French Enamel Coffee Pot

I have a French style enamel coffee pot to show off today.   I am guessing this style is from the 1920's?  Does anyone know? 

I have made a a simple Baking Powder Coffee Cake to go with this coffee.  This was a recipe from a Depression-era cookbook.  I love these recipes they are simple and sustaining.  The recipes use ingredients you have on hand. 

Baking Powder Coffee Cake

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoon shortening

1 egg (beaten)

1/2 cup milk

3 tablespoons butter (melted)

Streusel crumbs (recipe below)

Sift together the dry ingredients.  Work the shortening in with a pastry cutter or 2 forks.  Stir in egg and milk; press lightly into greased 8-inch x 8-inch x 2-inch cake pan.  Pour melted butter over  top, sprinkle with streusel crumbs and bake in a 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.  Cut and serve warm.

Streusel Crumbs

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Cut in butter and sugar with a pastry cutter or 2 forks.  Add flour and cinnamon.  Mix till crumbly and sprinkle on top of dough.

I will be styling and cooking a lot more Depression-era recipes.  My Depression-era cookbook collection just keeps growing!  
The teacup is by J&G Meakin the pattern in Classic White.
 Sherry
I will link this to:

 Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage 

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites

Tea Cup Tuesday at Artful Affirmations

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Country Whites Weekend at The Country Farm Home and Old Time Farmhouse

Cranberry Orange Bread

This is one of the recipes from the Depression-Era cookbook I have been cooking from.  I tweaked it just a bit by replacing the raisins for dried cranberries and it made a delicious loaf bread for the holidays. 

The recipe was titled simply:  Orange Loaf

Place in a bowl:

1/2 cup orange juice

grated rind of one orange

1/2 cup boiling water

3/4 cup of raisins ( I used dried cranberries)

Add:

1 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tbsp. butter, softened

2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg, beaten

Mix well.

Add:

2 cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 cup nuts, chopped  (I used pecans)

Mix all, pour into a loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour.  Ice with a thin powdered sugar icing if desired.

I just mix around 4 tbsp of powdered sugar with milk till I get the consistency I want.

Yield: 1 loaf

I am still surprised when I make one of these recipes.  Some seem very lean but, there are many tried and true recipes that are really a delight.  The boys loved this bread so, this is actually the second loaf I made this week.  The first one wasn't fit to photograph after the children starting snacking on it!     
Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Home at Rose Chintz Cottage

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
The Teaist Tea Talk Link Up 
Folk Magazine and Blog Link Party 
Sunday Funday Blog Hop at WTFab 
Your Great Idea Link Party  at Or so she says...

Dutch Apple Cake

This Dutch Apple Cake is one of the Depression Era recipes that I wanted to try.  I was very surprised by it's simplicity but festive presentation. 

This recipe has been around a long time.  It basically is a baking soda biscuit cake topped with apples, cinnamon, and sugar.  You could butter it or spread any kind of sauce or icing on it.  There are several variations of it on the internet some with sugar added to the cake and I even found one with sour cream added to the cake to make it moister.  But, this is the original 1930's Depression recipe.  If you suffer from allergies or need to reduce sugar you could adapt this cake for these dietary needs.

Mix:

2 cups flour, sifted

1/2 tsp. salt

3 tsp. baking powder

Cut in: 

1/4 cup butter, mixing well

Beat:

1 egg- and add it to 

1 cup milk (scant)

Stir in dry mixture.  Dough should be soft enough to spread 1/2" thick in shallow pan.  Core and peel 4 or 5 apples and cut into 1/8ths.  Lay slices parallel on top of dough, sharp edge down, and press into dough.  Sprinkle 2 tbsp. sugar on apples.  (I also added 1 tsp. cinnamon.)  Bake in a hot oven (400 degrees) for 20-30 minutes.  Serve hot with butter or with a lemon sauce. 

How do you like my new teacup?  It is J & G Meakin (Made in England)  the pattern is Classic White.  I found them at the Salvation Army,  2 cups and saucers for 25 cents a piece. 

