We are called to be keepers at home, and I really believe the Lord wants us to be cooking from scratch and to keep the junk out of our homes. (Junk like pop and chips and all the worldy stuff.) Because I really believe it is the preservatives that makes a person fat. I think if you get down to cooking only from scratch, then this cuts out most of the poisons in our foods.

I like to cook like the pioneers did. In the spring, like about now, they would be eating the rest of what was in the root cellar — things like potatoes, carrots, onions … maybe beets or turnips and apples. These mostly root vegetables were stored all winter. They made soups and stews out of these vegetables. Apples were as much a staple as potatoes.

The pioneers went to the store a few times a year. What if we only went once a month and tried to cook from just what we had in our pantry? I think this would cause us to lose weight.

I mean, why not try making all of your own salad dressings? I used to make a lot of mayonnaise when the children were little. We ran out of it so often in the summer, I made mine in the blender with oil and eggs and mustard. I had to cook like this, as we had five children at home and Jimmy was in the Navy. But all of my children were very healthy. Really all those dips and dressings are loaded with stuff I can’t pronounce.

And how about just plain coffee and tea, and grow your own herbs for herb tea? I grow about 40 herbs in my yard. The more we eat from the land, the less fat we will be.

We need to plant gardens and eat from them and can and freeze our foods for the winter. I used to glean from my brother’s garden when they were done with it in the fall. This was when all the children were home. I couldn’t seem to grow enough food in my own garden. In my brother’s garden, when he was done with it, I would pick many over ripe tomatoes. I would make gallons of tomato sauce and can it or freeze it. In the gleaning of the tomatoes, I would find bits of other things my brother forgot to pick … like peppers of all kinds and onions. Of course, all of this went into the sauce.

Our neighbors had a gorgeous apple tree and they just let the apples fall off and rot. One year, I needed food for my children and I asked the neighbors if I could pick from their tree and they let me. They were glad someone could use them. I brought them home and made applesauce and pies. If you have room to plant an apple tree or two, they aren’t hard to grow. We never sprayed ours. They got bugs, but I just cut the holes out of the apples.

Rhubarb is so easy to grow. and so easy to freeze for winter pies. I used to use mine early in the spring and I would use it all, and more would grow and I would use this midsummer. I kept my rhubarb bed clean and would pull all of the stalks each time. Then, in the fall, I would use it all again. If you pull out all of the stalks, they will grow up again.

If we learn to eat from our gardens we will be healthy and lose weight. I think it’s the worldy stuff that makes us fat and lazy. This stuff that says low fat on it? Well, it may be lowfat in their estimation, but those preservatives make you retain the water, I think, and this makes you fat. I don’t go much on all of that stuff.

And, ya know, have your gardens in the summer and in the winter, make all of your own breads and biscuits. I mean, what I am saying isn’t going to make you thin overnight, but it is a lifestyle. And this is what we need, a wholesome lifestyle. It’s silly to jog and all of that for nothing. Why not work in the garden? That is hard work and gives you a good workout. It feels good to work outside and get dirty in the sunshine. (Well, actually, I love to plant my gardens in the rain. I get out there barefoot and get nice and muddy.)

So how should the virtuous woman look at diet and exercise? The virtuous woman wouldn’t got to the world for help, I don’t think, or out of her sphere as Keeper at Home. I know she didn’t stay in the house all the time, but she did stay pretty much on her land. So I think she got exercise under her cover as Keeper at Home. She got plenty of exercise having babies and caring for them and doing her work, like gardening and cooking and weaving and sewing, etc.

The older women were helping with the grandchildren, so they stayed trim and healthy, too. Baby Rose is coming to visit this afternoon. She is a sweet baby but I get my exercise taking care of her, and will more as she gets older. Not to mention Baby Romeo, almost two, will be around more this summer.

Today, I am making groceries. We have to go the grocery store on Wednesday, so I am making things today and tomorrow so I won’t buy anything I don’t need.

Anytime I have a lot of extra cooking to do, or cleaning, I make vegetable soup. This way, I can clean through the vegetables in the refrigerator and put them in the soup and get them used up. Like today, I am using up some left over beef roast for the meat for the soup, and some potatoes, tomatoes, onions and cabbage… whatever other vegetable I happen to think about, as I work around here this morning. The spices I use in the soup are garlic powder, black pepper and salt, and parsley. Also, I will make bread this morning, and cookies. I have plenty of eggs, so I will make some egg noodles. I will use some for the soup and some to freeze to use for another meal.

