar in it. Boil one minute. Stir in maple flavoring and vanilla extract. How easy is that!?

Pancakes and waffles are great with eggs…and we all need a little protein. Eggs are probably the cheapest protein you can buy.

Do you know how to make a perfect poached egg? You don’t need any special equipment, but there’s a secret—and the secret is vinegar!

Fill a frying pan with enough water to cover the eggs. Add a blub -say, a tablespoon-of vinegar and bring to a boil.  Carefully crack the eggs into the water.  My home ec teacher taught us to crack the eggs into a saucer first, but who really bothers to do this?  Adjust the temperature to maintain a high simmer/low boil. For eggs with a firm white and soft yolk, set the timer for 3 minutes 15 seconds. When done, remove eggs from pan and place on a plate. Pour any accumulated water off plate and serve.

The vinegar is what causes the egg to congeal and not run all over the place–and you won’t taste it. I promise!

~Maxine

Oh, my golly, Maxine.  Our waffle iron is in STORAGE, of all places!  What were we THINKING?  I guess we weren’t…

Let’s hope everyone who uses food commodities or food pantries gets to see this, so they can really make use of their goods.  For those who use EBT cards for WIC or SNAP, this will be ideal.  If people cruise by here because they are frugal or because they want to squeeze as much value as possible from their food budgets they will appreciate knowing these things, too.

Here’s hoping people who have not yet done so will enter their name and email address into the box in the upper right hand corner.  This will entitle them to the series of cooking tips we have for them plus a very infrequent message from time to time.  We never want to overload our members; we only like to keep them informed about things we think might impact them.

Keep those “cards and letters” coming, kids!  We LOVE LOVE LOVE getting your emails at foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  and if you should leave a comment for us, be assured that we turn cartwheels on the dining room table with each comment.  Spam?  NOT SO MUCH.

Well, let’s get out into the kitchen and crank up the stove so we can smell the perfume of waffles and breakfast all through the house.  YUM YUM YUM!

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

PS/Visitors to this blog are more than welcome to stop by our sponsors as well.  They are even welcome on our sister sites: The Healthy and Wealthy You or Mother Connie Sez , just to name a couple.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Are You OVER the Holidays?

January 3rd, 2011

Simple eggs have the power to comfort and nourish; they can help us to recover from our holiday indulgences. It can also be part of a lovely quick bread, which is an easy-do comfort food!

One of the recipes that came across my path this morning had to do with leftover champagne.   Now, I don’t know about YOUR household, but using leftover champagne just has not been one of my burning issues!

Let’s take a more pragmatic approach.  Our frugal foodie friend, Maxine, has just the ticket for us.  She sent this wonderful post about breakfast:

“I’m not the person to teach you to make yeast breads. Heck, I’m still learning myself!

Today I’m sharing the recipes for a couple of quick breads that should be in every scratch cook’s repertoire. They are simple and cheap and really fill out any meal.

I didn’t even know how to make biscuits until about 10 years ago. My mom and my MIL made excellent biscuits, but they both used buttermilk…an ingredient I almost never buy because we don’t use it up. This recipe uses regular milk and was adapted from the Doubleday cookbook. Technique plays a part in successful biscuits. You want the dough to be soft—almost sticky—and don’t work it too much.

If you don’t keep baking powder around, buy a small can. It loses its ooooomph after about a year, so don’t buy a big one, even if it is cheaper per ounce. Clabber Girl is cheaper than Calumet and just as good. If you are concerned about aluminum in your diet, Rumford is the brand to buy. It’s more expensive than regular baking powder.

BAKING POWDER BISCUITS
2 cups sifted flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/3 cup chilled shortening, such as Crisco
3/4 cup milk
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. If shortening is room temperature, measure 1/3 cup and place in freezer to chill quickly. Sift flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Cut in shortening with a pastry blender or 2 knives until the texture of very coarse meal. Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in milk; stir with a fork just until the dough holds together and cleans the bowl. Dough should be soft. Knead gently 7-8 times on a lightly floured board. Pat or roll out 1/2 inch thick and cut in rounds with a biscuit cutter. Re-roll and cut out scraps, being careful not to handle too much or add too much additional flour to board. Place biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet–1 inch apart for crusty-sided biscuits, almost touching for soft. Bake 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. Makes 10-12 biscuits.

