frugal cooking

Mum has been re-doing the family recipes and sending them to me bits at a time and one thing rings true through all of them. USE WHAT YOU HAVE and do nothing fancy but make good stuff for your family!

Well, thats as true today as when my granparents were getting through the great depression so thought a thread of easy to make, filling, cheap and satisfiying recipes would be a nice thing to have

So I will get us started with War Cake.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This cake contains no eggs, milk, or butter ... comes down to us from World War I, when there was a shortage of ingredients of all kinds.


War Cake

Makes a dark, heavy, delicious cake that you mix up in just one pan. No fuss and hardly anything to wash.


Mix two cups of brown sugar, two cups of hot water and two teaspoons of shortening (lard) in a medium-sized sauce pan. Add 1/2 to 3/4 cups of raisins and one teaspoon each of salt, cinnamon and allspice. Boil this for five minutes AFTER it first bubbles. Remove it from the stove and let cool completely.

After cooking and letting it cool (it must cool completely - this is very important), add three cups of flour and one teaspoon of baking soda that has been dissolved in a couple of teaspoons of hot water. Mix well.

Pour into a greased tube pan and bake for one hour at 350 to 375 degrees.
Let it cool down some and serve ... whipped cream is good on top!

Thank you for sharing this recipe. I seem to remember something simular to this one only it used maple syrup vs brown sugar...

I would like to give this a try. I love these kinds of recipes and think they have a great place in anyones recipe files. You never know when you will need to know how to do without all sorts of things.

Since the freeze recently in Fl of the oranges I have been looking at rose hips as a source to replace some vit C. Oranges, lemons and limes here are a pretty penny to start with. When this happened a few years ago they were worth gold and thats about what we had to pay for them. The grocery store had them on sale (yes sale) this week for 99 cents each.

Karyn

That looks good GB - when you say add flour - do you mean self raising or plain in modern flour speak?

Mrs C

Plain flour Mrs C, not self rising.

Glad you like it, must post Grama's jam bars later. Am going to make a batch later.

Oh, made pancakes yesterday but only had about three tablespoons of maple syrup for them so I boiled up about a cup of sugar and a half cup water till boiling and added the maple syrup.

Worked a treat :face:

It wasnt quite as good as Proper maple syrup but MILES better than non at all

Just made today's cake, so may try this War Cake later in the week - if I remember!

Mrs C

Quick tips
If you like fried bread but are on a fat restricted diet, try spreading 1 side of the bread with whatever fat you use & just fry that side.

Put your oil in a spray bottle & when you need to fry off onions, mushrooms etc just use a couple of sprays, use less oil & no waste.

Bacon, Onion & Potato Pie

Bacon bits as much as you want
Onion as much as you want
Potato enough for all
White sauce I use the Weight Watchers one, little fat
Seasoning to suit

Put in a casserole & heat till it starts to simmer, turn oven down & leave for several hours, or don`t turn the oven down & just cook till potatoes are done.

A real winter warmer comfort food,

Taken from the Paupers Cookbook Jacosta Innis

polgara wrote:
Bacon bits as much as you want

hmmm. Gonna need a bigger oven.

Its actually meant to be a frugal dish, with bacon just to add the flavour, think it was a war time meal to make the best of the rations. Admit I use a lot of bacon. But it does taste yummy.

Short of meat, or need to stretch mince, add some porridge oats, it thickens the mix & takes on the flavour of the meat.

Added bonus it is very good for you as well.

When I was growing up vegetables were one of those "eat it, it's good for you" things which were dished out practically with a measuring cup. Sort of symbolic veggies.

I stopped eating meat (and butter) almost completely when my gall bladder went berserk and I successfully avoided surgery until the new techniques came out. Used lots of olive oil because it softens cholesterol and makes the gallstones shrinks some (try a half cup olive oil every now and then -- yuck!).

Now the doctors are on my case about cholesterol and I'm not eating red meats and again no butter. Sigh. And a veggie diet seems so pricey!!

We do grow vegetables but... Any good ideas out there? Tasty things? By the way, the War Cake looks wonderful.

Stir fry (bell peppers, shallots, ribbons of carrot, peas, mushrooms, bean sprouts, tiny florets of broccoli, sweet corn etc) on rice or noodles - would a little bit of wine be Ok, as the heat burns off the alcohol? I put a splash of wine and another good splash of soy sauce on the vegetables for the last few minutes of cooking, then serve with grilled cashew nuts on top. The soy and wine give a bit more flavour (even more flavour if you forget about it and leave it to cook while you spend a few minutes on the computer!!)

Penny how about becoming the Queen of sauces & seasoning mixes?

That way same old veg, but a different taste each time.

I too do the low fat diet & often a smidgeon of margarine or veggie oil works just as well.
Pol

We live all the time on this stuff!
How about root vegs chopped up small with some celary and onion, a few tomatoes and veg stock plus some brown and or green lentils cooked up well. Mash potatoes on top...Shepardess Pie!

I think if you have your hens the ultimate fugal food is a soufflé.

A filling meal for two uses only
3 eggs, 1oz butter, 1 1/2 level tbsp flour, 1/4 pint milk salt and pepper and I add 1 1/2 oz finely grated cheese.

The art is beating the "panada" very well, but it is worth the effort. Anyone else makes soufflés?

yes, CM makes a mean spinach souffle

Heard something on the radio today whilst "working" somebody was talking about roasting chicken in hollowed out pumpkins when the time is right don't know anything other than that but just thought I would throw it out there if it is of use to anyone...

"Roast" usually means high temperature using fat to stop it drying out. I suppose pot roast idea may work. Lower temp, slower cooking, allowing the water to keep it moist. I'm really gald that I don't have to worry about whether the chicken is cooked or the salmonella is breeding.

We roast pumpkins with cream, black pepper and strong tasting cheese (pref. gruyere). Or the "Jack be Little" with just butter and pepper and add cheese after with a baked potato.

My favourite recipes growing up all came from the "Nursing Mothers" cookbook my mum used, and my MOST favourite was what I always called cheese rice and carrot, which is basically that in various amounts but make sure you use brown rice. Throw in a couple of eggs, some salt and pepper and bake, delicious! The best bit was always the crunchy brown stuff around the edges You could also add some grated zuchinni if you like.

I bought some lovely oyster blade today for 6.99 a kilo! I have turned it into a spicy homemade curry yum

I'm not a regular creme fraiche user - in fact, for various reasons I've just bought some, and don't know what to do with it. I thought I had a pasta sauce recipe but can't find one. Any ideas? (for anything really - I just don't want to waste it!)

make a simple carbonara - crisp pancetta, a couple of beaten egg whites, a lump of grated parmesan and a big dollop of creme fraiche whipped together and put the egg yolk raw in a little indentation n the middle of the mixed pasta.

Thanks - that sounds just the job!

When you need to grease baking trays etc, use the saved wrappers from block hard fat, or use the wrapper on the top of things like stuffing to stop it burning.

Also good to wipe baking potatoes with.