We Mothers should learn to eat from the supplies our husbands give us the money to buy. If we have a kitchen and the money to buy shortening, flour, sugar, and spices, etc., then we should be making our own biscuits, breads, pies, cookies and crackers, cakes, etc. Why should we go to the world for these groceries? This is our job as Keepers at Home. We should make what we can with what we have. The works of our hands are precious to the Lord.

No, I know maybe the white flour isn’t good for ya, or the sugar. But it’s all fresh as we can get it all. Right? And I think if we are being obedient to cook what we can and make it as fresh as we can, then the Lord would give us a blessing. I mean, all of us don’t have a grinder to grind up wheat berries, etc., or can’t afford all of this. But the Lord knows this and He will bless us as we use the white flour to make our breads and biscuits. It’s the spirit on the food, I think, is what I am trying to say. I mean, God looks on the heart, not on the labels.

I think we really have to be set free of this stuff about diets and all of the lowfat stuff. If you look at all of that with the Bible in the background, it almost seems like hocus pocus to me. I mean, the Lord has called us to make a home, not to be a scientist. He calls us to our place of duty as Keepers at Home, and we shouldn’t feel condemned if all we can get done in a day is to bake the bread, and we don’t get any other baking done. The Lord knows our hearts. But we should strive to do as much at home as we can.

I think the women of the Bible were always beautiful, and I think it is because they cooked at home and lived at home under the covering of God and their husbands. These women were strong and virtuous and were full of the life of God.

The old time Mothers were like scientists. They learned from their own mothers how to set up a kitchen and how each brew, like their pots of vinegars or cheese, would attract certain yeasts out of the air.

My own home, for some reason, is just full of certain yeasts in the air. I could make a glass of water turn into wine … just kidding. (I wonder if it’s because Jesus lives here.)

We all know that yogurt starter is a different yeast than bread yeast, or that cottage cheese needs a dfferent starter than a bread yeast. You can use bread yeast to start your wine or vinegar.

These old time mothers made their own starters because they didn’t go to the store, except maybe twice a year. Their own kitchens were like little factories and these women had knowledge and wisdom. To them, it was a common knowledge to know how to make a sour dough starter for their breads and how to keep them going for many years. They guarded their own starters and passed them on to their daughters.

Sour dough starters are just water and flour and maybe a bit of salt, and some sugar, and maye a pinch of store bought yeast. As you set this on your kitchen counter and it gets warm, the pinch of yeast begins to grow. And if you protect your starter, then you will never have to buy store bought yeast again.

But the old time mothers knew how to attract the yeast out of the air, and how to attract the right kind for what she wanted it for. Their families’ lives and wellness laid in the hands of Mother and how skilled she was in the kitchen.

In the summer, I have made a grape wine that only consists of grapes and sugar and water. I leave the grapes whole and the skins have a yeast on them that ferments the wine. I have nothing in there except water and grapes and sugar … no starters. This is why you need fresh fruits to make wines or vinegars. So often at the store, they spray the fruit with harmful sprays that will kill the natural yeasts in your fruits. But, see, I could take two cups of my wine I have brewin’ now and make two loaves of bread and not have to use any bread yeast. Like you have heard of beer bread? Well it would be like that.

You have to know how to control the yeast, too. When my wine is done bubbling, I will put a tight lid on it so it won’t gather any more yeast from the air and get so strong, it will knock a buffalo down at a dead run. But I will cap this and put it in a cool place on my screened in porch. The cool air will retard the spread of the yeast and keep the wine sweet and light. One time, my wine got too strong, so I used it to clean out my coffee pot. I guess it turned to vinegar. But if you want to keep wine from doing this, you have to stop the yeast action. Yeast loves warm places (not hot), and the cold stops it from growing.

Ya know, to make cottage cheese, you can just let your raw milk sit in a warm place and the yeast from the air will curdle it. Or you can add vinegar to help it along to the curdling stage.

Annie, bless her little stinkin’ heart, laughs at me for the way I make one meal as a starter for the next one and on and on and on. But this is how the old-time mothers did it. They would make potato soup from the leftover mashed potatoes from one meal. And then, when the soup was down to about two cups, she grabbed it from the table to start her potato bread for the next day. She knew she would use the potatoes for three things, so when she peeled them, she would peel enough for the mashed potatoes, the potato soup for the next day, and then for the bread starter.