The recipe below for cornbread is similar to the Jiffy mix, but it’s not quite as sweet. Unlike Jiffy, it rises higher and really fills the pan. Make it once, and you’ll never buy a mix again. This makes an 8×8 pan—double the ingredients for a 13×9 pan. I often take a 13×9 pan of cornbread to potlucks, and it’s always a hit.

When you buy cornmeal, you will find it to be MUCH cheaper in 5 lb. bags. Read the shelf tag to determine the price per ounce. Aunt Jemima and the Safeway and Wal-Mart store brands all come in 5 lb. bags.

OLD-FASHIONED CORNBREAD
1 cup sifted flour
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup cornmeal
1 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons melted butter or stick margarine
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, beat eggs lightly; add milk and melted butter and stir. Add liquid to dry ingredients, stirring just until moistened. Grease and flour an 8×8 or 6×10 pan. Pour batter into pan. Bake at 425 until done and lightly browned, about 18-20 minutes. Be sure to test with a toothpick—when the pick comes out clean, it’s done. Can also be baked as 12 muffins—20 minutes at 400 degrees.

I was going to include a recipe here for pancakes and waffles, but I’m saving it for next time. I’ll also tell you how to make your own pancake syrup in 5 minutes or less for a fraction of the cost of the bottled stuff. It only has 4 ingredients and a friend showed me how to do this in the 6th grade–so you know it is easy, easy, easy. Breakfast at your house may never be the same again!”

~Maxine

Oh, my.  Maxine, your generosity and wisdom are so welcome here.  Thank you for sharing.  We can’t WAIT to get to the kitchen and fire up the oven!

For those of you who are here because you have an EBT card for SNAP or WIC, we hope this is helpful information.  For those of you who avail yourselves of food commodities or use things from a food pantry, this also should be useful.  If you have Angel Food or just embrace the idea of being frugal, we intend for you to get as much assistance as is humanly possible.

If you have not done so, you are welcome to enter your name and email address to receive our series of cooking tips.  Occasionally we will send along other messages but we never plan to clog  your in boxes.  You are welcome to send us recipes or comments at foodstampscookingclub@gmailcom and we adore having you put comments here on the blog.

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: What Foods Comfort YOU?

October 15th, 2010
*Note:  Mother Connie has had internet service provider issues.  Hence, the Food Stamps Cooking Club has been neglected.  Here’s hoping YOU all missed hearing from this corner of the world as much as Mother Connie missed posting!  This post is all about comfort food:  APPLES!  YUMMY!
It comes to us courtesy of The Dinner Diva who has been Saving Dinner for eons, LeAnne Ely.  Thanks, LeAnne.  We couldn’t keep house without you.

Fall Fruit
By Leanne Ely, C.N.C.


Can you feel the crispness in the fall air? The leaves are changing. The nights are colder. It’s sweater weather. It’s harvest time. I love this time of year. It’s finally cool enough to do some serious cooking without worrying about heating up your kitchen and the abundance of fresh fruits and vegetables has never been better.

Let’s focus a bit on those fruits. Although they are great to eat just as Mother Nature created them, there are lots we can do to add some kick to our traditional meals as well. Have you ever tried chicken with apricots? How about pork chops with honey and apples? And adding an assortment of berries when roasting meats is simply divine!

Try baking up some of those apples. Just remove the core then add some raisins, a little honey and cinnamon in the empty space. Bake for thirty minutes at 350 degrees. YUM! And just think of all the calories you just saved yourself by skipping the traditional apple pie (save that for Thanksgiving).

Another fun way to serve up your fruitful bounty is in a Fall Fruit Salad. I’ve included a recipe for you below but feel free to get creative with this one. Add or subtract fruits to your heart’s content. For a flavor that is more tart try adding some dried cranberries. You can add some extra crunch with a few almonds or even chopped celery. There’s no limit to the fun you can have with your fall fruit.

Fall Fruit Salad
Serves 4

1 apple, diced
1 pear, diced
1 peach, diced
1/2 cup green seedless grapes
1 cup low fat lemon yogurt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

In a large bowl, combine the apple, pear, peach and grapes. Toss with yogurt and chill. Stir in the walnuts just before serving so the walnuts will maintain their crunch. You can also garnish this with mint if desired.

