My grandmother, the one that I knew, had a family of twelve to feed on a daily basis.
And - she did it in the 1920’s and beyond. Just imagine that.
Now, I don’t remember ever watching my grandma cook and I don’t remember many stories, either. I know that she put the bread dough behind the woodstove over night to rise and, although the kids helped with peeling potatoes and washing dishes, I’ve heard said that she often shooed the kids out of the house because it was easier for her to cook without them under foot.
So, how can I talk about “cooking like grandma”? Well, I imagine …
Cook with what you’ve got
Sometimes, I know, grandma didn’t have a lot to cook with but she managed to put food on the table for those ten kids.
I imagine that there were no fancy meals, just creative meals. I imagine that she had the basic standbys: soup, meat and potatoes, and bread.
Practice the standards
There is our first lesson: get familiar with the standard recipes for your home.
List them
Practice with them
Experiment with them
Let them become second nature
Write them down for your grandkids
In the Pantry
Because these recipes are the go-to meals for your home, be prepared to make them at any given time.
And that means having the ingredients available: keep your pantry stocked with the basics, your basics.
Be prepared
Imagine that the weather has prevented you from getting to the store for two weeks. Will you have what you need to put your comfort foods on the table for you and your family?
Plan ahead
We just imagined cooking with what we’ve got - without going to a store for a couple of weeks. Grandma thought in longer terms than that.
Grandma planned for “from harvest to harvest”.
And that means that she preserved foods. Grandma’s pantry and root cellar were stocked with jars and jars of fruit and pickles and she had bags of potatoes and onions stored for the winter.
Grandma preserved as much as she could when things were in season so that she had them available during the winter months and until the next harvest.
Fortunately, we don’t have to rely completely on our own preserves but we can change our thinking to:
Buy local; buy in season; buy in bulk; grow what you can; and preserve it
Look at your basic, go-to meals list. What can you preserve when it is “in season”?
If one of your recipes uses green beans, for example, learn how to can them or dry them… or buy several cans of beans, to have them on hand. But grandma would have preserved them herself.
Knowledge is power. Preserving is self-sufficiency
Put the love in it
If you follow me, you know that I didn’t get the housekeeping gene and one thing that means for me is that cooking meals can be a task and not a joy.
BUT - cooking like grandma, as I imagine, is about providing for the family because you care and because it is one of the ways that you can show your family that you love them.
Cooking from scratch feeds the soul
Not only does this showing of love feed the soul of those who get to eat the food you prepared but, by putting your love into the cooking, you are feeding your soul as well.
It is my belief that the meaning of life is contributing to the greater good, helping others. One way to do this is to prepare a meal for someone. And that brings me joy, housekeeping gene or not!
Summary
create a list of your staple meals
have the ingredients in the pantry
cook with love
Life really is simple, isn’t it?!
Now, what is on your go-to meal list?
When we share our stories, we learn and we grow… and our recipe books expand! - Debbie
* * * * * *
The Recipe Book
When I was little, my mom started a “recipe book” for me, with the standard recipes that I needed, with the recipes being passed down from generation to generation.
In the notebook, which I still have, are things like:
Grandma’s brown bread
Great-Grandmother’s sugar cookies
Beulah’s (the neighbour) banana bread
Glenna’s (the other neighbour) sweet pickles
Betty’s (a cousin) pickled beets
Community helping community. Share your recipes. That’s the homesteaders’ way.