She would start her bread the night before and let the yeast grow in a warm place beside the stove. Now, this wouldn’t be a sour dough starter. She would add a pinch of yeast to her two cups of leftover potato soup, and it would ferment overnight, and she would begin baking early the next morning. Of course, she saved her potato water to make bread, too. Potatoes have a lot of something that yeast loves. Potato bread isn’t made just for the taste of the potatoes, but for how it makes the yeast grow and the texture of it.

Yeast loves sugar, and if you have any yeast that you think is old but you ain’t quite sure, just set your yeast in some warm water and put some sugar in it. If it doesn’t bubble, then your yeast is old and won’t be good for making bread. I test my yeast each time I bake to make sure it is fresh.

Back in the old days, when I was raising my chidren, I would get so nervous and cry to the Lord. I had so much anxiety about not being able to feed my children good meals. I wasn’t about to scream “Uncle” and go get a job. But, oh boy, I would get so scared, and yet I didn’t want to let on to my family that we had so little groceries, at times. The Lord always gave me something to feed the family. But it was close, believe me! Papa was just saved and doing his best to work and support us, the best he could. I wasn’t about to whine to him that we didn’t have enough money for groceries. This was my place of duty and I had determined that, with the Lord’s help, I would not fail in this area.

So, finally, I would get mad at God and say, “Lord? Now you gave me these children and they need to be fed. I don’t have hardly nothin’ to feed them, and this is your problem and not mine.”

And the Lord would tell me, “Connie, you have a lot more than the women during the Depression had, and they fed their families.” And the Lord would encourage me to read about the women during the Depression and learn how they made a kitchen that was worth something. So I got to lookin’ in my kitchen and decided where the warmest place was to let my bread rise and to make my sour dough, or yogurt … whatever I needed. I used the yogurt in place of sour cream and made creamed cheese with the yogurt, too. I put a little shelf over my hot air register and this was my place, like the old time mothers had on the back of their stoves.

I took courage from the books I read of the old time mothers. And I thought, “If they could do it, I could, too.”

And, ya know, I learned how to make wine quite by accident. I decided to make root beer, as we couldn’t afford this except once in a while. Well, after I made it with the yeast and sugar and extract, Papa says, “My mother used to let this all set for a few weeks.” Well, my recipe was for Sunday School Rootbeer, and you were supposed to drink it right away, and you weren’t supposed to let it set and ferment. I was shocked when I found out I was giving my Christian friends real beer. They were shocked, too. I told everyone that it was Sunday School Rootbeer and I was sure it wasn’t fermented.

Finally, an old moonshiner told me, “Connie, it fermented. Anytime you let yeast and sugar alone for a few weeks, it will ferment and turn into alcohol.”

Oh, the Christian men laughed and teased Jim and elbowed him in the ribs and started laughing again and again. The wives looked at me like, “Only Connie would be makin’ her own brew at home, all alone by herself and by accident.” Oh, their husbands laughed until the tears just squirted from their eyes. Then the stories began with the men about thier lives before they got saved and how they used to drink, and then Papa would tell about the potato mash and apple jack they made in prison.

And, to my surprise, the world of fementation opened up to me. I brought my very Baptist friend some rhubarb wine for her husband. He laughed and said, “This stuff ain’t for kids.” One day, he brought me over a big tub of grapes and told me not tell him what I planned to do with it. He said, for all he knew, I was gonna make jelly. I mean, I have kept folks laughin’ with this stuff for miles around. It was really funny because everyone knew that Jim and I didn’t drink.

HERBS

Around that time, too, I started growing my own herbs. I had grown this valerian? But I wasn’t sure if it was valerian or feverfew. Well, it didn’t matter at first because I was just experimenting with this stuff, and if ya let it grow tall enough, you figure out the difference. It looks the same in the beginning, but the feverfew has flowers like daisies on it once it matures.

Well, when it was just beginning to grow, a friend wanted to trade me some herbs. I said I wasn’t sure if I had valerian or feverfew. So I made some tea with the valerian to see if it calmed me down, as then I would know it was, indeed, valerian. (Folks take valerian to calm their nerves.) So I drank some and I didn’t get calmed down, but I liked the taste and drank it all afternoon. I thought it was feverfew. Well, it was valerian and I was calmed down, alright — it finally hit me like a Mack truck. My eyes would close while I was just walking around. I thought, “Oh, dear Lord God, what am I gonna do?”