Leanne Ely is a New York Times bestselling author of Body Clutter and the Saving Dinner series. The Dinner Diva syndicated newspaper column appears in 250 newspapers nationwide. Learn how to cook great and save significant money with the Dinner Diva’s menus, recipes and shopping lists at www.savingdinner.com

Copyright (C) 2010 www.savingdinner.com Leanne Ely, CNC All rights reserved.
Those who are holders of EBT cards from SNAP or WIC, those who use Angel Food Ministries, people who use food pantries and/or food commodities will be happy to have all this information.

As for the Food Stamps Cooking Club?  WE ARE SO HAPPY THERE IS YOU.

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Old Dead Chicken…Part Deux?

September 23rd, 2010

Chickens better beware! Maxine has plans and she's sharing those plans with us today!

Maxine Sullivan is on a roll!  She taught us yesterday how to cut up an old dead chicken; today she tells us a new way to serve it up to our loved ones! We present her dish, which we cannot wait to try ASAP!

“Yesterday I told you how to cut up an old dead chicken. Today I’m going to tell you what to do with it.

I’m giving you a recipe from Farm Journal’s Country Cooking book, which I found last week for $1 at a yard sale. Originally published in 1959, and updated in 1972, most of the recipes are simple and from scratch. You’ll find this true of most cookbooks published in that era, when people actually cooked and ate at home nearly every night.

I tweaked the recipe a bit when I made it, and I’m giving you the tweaked version.

CHICKEN PAPRIKA


3-1/2 to 4 lb. frying chicken, cut-up

1/3 cup flour

¾ teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon paprika

1/8 teaspoon pepper

¼ cup cooking oil or melted shortening

½ cup chopped onion

2 chicken bouillon cubes or a scant teaspoon of chicken soup base

½ cup hot water

1 cup sour cream  *I used low fat

Preheat frying pan and heat oil or shortening. Thoroughly coat pieces of chicken with a mixture of flour, salt, pepper and paprika.  Note: I shake the chicken in a cereal liner bag. Place chicken pieces in hot pan. Dust any remaining flour mixture over chicken pieces in the pan.

Brown chicken pieces about 15 minutes, turning once. Add onion.

Dissolve bouillon cubes or chicken base in hot water and add to chicken. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, adding water if necessary. Remove chicken to serving platter.

Add a small amount of pan drippings to sour cream and stir well. Then add mixture to remaining pan drippings and stir well. Cook until heated through, but do not boil. Pour some of the mixture over the chicken and serve the rest as gravy.

This is excellent served with buttered noodles. Add a salad or cooked vegetable, and you’ll have dinner for 4-5 people for around $5.

I always figure if you can make dinner for $5, you can feed a family of 4 for around $100 week. ($100 is less than the USDA thrifty meal budget for a family of 4). This is easy if you can get a whole chicken for $3 or so, and spend no more than another buck on added ingredients. Fill out the meal with potatoes, pasta or rice, plus veggies or salad.

You can save money on herbs and spices, such as the paprika used in this recipe, by buying your spices in bulk. You may have to look around for bulk spices. Some grocery stores have bulk food departments, and you’ll probably find them at health food stores that actually sell food, and not just supplements.

If your town is too small to have such a store, look in the nearest larger town, and make it a point to stop by when you are in the neighborhood. Spices that cost $5-$7 and up in bottles at the grocery store will literally cost pennies when bought in bulk.  Bulk, in this case, doesn’t necessarily mean a whole boatload of paprika. It means being able to buy as much or as little as you want to put in your own container.

Another source of low-cost herbs and spices may be the ethnic foods aisle in your local supermarket. Here in the west, it’s common to find spices used in ethnic dishes packaged in cellophane baggies hanging among the enchilada sauce and canned menudo. Each package typically costs a dollar or so, and the quality and freshness are excellent. You’ll find garlic, oregano, bay leaves, and many, many more…not to mention outstanding chili powder.

Good ole paprika doesn’t just come in bottles. Look for big red cans, net weight 5 ounces or so, for MUCH less than Schilling or Spice Islands. The brand in my cupboard right now is Kalocsa Sweet Hungarian Paprika.

The cheapest spices will be sold in bulk. The next-cheapest will be in cellophane envelopes in the ethnic foods aisle. Next up the line—at least for paprika—will be big cans in the spice aisles. Then comes the name-brand spices in little glass bottles.  Save your empty bottles to refill with bulk spices.