 Sherry

 I will link this to:

 Tea Time Tuesday at Rose Chintz Cottage 

A Return to Loveliness  at A Delightsome Life 

Tea Cup Tuesday at Martha's Favorites

Tea Cup Tuesday at Artful Affirmations

Table Top Tuesday  at A Stroll Thru Life

Tweak It Tuesday at Cozy Little House

Tuesday Cuppa Tea  at Antiques and Teacups

Nifty Thrifty Tuesday  at Coastal Charm

Thrifty Things Friday at The Thrifty Groove
 Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm  
On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Friends Sharing Tea at Bernideen's Tea Time Blog 
Tea Talk at The Teaist

Fudge Pudding

This recipe was created in the 1930's.  The use of water and thickening agents was a common thing in the Great Depression to satisfy the ever hungry appetites of a family around the table.  This recipe forms a cake top and a rich fudge underneath.

 I liked the recipe it had a lot of really practical techniques.  For example you mixed the ingredients right in the baking dish.  I read in my Depression Cookbook that the women would cook a big meal (from scratch)  and the family would help clean up the dishes (no dishwasher)  and in just a few hours after the dishes were put away they did it all over again. 

When you get the dry and wet ingredients all mixed, and apply the sugar topping,  you then pour the 2 cups of hot water over it all and bake.

 And what looks like a puddle turns into to this marvelous fudgy cake!

Ingredients:

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp. salt

5 tbsp. cocoa, divided

2 tsp. baking powder

1 cup granulated sugar, divided

1/2 cup milk

2 tbsp butter, melted

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cups hot water

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Mix together flour, salt, 2 tbsp cocoa, baking powder, and 1/2 cup granulated sugar in a 2-quart baking dish.
3. Combine milk, melted butter, and vanilla.  Mix into dry ingredients in baking dish, beating well by hand.
4. Combine remaining 3 tbsp. of cocoa, remaining 1/2 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar and sprinkle over cake batter.  Pour hot water over all and place pan in oven.
5. Bake 30-40 minutes.

Best if you let it cool a bit to serve.
Recipe source: Judy Martinez-Ross, Moab, Utah

Enjoy!
  Don't forget to check out my giveaway of My Memories Suite scrapbooking software!  It is great for bloggers and scrapbookers!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
Thrifty Things Friday  at The Thrifty Groove 

Hungarian Goulash

 Today I'm still cooking in the 1930's but with Ida Bailey Allen.   Mrs. Ida Bailey Allen was the Betty Crocker of the Depression-Era.  She was a former Home Economics Editor of "Good Housekeeping," and was President and Founder of the National Radio Home-Makers Club.  Thousands of radio listeners tuned into to her radio show to learn about the latest developments in home-making and she had a staff of dieticians developing new recipes for the kitchen.

The cookbook I am using today is "The Service Cookbook."  This cookbook was published exclusively for F.W. Woolworth Co.  It was sold at the height of the Depression in 1933.  Although it never mentions the hard times once in the cookbook;  from this cookbook on, Ida Bailey Allen did publish some of the first cookbooks created for a budget.  Like the one shown on the right.

So the first recipe I picked out of this cookbook was Hungarian Goulash.  This recipe didn't make a stew like dish, it was all of the meat and veggies served on top of noodles.  My Grandmother used to make this dish and I remember how much I liked it.  I haven't had it for a long time.   The other thing I have to bring up about this dish is if you suffer from allergies; depending on what they are, you might be able to eat this.  Has anyone had Oral Allergy Syndrome?  I have had this for over a year now and it has been one rude awakening on what I can and can't eat.  Every week I hear how more and more people are diagnosed with allergies they have never had.  The reason is still out for debate if it is climate change, the way we grow our food, or the way we prepare our food but, whatever the reason it is making it harder and harder for people to eat without being sick and "old school" recipes like this are really poised to make a big comeback.  

*Note: I updated some of the cooking terms for 2012.

Ingredients:

3 tbsp. of olive oil 

1 lb. of lean beef, any cut (I used ground chuck)

1 large onion diced

1/2 a green pepper, minced

3 sprigs of parsley

1 cup of stewed or canned tomatoes, diced

8 small peeled potatoes 

Salt

Paprika

Put the olive oil in skillet; add the onion and green pepper, and the meat which has been diced large; and fry until brown.  Add the parsley, chopped , the tomatoes and enough water to barely cover the meat.  Cover and cook over a moderate heat for forty minutes.  If you are using browned ground beef you can skip this step and add the potatoes now.  Lay the potatoes, thinly sliced on the goulash; and season with salt and paprika.  Cover and continue cooking for twenty minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.  Border with buttered and seasoned noodles; and serve on a heated platter.    