When Jim got home from work, I tried to hide this from him. I was sitting talking to him and my eyes would just close on their own. Jim kept looking at me and I kept trying to hide my face. Finally, Jim says, “What on earth is the matter with you?” I finally told him what I had done. Supper wasn’t fixed or anything, and I had to go to bed and sleep it off. Well, who could fix supper with their eyes closed? I mean, it was hard enough fixin’ it with my eyes open, with no groceries.

I am sorry … I am trying to be serious, but it just ain’t workin’ out. I better stop before I go any further with this.

Later, Papa did go out and dig up the valerian and told me not to be growin’ things like this.

A way to save any bread that turns out hard is this. Just slice the bread in the bread pan, and then make a mixture of a few cups of milk and about two eggs. Mix this up really well. Then just pour this over the bread, in between the slices, etc. You may want to cut up some butter and add that, too. Just make sure all the stuff is evenly distributed over the slices of bread.

See, I dont know how big your pans are, but when adding the egg and milk mixture, don’t put too much in … just add enough liquid that it would go to about half way up your loaf pan, or maybe three fourths of the way up. You dont want it to boil over in your stove. Then just bake the bread again, like at about 350 degrees for about a half hour, or until the bread has set up. See, the egg and milk mixture, on its own, would make like a custard. I mean, if you were to add sugar to it. (It’s kinda hard to explain all of this unless I could show you.)

So often, I would have half a cake left over from a family get together or whatever. If my children didn’t eat it within a few days, I would make cake pudding. Just take the cake you have in the pan and chunk it up and spread it out evenly in the same cake pan you baked it in. I mean frosting and all. Then, you just pour the eggs and milk mixture over the cake evenly. Taste it at this point to see if it needs more sugar. Put in what you need. Keep tasting. Just mix all of this up really good and bake it. If you have a lot of cake left over and, given it is chocolate, it will taste like brownies. But the less cake to deal with, it will taste more like a pudding. Cover the cake with your mixture to make this, then bake it in a moderate oven until it is done in the middle. (Or when you insert a knife in the middle, it comes out clean.)

When I would have like a half pan of cornbread left over, I would put the egg and milk mixture on this and chunk up the cornbread evenly in the pan. You would want to cover the cornbread with the mixture. Then I would put salt and black pepper on this and bake it. I called it spoon bread made backwards. You could fry and add onions and sausage to it with the eggs and milk.

When the children were young, I always had milk on hand, either instant or whole milk, so I made a lot of puddings, etc. Now days, I throw a lot of leftover bread to the birds but, back when raising a houseful of children, very little went to the birds.

I always made pancakes from scratch for the children for breakfast. I would use the leftover pancake batter to put over fruit desserts. Instead of like apple crisp, I would use the pancake batter for the top. You need to have your fruit mixture at a bubbling stage in the oven; then take it out of the oven and then pour the batter on it. Then bake it in a hot oven until brown. And you may want to thin down the batter some, so it will reach all the spots of the fruit.

Wild ideas, I know. But that’s how I cook and bake usually.

Chicken Soup

Here is how I cook chicken soup from scratch, making the homemade broth. I just take a whole chicken, clean it up, and put it in a big pot on the stove with water to cover it. You could use just chicken parts. I cook it until I can take the meat off the bones. Then take the chicken out of the pan, let it cool, and take the chicken apart. Throw all of the fat and bones away, and then cut the meat up into bitesize pieces. Then put the clean meat back into your broth (the water it came out of).

So now ya have the cut up chicken and the broth. To this, I add onions and salt and pepper and parsley. And then I add cut up carrots and celery, and garlic, if ya like it. Often, I will add some cut up tomatoes for color and flavor. Then, after the vegetables are soft, I add (depending on what I have) maybe some chicken noodle soup or some cream of chicken soup. It gives it more flavor. You could add a handful of rice or some noodles and cook it with the vegetables. And that is how I do it.

This recipe makes a lot, but this is always better the second time. You could also can this soup in canning jars if you have a pressure canner. I would leave out the store bought soup at the end. You could add it later for a meal. The old time Mother canned a lot of this soup to have on busy days when she didn’t have time to cook and she needed an instant dinner. I have canned hamburger before … it was fun. I left the fat in it and the fat on top helped to seal it in and I didn’t have any of it spoil. The fat came to the top, ya know what I mean?