If there is a man in your house, see if you can interest him in learning to cut up chickens. For some reason, men usually enjoy that task. I think it makes them feel like cavemen. :) ”

–Maxine Sullivan

One of the many things I appreciate about Guest Bloggers is that they have such a fresh perspective from my own.  All the great ideas about choosing spices is wonderful, Maxine, and we gratefully and gleefully look forward to your next offering.

For my part, I can hardly WAIT to get into the kitchen, cut me up an old dead chicken and build a wonderful, tasty meal for very little moola!

If those of you who are reading this are anything like most of us, you are working hard all day and you are dog tired when you come home.  Unless you have SERVANTS-yeah, right; whatever-you may not feel like putting together a nourishing meal for your loved ones.  That’s when it’s easy to turn to junk food or bust the food budget with wrong, expensive choices.

For those who depend on food commodities, food pantries; WIC or SNAP-even Farmers Markets Coupons or Angel Food Ministries, we hope this site is helpful to you all.  We all want comfort food; we all want to hang onto as much of our food budgets as possible, so the idea is to be as helpful to all of you as possible.

WE LOVE HEARING FROM YOU.  Please let us hear what’s going on in YOUR kitchen by sending us your story: foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com.

You are most welcome to visit our sponsors and see what solutions to your life they have for you: The Dinner Diva and the ToothSoap people are prime examples of places where we can find good ways to save money.  In order to bring more money into your household, you can count on Rapid Cash Marketing .

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Pocket in Your Apron?

September 16th, 2010

Is that money in the pocket of Mother Connie's apron?

There has been a flurry of messages coming in regarding the corn meal mush post.  If you saw it, you’ll remember that we solicited your stories and you have answered the call!  Thank you very much!

One of our faithful members, Maxine, sent a well written anecdote about her family and you are sure to enjoy it.  We offer it here, with our gratitude to Maxine:

“This happened when I was a child in the 1950s. I remember it at the time, and my mother and I joked about it for years afterward. But it was nothing to joke about at the time.

My father was an alcoholic who was obsessed by food. I’m sure he went hungry during the Depression, but he never admitted it. I am sure now that my mother was clinically depressed most of her life, and certainly during the years I was growing up. Life at our house wasn’t fun.

This occurred when you could buy groceries for a family of 4 for about $20 a week. One week, my mother lost the $20 she had budgeted for groceries. We were always poor because of my dad’s drinking, so there wasn’t any other money for groceries. She also couldn’t tell my dad because he would blow like a volcano, and she wasn’t willing to deal with him. Somehow, some way, she had to make do.

We lived in a tiny house with no storage, so she didn’t have much in the pantry (one 3 ft board stretched across the basement stairs). But what we had, we ate. She cooked beans, because she had them. She made hot biscuits, so she wouldn’t have to buy as much bread. She made soup. My dad was a milkman, we got all of our milk products wholesale, and the bill was deducted from his pay the next month. So she bought eggs,  cheese, cottage cheese…anything the milk company sold, we ate it that week. Although our diet was a bit more varied than your parents’ cornmeal mush, we totally ate at the bottom of the food chain. Amazingly, my dad never noticed.

About a year later, my mother grabbed an apron from the back of the closet and noticed that it needed washing. When she went through the pocket, she found a $20 bill…and knew EXACTLY how it got there. She never told my dad, though. Although we laughed about it for years, he would have NEVER seen the humor. Not even 30 years later.”

—Maxine
aka mikemax

Those of us who have had pantries like the one Maxine describes or those of us who lived with people who imbibed too much can really relate to this story.  And we can all appreciate the humor, even though Maxine’s dad would not have!

If YOU are using SNAP or WIC via the EBT card or if you use food commodities or food pantry food; even if you are just frugal and want to provide comfort food on a shoestring budget, we welcome you here.  Maybe you have goods from Angel Food Ministries or Farmers Markets; in any case we hope we are providing a service for you that enhances your lives.

You, like Maxine, can enhance our lives with your stories, anecdotes and food ideas.  Just send them along to foodstampscookingclub@gmail.com  and know we will deeply appreciate them AND YOU.

For other blogs you may like, please visit Mother Connie Sez or The Healthy and Wealthy You.  Your comments are welcome on those just as much as on this blog.

Thank you for visiting the Club House and our sponsors!

