Albright News » Recipes

Great Depression Cooking

Cynthia — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:35 +0000

I was sharing with my sister the other day on the phone about how my kids enjoy a simple recipe I found on Clara’s site called Pasta with Peas. It is so simple!! I knew the kids would eat it, because they are really good at trying new things that I make, but I didn’t know it would end up being one of their favorites.

When I tell them we are having Pasta with Peas, they get all excited and cannot wait for it to be done. Go figure!! My husband enjoys it too, so that makes it one of our regular, quick recipes.

We have also enjoyed her tradition of having sugar for Sunday breakfast. The kids like this. Clara had sugar cookies, and we have her sugar cookies now and then, but we have extended this to enjoying sticky buns or scones of different types. The kids and I then enjoy these with a cup of tea.

Here is the video of her cooking Pasta with Peas. You can see more on her YouTube Channel.

She even has a book out now!!

I think Clara’s Book and DVD will go great with any Great Depression Unit Study. I have listed a few links I found around the net that have Great Depression Lesson Plans. I have noticed that most of the lessons I found were geared more for the upper grades, middle and high school. But I did find a nice selection of books that can be read by or to the lower age kids.

After doing these searches, I am thinking of doing a mini-study myself with the kids. It would be great for them to get an idea how we might have to live if we ever get that bad again. It is also good just to learn how to be frugal and to live below our means. We are so blessed right now, that I would hate to be unprepared, both mentally and physically, if we were to have to cut down or do without.

Other Great Depression Resources

Here is her Depression Cooking Channel on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/user/DepressionCooking

Visions in the Dust
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/99/dust/intro.html

The Great Depression Unit – Based around Alabama, but still great for understanding the time.

Great Depression Lessons- Scroll Down to Unit Nine titled, "United States Between the Wars".

Great Depression Journals- A nice activity that will fit along fine with your Great Depression Study.

Dear Mrs. Roosevelt- Letter written to the first lady by children asking for her help during the Great Depression.

Surviving the Dust Bowl (PBS)- Teacher Resources and a video to watch online.

Great Depression Powerpoints

Books of Interest

Potato:A Tale from the Great Depression
By Kate Lied

Written by an eight-year-old girl in Kansas, this picture book is just a slice of family history, but the personal account does help make the past accessible for young children. Kate Lied says it is a story about her grandparents, told her by her aunt, and that it is also about the Great Depression and how hard things were.

Her grandfather lost his job, and the bank took away the family house. The family found work for two weeks picking potatoes in Idaho. They lived in tents and worked all day, and they were allowed to pick potatoes for themselves at night; but the work lasted only two weeks, and then they went home again, loaded up with potatoes.

It’s not quite a story, but Ernst’s warm pictures on a brown, grainy background have a childlike simplicity. They are framed like photos in an album and may encourage kids to listen to their own family stories and pass them on.

Dust for Dinner (I Can Read Book – Level 3)
By Ann Turner

Jake and Maggy lived on a farm where they loved to sing and dance to the music from Mama’s radio. Then terrible dust storms came and ruined the land. The family had no choice but to auction off the farm and make the long, hard journey west to California-away from the dust storms, where the land is still green.

Along the way, Papa tries to find work, and Jake and Maggy try to help too. But what if Papa can’t find a job? What if California isn’t better after all?

Ann Turner’s dramatic story about the dust bowl, set during the Great Depression and beautifully captured in Robert Barrett’s paintings, shows how one family stays together during difficult times.

Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of The School at Weedpatch Camp
By Jerry Stanley

From the Inside Flap

Illus. with photographs from the Dust Bowl era. This true story took place at the emergency farm-labor camp immortalized in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Ostracized as "dumb Okies," the children of Dust Bowl migrant laborers went without school–until Superintendent Leo Hart and 50 Okie kids built their own school in a nearby field.

Children of the Great Depression
By Russell Freedman

As he did for frontier children in his enormously popular Children of the Wild West, Russell Freedman illuminates the lives of the American children affected by the economic and social changes of the Great Depression. Middle-class urban youth, migrant farm laborers, boxcar kids, children whose families found themselves struggling for survival . . . all Depression-era young people faced challenges like unemployed and demoralized parents, inadequate food and shelter, schools they couldn’t attend because they had to go to work, schools that simply closed their doors. Even so, life had its bright spots—like favorite games and radio shows—and many young people remained upbeat and optimistic about the future.

Drawing on memoirs, diaries, letters, and other firsthand accounts, and richly illustrated with classic archival photographs, this book by one of the most celebrated authors of nonfiction for children places the Great Depression in context and shows young readers its human face. Endnotes, selected bibliography, index.

More Books on The Great Depression

Blessings,

Related Products:

Living Cookbook 2008Working with recipes Enter recipes with as much or as little detail as you like. Add images to recipes. In fact you can add a main recipe image, a... Read More >

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression

In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, one of the nation's most-respected economic commentators, offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depr... Read More >

The New Best Recipe: All-New EditionWith The New Best Recipe, we invite you into America’s Test Kitchen where you will stand by our side as we try to develop the best macaroni and chee... Read More >

Cooler Weather and Good Soup

Cynthia — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 14:08:51 +0000

My Sister-In-Law got me this yogurt maker last year for Christmas, and I am ashamed to say that I just got to using it a few days ago! What took me sooooo looooong? This is GREAT! It was SO easy too.

The kids and I enjoyed a yummy bowl of yogurt yesterday morning. We added bananas and granola. It was so good. Thanks Sis!