Oh, it’s fun to make the old timey comfort foods. I have made a lot of soup in my day. It sure kept my family healthy and well fed. Many times, when I was busy with the children, I wouldn’t have time to watch my soup, so I would just put it in the oven to cook on a low temp. When I homeschooled, after devotions around 9:00 in the morning, I would start my soup and it would be ready for our family meal.

Jim used to work at the airport, and he would go to work around 2 in the afternoon, so I always had our family meal around 11:30 or at noon. Jim would want me to go with him to do errands, if we had any to do, before he went to work. I would have the children do their hour of reading after lunch. But many times, we took all the children with us to do errands and they did reading when they got back. Papa always wanted all of the children with us wherever we went.

Often, we had five children with us to go to the grocery store. One cart was for babies and one was for groceries. I would buy a lot of food to make food with. My grocery cart would be so full, people would say, “Are you all going to eat all of that?”

I always said proudly, “Well, we have a large family.” My cart would be mostly full of of potatoes and carrots, apples and oranges. I didn’t buy much juice for the children but fed them a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables. Our tables were always full of fresh lettuce salads and fruit.

Sometimes I would take a big can of peaches and put it in a big bowl, leaving all the syrup in. Then I would add bananas and apples, cut up. Sometimes I would add the little marshmallows and some coconut, whatever I had, but the bananas were especially good in the peach syrup.

In the spring, like now when my rhubarb is coming up, I made a lot of stewed rhubarb and then the strawberry rhubarb jam. Danny, especially, loved this jam.

And ya know, Mothers, if you make plenty of homemade bread the children always have bread and jam to eat as a snack. The homemade bread is so good for them.

Homemade Bread

Really, the whole wheat bread made with honey is the best bread. But, ya know, my family just liked the texture of the white bread the best. So I just figured that my white bread made from scratch was better than whole wheat store bought any day. A lot of the time, my brother would give me fresh eggs in the spring so I had these to make my bread. And my milk man gave me free goat milk. And to my white bread, I would add maybe a cup of whole wheat flour, then maybe a half a cup of cornmeal and maybe a half cup of oatmeal. Then I would almost always add a cup of mashed potatoes or a cup of fruit, maybe a cup of applesauce, or I would use the syrup off the peaches as part of my liquid instead of the milk called for.

I would make bread out of whatever I had. If I had a tablespoon of jam or jelly on the table and the kids weren’t eating it, I would add it to the bread. Or maybe the peanut butter was about gone and I wanted to get rid of it, I would add it to my bread. If the cookie plate had some crumbs on it, I added it to my bread mixture. I tried not to waste anything. If I had made pancakes in the morning for breakfast and had some of the batter left over, I would heat it up a bit and add my bread yeast to this and make bread, using this as a starter.

Johnny used to eat about 10 pancakes in the morning before school. I am not kidding. I used to make pancake batter from scratch in one of those big plastic salad bowls, and the pancakes would be as big as a plate. Johnny was always really hungry in the mornings. Christian Joy would eat at least 5 big pancakes. The other children would eat about 2. They loved pancakes.

I would make surprise pancakes. They had to guess what was in them. One time, I had some left over chip dip that I thought was really flat. I put some in the pancakes. Actually, the dip was really garlicky … Christian Joy loved them. They were her favorite. But not the rest of us. I probably made bread with that batter. Those pancakes were bad news.

Jill and I would make a package of chocolate chips last forever. Jill would make her chocolate chip cookies without any chocolate chips in them and, just before she put them in the oven, she would put a chocolate chip on the top of each cookie. If the cookie had one chip in them, we called them chocolate chip cookies. We were poor and raising kids. Good Grief!

When my children were all little and at home, I had to cook from scratch. Jimmy was in the Navy, so I had five children at home. But we lived on two hundred bucks a month for food and things like shampoo and toilet paper. In the summer, I had my garden so we did ok, but I still had a lot of cooking to do. So when it got really hot and dry, in August especially, I had a night time schedule of baking.

I would put the children to bed in the evening around eight and I would go to bed, too. Then around midnight or so, I would get back up, as the house was cooler, and I would do my cooking and baking. I would go back to bed around 3:00 or so and sleep until the children got up. Then in the afternoon, I would lay down with the children with fans upon us and take a nap with them.

But in the night, I would make bread and cookies and pies, whatever I needed. I would fry up chicken for the next day and make potato salad … it was just easier to do it like this. Then the next afternoon, I would have a nice meal for the family.

Jim worked in the afternoon, so we would have the family meal at noon. Then, as the day went on and got hotter and more oppressive, I would just have something light for supper for just me and the children.