So, how did the family react to this old recipe?   It was a mixed reaction.  I was thrilled! About half way through cooking I took a little taste and realized I could eat this!!!  It had a lot of flavor to me.  My husband thought it was okay, he had seconds.  But, the kids whose taste have been brought up on processed foods weren't so sure they were fans.  They are so used to processed cheese-like products dripping off of everything they eat.  There wasn't many processed foods in the 1930's this was one of the reasons I also wanted to start cooking out of these cookbooks.  I wanted to start tasting real food again!:)

Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Thriving on Thursdays  at Domesblissity

On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 

Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties

Thrifty Things Friday  at The Thrifty Groove

Biscuits & Gravy

When I think of what a Depression-Era recipe might be I think of something like biscuits and gravy.  I looked through my Depression Cookbook and sure enough this recipe was in there. 

A good gravy starts with the roux.  Here I made the roux out of butter and some of the leftover fat from frying the sausage in the skillet.  

Gravy for Biscuits or Potatoes

(recipe source: Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930's)

1/4 cup of fat

4 Tbsp flour

Brown on slow heat until golden.  Gradually stir in 2 cups cold milk or water and cook a few minutes more.  Season to taste. (You have to stir constantly)

Leftover pork or pork sausage added for variation is excellent.

Fried hamburger, drained and added to the above gravy and served with any kind of potatoes, mashed, boiled, or baked, makes a very good meal.

Fresh side pork probably made the best gravy using fat from fried side pork.  Large families relied on this meal for good tasty food.

Cy Lamb

Chippewa Falls, WI

*Note: I just copied this recipe right out of the book.  Side pork is the same cut as bacon but not smoked/cured.

 

It still makes a tasty good meal in 2012!   My youngest son couldn't wait for me to take the picture he was ready to eat.

Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Thriving on Thursdays  at Domesblissity

On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 

Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style

A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties

Thrifty Things Friday  at The Thrifty Groove

A Real Eye Opener: Depression/Recession Era Cooking

Okay, so I have shared with you that I am going to cook recipes for this time of recession.  My original inspiration in this was the Great Depression Era and the cooking show I saw on YouTube by Clara Cannucciari of Clara's Kitchen.  But, I am a girl who does my homework so, I have recently collected a few cookbooks from the Depression that I will try some recipes out of.  This was my first cookbook Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930's by Janet Van Amber Paske.  

 The history on this cookbook was that the home economist, Janet Van Amber Paske decided to compile these recipes and write them down before they were forgotten.  I have just read this lightly and it seems all of the recipes are from the upper Midwest.  

First paragraph of the forward:

"This compilation is a documentary of the experiences and domestic history of the Great Depression of the 1930's.  The time is right for it to be recorded (printed 1986), before it is forgotten.  Children,  already, don't quite believe it, which is not surprising.  This country has changed so dramatically in the past 50 years it is hard to believe we were in such desperate straights so recently."    ~Janet Van Amber Paske

So, my first recipe I picked out to try was Potato Casserole.  My kids would love this.  So I gave it a try......

 The first thing I noticed is that 3 cups of potatoes is not a lot.  

 I started out with a 9" x 13" pan and the potatoes didn't come close to covering the bottom of the pan.   So, I moved the potatoes into a 8" x 8" pan and it still didn't even come close to filling up the pan.  Then it hit me, this was a Depression recipe.  There wasn't a lot of food to go around.  This is the first recipe I tried out of the cookbook but, this revelation was a real eye opener!  I feed hungry teen and school-age boys every day and I could not imagine if this was all I had to serve up for supper!

So, a lot of things go through my mind about this recipe.  Have our portions gotten much too big?  Did people really eat a few tablespoons of potatoes and consider it a satisfying meal?  How bad did the Depression really get?  

There are a lot of quotes from people that lived through the Depression in this cookbook.

Just a sample:

"The Depression was a good education."  

"Everything was very inexpensive, but no one had any cash flow with which to buy it."

"We had the cellar full of canned goods and vegetables, we didn't go to the store for every meal.  Maybe once or twice a month."

"Good old days would kill off this generation in a weeks time."

Okay, I read those quotes with a smile when I first picked up this cookbook but, after I made this recipe the quotes had a whole new sense of meaning to me.

I am not sure all of the recipes are this thrifty, but I will keep you posted.  

Needless to say, I altered this recipe to fit my family's portions and taste.  