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post. Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated. Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline. Always do business with those you trust implicitly.

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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Cooking By the Book?

September 15th, 2010

Mother Connie has a hodge podge of cookbooks and recipes; some food notions just live in her head...

We are favored with another Guest Post from one of our Club Members today!  This is so wonderful!  Mother Connie is feeling a strong sense of community, what with all the comments and Guest offerings.  THIS IS WHY THE FOOD STAMPS COOKING CLUB WAS CREATED!  Please feel free to contribute YOUR ideas and recipes and experiences, everyone!

Today’s post comes to us from iamtheworkingpoor and it is totally delightful.  Please pop in to her blog and comment, won’t you?  She has a wonderful little ditty on the web and it would mean so much to her and to me if you would pay her a visit and leave your fingerprints.

Here is what she sent us:

“Collecting cookbooks can become an expensive hobby for those that enjoy cooking. There are many cookbooks printed per month that range in price from eight dollar paperbacks to forty dollar hardcovers. Most big bookstores have a bargain section where you can find a selection of older marked down cookbooks. Very nice hardcovers can be found for five to ten dollars. Other places to find cookbooks are yard sales, thrift shops, online auctions, and my personal favorite library book sales.

I love finding cookbooks from the twenties, thirties, forties, and fifties. Those batter splattered pages with the crinkled edges and hand written notes next to a much used recipe are my favorites because I use the most recipes from these. They never include recipes using boxed cake mixes, or processed cheese foods, or bags of powdery dried potato flakes. Cakes were made with flour, sugar, vanilla, and butter back then. Potatoes were those roundish lumpy things that came from a garden or market, and no-one had heard of cheese food.

I have amassed quite a cookbook collection over time. I’ve found some that I only use one or two recipes from. Others are pretty to look at but I find I won’t really use. Every once in a while I’ll have a clear out and make a donation to the library.

If you are just starting out in your kitchen and don’t have a cookbook handed down to you it’s easy to start your own recipe collection in a blank book or binder. In fact, I have one of my own and use it often. Recipes can be found on food packaging, in magazines or newspapers, on websites such as Food Stamps Cooking Club, or in cookbooks you can check out for free at your local library.

I found my blank book in a bargain bin at a bookstore for three dollars. I found stick on plastic tabs at a department store to mark different sections. The fun with this is you can create any headings you want. You can have Grandma’s recipes, things the kids will eat, and cat food. My sections are as follows: main dishes, side dishes, soups + stews, sauces + dips + drinks, mixes + ideas + time savers, bread, breakfast, cakes + dessert, and bars + cookies.

I’ve filled mine with handwritten recipes from television shows, friends, and family. I’ve also glued in recipes cut out of newspapers and magazines and off of packages. I’ve even glued a few recipes in that were printed from Internet sites.

I’ve been meaning to make a cookbook for each one of my children with favorite recipes from dishes they ate when they were little. I also want to include a few family stories pertaining to celebrations or cooking.  I also have a few photographs of family members  cooking to include amongst the recipes.

For those on food stamps or tight budgets this is an easy way to keep track of recipes and try new dishes. If I try a recipe from a magazine and I don’t care for it I will simply peel it out and and glue another one in it’s place. It’s an ever evolving creation.

I wasn’t always organized in this area. Recipes were shoved in drawers here and there. I lost the recipe to the cookies I made in a baking class in school. I’ve lost the recipe for a cake my brother and I used to make together. However, I still have the recipe for the cookies my older brother made in a high school cooking class because it was written in a cookbook at my parents house. The last time I called for it many years ago, my dad copied it onto a piece of scrap paper and brought it to me. Now that he is gone that handwritten recipe in my book brings precious memories. The only problem I will face later in life is who to pass this down to. I have three children.

Create your own family cookbook and personalize it. Make it your own and have fun. You’ll never have to search for your most used recipe again.”

GREAT ideas, my friend!  You’ve made us all feel like family!

For people who are using food commodities or items from food pantries; for those who have EBT cards for SNAP or WIC; or users of Angel Food Ministries and those frugal souls who just want to manage their food costs as efficiently as possible – any of us will want to follow iamtheworkingpoor’s lead and create a simple cookbook as a lasting legacy!