I was blog hopping the other day too and came across Elaine’s blog. She had a recipe for “Beefy Noodle and Vegetable Soup” that she concocted herself. It looked good, so I tried it last night for dinner. It WAS good! My husband even said, ‘This is tasty.’ Now if he said it was tasty, that IS good. So thank you Elaine for the wonderful meal.

I didn’t budget my time wisely, and forgot to make rolls to go with it. So I made cornbread. It worked out. I could have just buttered bread too, but didn’t think of it at the time. Also, I didn’t have beef seasoning on hand, so I used the beef packets you get from ramen noodles.

With the weather getting cooler, below 50 yesterday with a chilly breeze, this was great. Today we woke up to 37 degree weather. Brrr!

So head on over to Elaine’s blog and make this yummy soup tonight!

Blessings,

Related Products:

Yogourmet Freeze Dried Yogurt Starter, 1 Ounce Boxes (Pack of 3)Meticulously manufactured and scientifically balanced to ensure that you make smooth, creamy and great tasting yogurt every time. Home-made yogurt with any yogurt maker, but when used with the Yogourmet Multi Yogurt Maker it will produces delicious yogurt.

Euro Cuisine Yogurt Starter Packs 2-packsAll Natural Yogurt Starter Ingredients: Skim milk powder, sucrose, ascorbic acid, lactic bacteria (L.Bulcaricus, S. Thermophilus, L. Acidophilus)

Yogourmet Casei Bifidus Acidophilus Probiotic Yogurt Starter, 1 Ounce Boxes (Pack of 2)Specially formulated for use with our Yogourmet Multi Yogurt Maker. The CBA yogurt starter requires an incubation period of 12-15 hours, during which time the temperature must be increased gradually from 73 degrees F - 112 degrees F. The Yogourmet Mult.

Recipe: Cucumber Sandwiches

Cynthia — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:17:45 +0000

We made these for Tea on Tuesday this past week. I wanted to include the recipe.

Cucumber Sandwiches

8 oz. Cream Cheese – Softened
½ cup Mayonnaise
1 to 1 ½ cucumber, seeded, shredded (Peeling is optional)
salt – optional
pepper to taste

Directions:

Seed and shred cucumber and lay to dry on paper towels.
Mix cream cheese and mayonnaise with hand mixer until smooth.
Stir in cucumber.
Spread onto your favorite bread.

Refrigerate any leftovers.

Tip: Place a damp paper towel between the sandwiches to keep bread fresh.

Related Products:

Scrambled StatesQuick! Find a state that ends with the letter A. Now find one that borders Tennessee. Have fun learning about the United States in this madcap game of... Read More >

MicroscopeIncludes: * 20cm (8") Microscope * (2)Prepared Slides * (6)Blank Slides * (6)Statical Slide Covers * (6)Blank Labels * (2)Collecting Vials * Tw... Read More >

100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing the Right Curriculum and Approach for Your Child's Learning StyleThe key to successful home education, homeschool veterans will tell you, is determining your educational philosophy and marrying it to your child’s ... Read More >

Making Apple Pie, Oh My!!

Cynthia — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 04:20:44 +0000

Saturday, MaryEllen and I got to spend the afternoon together while Dad and Donnie went into town to run some errands. I did not want to go into town because I had so much organizing to do before Monday. Don was off this weekend which is rare, so the kids had the weekend off of studies. Usually we do studies on Saturday. Don usually has two week days off.

Since I was staying home, Don and I decided to make it a time where we each spend our time with one of the kids. He took Donnie around town and then out to eat before coming home later that evening. I had some apples I have been meaning to make into a pie, so I decided to do this with MaryEllen.

She was so enthusiastic about making the pie, that I handed it over to her with my supervision. I peeled and cored the apples and she did the rest. I helped her roll out the crust, she did one and I did one. Other than that, she did it ALL!!!

The pie came out delicious. Don and Donnie came home, but were too full to have any. But they enjoyed a piece with vanilla ice cream the next day.

Recipe
Apple Pie
Pastry for 9-inch Two-crust Pie
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons shortening
4 to 6 tablespoons cold water

1. In medium bowl, mix 2 cups flour and 1 teaspoon salt. Cut in shortening, until particles are size of small peas. Sprinkle with cold water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with fork until all flour is moistened and pastry almost cleans side of bowl.

2. Gather pastry into a ball. Divide in half; shape into 2 flattened rounds on lightly floured surface.

3. Heat oven to 425°F. On a floured surface, roll one pastry round into round 2 inches larger than upside-down 9-inch glass pie plate. Fold pastry into fourths; place in pie plate. Unfold and press firmly against bottom and side.

Apple Pie Filling
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
Dash of salt
6 cups thinly sliced pared tart apples
2 tablespoon butter

1.Heat oven to 425°.
2.Prepare pastry.
3.Stir together sugar, flour, nutmeg, cinnamon and salt; mix with apples.
4.Turn into pastry-lined pie pan; dot with butter.
5.Cover with top crust which has slits cut in it; seal and flute.
6.Cover edge with 2- to 3-inch strip of aluminum foil to prevent excessive browning; remove foil last 15 minutes of baking.
7.Bake 40 to 50 minutes or until crust is brown and juice begins to bubble through slits in crust.

Related Products:

Scrambled StatesQuick! Find a state that ends with the letter A. Now find one that borders Tennessee. Have fun learning about the United States in this madcap game of... Read More >

MicroscopeIncludes: * 20cm (8") Microscope * (2)Prepared Slides * (6)Blank Slides * (6)Statical Slide Covers * (6)Blank Labels * (2)Collecting Vials * Tw... Read More >