Here is the altered version:

Potato Casserole: Revised for 2012

Saute: 1/4 c. butter with 1 med. chopped onion

Add: 2 1/2 Tbsp. flour in a fry pan (making a roux)

Add gradually: 2 cups milk, stir until thicker (like your making a cream soup base for the casserole)  salt and pepper to taste

In a greased casserole (8" x 8") dish alternate above with 6 cups of cubed cooked potatoes and 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese.  (Could use mild cheese).  Shred more cheese on top.  Add: 4 slices of crumbled bacon on top.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-35 minutes. 

This would serve: 4 if a main dish or 6 if a side dish

So what about the recipe?  It was delicious!  My son said it tasted like potato soup in a casserole!  It really was good.  Another thing to consider about "old fashioned" recipes, is that the modern era of highly processed food was virtually nonexistent then.   So if you have health related problems a lot of these recipes will be kinder to you than processed food.
I have really been intrigued by the Depression-Era domestic history.  I will learn more as I go along and share with you as I cook!  
Enjoy!

Sherry

I will link this to: 

Foodie Friday at Rattlebridge Farm

Thriving on Thursdays  at Domesblissity
On the Menu Monday at Stonegable 
Rooted in Thyme Simple and Sweet Fridays
Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
A Pinteresting Party  at Tutus & Tea Parties
Thrifty Things Friday  at The Thrifty Groove 
Vintage Inspiration Friday  at Common Ground

Foodie Friday at Home Maid Simple 

Friday Favorite at Simple Sweet Home

Foodie Friday at  Not Your Ordinary Recipes

Feasting in Fellowship at Comfy in the Kitchen

Gallery of Favorites at Premeditated Leftovers

Friday Favorite Finds at Finding Joy in my Kitchen

Feed Your Soul at Around My Family Table
Debbiedoos  Power of Pinterest Party

Home Sweet Home # 81

Hello and welcome to Home Sweet Home!  This week has been all about cooking.  I have a new found interest in Recession Era Cooking and have a Pinterest board set up for all of the recipes that are family friendly and thrifty.  Today I am showing off one more recipe like this.  I found a large chicken last week on sale for 75 cents a pound, so I decided to get out the vintage Le Cruset Doufeu and roast it.  

 It was a 5 lb. chicken so it just fit in the Doufeu.  I placed some lemon wedges in the cavity after I washed it out and sprinkled it with thyme, salt, pepper, and garlic.

The Doufeu is a special dutch oven made by Le Cruset.  It has a concave lid made to put ice in so the condensation on the underside of the lid will roast meat moist and tender over a period of time.

So does the design of the roaster work?  Yes!  A fabulous tender roasted chicken.  Now let me say a little about a roast chicken being a thrifty meal.  If you get a large bird, you can get three or four meals out if it.  We sliced the breast off the night we roasted it and had chicken with rice.  I saved all of the rest of the meat in the fridge and used it for other meals.

 Here I am using the chicken for the chicken noodle soup we had for Sunday lunch.  We  also made sandwiches with it.  So I would say it lasted us three meals.  That is pretty good to get a $4 chicken to last three meals. 

Home made chicken noodle soup recipe here.  Next week I will be beginning my fall decorating but I will continue to add a Recession Era recipe each week on my blog, look for more to come!

Now I would like to highlight some of the posts that caught my eye last week.

Courtenay at The Creek Line House showed off a cute back-to-school fall "fantel."  

Jill at Sew a Fine Seam showed off a really great photography themed party she threw for her friends!  

The Decorating Diaries showed off several great vignettes she created with some "picked" drawers she found at an old electric company.

Anne at Design Dreams by Anne showed off a gorgeous vintage door headboard she made!

Kat at Boulder Dam Cottage showed off a lovely vintage couch makeover using upholstered vintage table cloths.

 There are many great links each week!  Thank you to all who join me at Home Sweet Home!

 Sherry

I will join these ladies today:
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground 

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage

Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

Home and Garden Thursday  at A Delightsome Life 

Creative Things Thursday  at The Vintage Farmhouse
Thrifty Things Friday  at The Thrifty Groove

Potpourri Friday at 2805
G'Day Saturday  at Natasha in Oz

  Guidelines for Home Sweet Home Party:

Attention: To link up with inlinkz you must have a permalink back to this party in your post or they will not allow you to link.  

Link up anything in your home or garden.  I love seeing neat shops too!

My button is on my sidebar for the party, if you want to use it.   If you are new here I hope you will become a follower. Please don't link up more than two posts.  No Etsy link ups or direct advertising, please.  Please visit some of the other blogs and get some great inspiration.  Thanks.:)

Now let's see your beautiful homes!