Since we are all family around here, we invite you to submit your name and email address for the series of cooking tips we send out.  We are not interested to clog your inbox with junk mail so you won’t hear from us often.  If  there is something we believe would be of interest or benefit to you, we do make occasional broadcasts.
So far as comments are concerned, you are welcome to be anonymous if that’s your pleasure.  We just want to hear what’s on your mind.  It’s a tough economy out there in the big wide world and we need to hang together!

Please visit our sponsors as you like, as well.   They love it, even if you keep your wallet tightly closed.

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.



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Food Stamps Cooking Club: Fall Calls for Bread Pudding

September 14th, 2010

Fall is in the air and so is the fragrance of bread pudding! Cheap n easy! That's how we roll at Food Stamps Cooking Club!

One of our faithful members, Rainy, has offered up this cute story and easy-do, inexpensive treat.

“Fall is inching towards us and along with all of the beautiful artistry that God paints our scenery with…Fall brings out the desire to wrap ourselves in comforting clothes, foods, and smells.  That means digging through closets for those nice soft, bulky sweaters and preparing foods and beverages that are piping hot and filling; evoking memories of meals that Mom and Grandma would make.

One of those types of treats is a basic bread pudding recipe. Years ago, my mother in law was talking about her bread pudding recipe.  She was going to make a batch because she said she had stale bread and souring milk to get rid of.  ha ha ha Now doesn’t that sound tempting.  NOT….and that is exactly what I thought.

When she had made it, the outcome didn’t look or taste any better to me, than my thoughts.  She took it out of the oven and served it to rave reviews by everyone except me.  Now don’t get me wrong, I love my mother in law and wouldn’t have hurt her feelings for anything in the world.  But, to my eye…it looked a little too gummy to my particular liking; maybe if she’d cooked it a little longer I might have had a different perception of it.

As it was, it took me years to fall in love with bread pudding because of my 1st impression. If it were me, I thought to myself, I would do this or that.  I started tweaking it in my own mind.  Her recipe had milk, sugar, bread, cinnamon and raisins.  Good ingredients and I have made it that way myself many times.

However, I started experimenting.  Over time, I added apples, peaches, nuts and so on.  IN OTHER WORDS, I add in whatever strikes my mood. Here is my basic recipe…add whatever you like:

A loaf and a half of bread (it doesn’t HAVE to be stale like my mother in law believed); rip the bread into pieces in a large bowl and add… About 2/3 cup of sugar, a teaspoon of vanilla, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves, and enough milk (or if you desire you can use apple cider) to saturate the bread.  Spray a deep cookie sheet 11×13 with non stick spray.  Then pour the bread mixture into the pan and pat it evenly over the pan.  Add whatever fruit you desire…it can be fresh, canned or frozen.  Just remember, if it is frozen thaw it first and drain excess liquid.  Add nuts if you desire. An exceptional combination is to add cherries or raspberries and about a cup of dark chocolate chips/chunks and some walnuts or pecan pieces.   I have even made bread pudding with the apples and then made a orange flavored glaze to drizzle over the top after the bread pudding has cooked to a soft inside consistency with a slightly crispy, lightly brown topside.    This is a perfect dish to serve with coffee or tea for company; or, to serve alongside Connie’s quiche recipe for a great morning start to your day or, for one of those blustery Fall evening meals when you are chilled and just want the smells of fall to perfume the air.  Enjoy!”

–Rainy Please take the time to visit Rainy’s blog and leave a comment for her, won’t you?  Thanks; I’m sure she will deeply appreciate that.

Oh, good grief, Rainy!  I can hardly wait to get to the kitchen to stir this up this comfort food!  THANK YOU.

For those who are using Angel Food Ministries, EBT cards from WIC or SNAP, food from food pantries or food commodities will appreciate Rainy’s recipe because it is really comfort food on a shoestring.  And those who are frugal will want to try this goody!

Some of you may not have stopped by Mother Connie’s other projects and you are welcome to do so:

Mother Connie Sez is a place for her to carry on about health;  The Healthy and Wealthy You is a blog about-big surprise-being healthy and wealthy!  If you have any entrepreneurial spirit about you, there is a blog about ideas for working from home: Rapid Cash Review.  As you can imagine, comments are always shamelessly solicited!

Connie Baum

The FTC wants you to know there are links in this post.  Should they be clicked, resulting in sales, your humble blogger would be fairly compensated.  Please do your due diligence when conducting affairs online or offline.  Always do business with those you trust implicitly.


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