I was very busy in the summer with the garden and other summer chores. I froze my grapes and then when the fall came, I would make grape jam, instead of trying to make it in the summer heat.

I am up doing last night’s dishes. I was so tired, I didn’t get them done last night after supper. Also, I am planning today’s menu. We had burritos yesterday, as I knew Dan was coming over, so today Papa will want something more substantial. I will probably make biscuits and gravy and fried potatoes.

Just now, I cut up some cabbage for the crock pot and put in a some carrots and a slice of onion and some bacon, black coarsely ground pepper and garlic salt, and I put in just about a fourth cup of water, too. Its 6:30 now, so this will be done around noon for lunch. Then, after lunch, I will probably start some yeast bread. You know, potatoes and the water boiled in it makes the yeast go wild. Yeast loves potatoes.

I made a spook yeast once. That was what it was called, “spook yeast,” probably because it was spooked. I had read about it some place, I forget now. You took a big jar and put in mashed potatoes and the water boiled in it, and then you put in flour and sugar and a tablespoon of yeast. It fermented just like a sour dough starter. And you used a cup for two loaves of bread. Papa said it wasn’t anything but potato mash, like they made in the prison to get drunk on … well, without the flour. Well, I had to quit making that. I got so teased about it. Papa kidded me and told anyone who would listen that I was making home brew in the kitchen with potatoes. Another lady told me I was making vodka.

But you know what? Yeast is yeast and it is in liquor. Has anyone ever made the beer biscuits? All it’s made of is self rising flour and beer and, I guess, some shortening.

But the old time mothers knew what would make yeast and what would keep it going.

Has anyone ever made the Gold Rush Sour Dough starter? You can buy that at our store, over by the baking aisle by the bread flour. I have made that before. But you can make your own sour dough starter and keep it going forever, as long as you live and need to make bread. And when you die, you can pass it on to your children. You just take a jar and put some water in it and some yeast and some sugar and some flour. Just stir it up … it will look thin and drippy, or should. You need about two cups of this. Then you let this sit in a warm place and it will bubble up and ferment, and then the bubbles will pop and simmer down. Just leave this on your counter in a warm place for about a week and then use it to make bread with. Use about a cup for two loaves of bread, and then replace your starter with some more flour and water, and the yeast will keep growing in it. You would never have to buy yeast again.

And if you wanna put some real bounce into your starter, add some mashed potatoes the next time you have some left over from your dinner. You can even use a big gallon jar and just feed this yeast whenever you think about it. Like if you have some left over syrup from making sweet potatoes, just pour that in. This mixture likes sugar and potatoes and fruits, too.

Now, this starter would be good for a woman who made bread every day, but if you don’t make it every day, then you should put it in the refrigerator or it will turn too sour or start to spoil.

I am noted by my friends to have bubbling jars of this and that all over the house. I make a tea that ferments and I use it for my dog if she has an allergy spell. It calms her right down. (It makes her a little drunk.)

But the old time mothers fed their children a tablespoon of whiskey with sugar for a cold.

Aunt Toot is all worried that I will start sellin’ some of this stuff and be a moonshiner.

Good Morning. Brrr. It is cold this morning here in Iowa. I just lit my little burner and I am waiting for the house to warm up. I am all bundled up and enjoying some hot coffee. I have a long skirt on with jogging pants underneath. Then I have a sweatshirt on and a little jacket over the top. As the day goes on, I may shed some of these layers … and maybe not.

Are you doing Christmas baking yet? I wanted to be sure to tell you that in our area, sugar and flour is really on sale this week. I got sugar for 77

I am so happy that its been cooler. Yesterday, I bought several sacks of flour and some fresh baking powder. It was so hot here, I really wondered about how fresh the flour I have is now. For the most part, I had kept it in the refrigerator, but would often leave it out. Anyway, I want to make the big biscuit mix from Maggie’s recipes today.

Also, I had gotten a big package of hamburger on sale at the store and I want to cook that up today, and then put it in little sandwich bags to use for individual meals. Actually, it is ground round, and there is about 10 pounds of it. I will just put it in a big roasting pan and bake it — it’s too much to put in a skilllet. I had gotten the meat on sale for 69

Yesterday Papa and I went on the little trip to the Amish store to get potatoes. Well, the potatoes were cheaper there but they didn’t look too good, so I didn’t get them. I got some other things, though, like corn meal, fresh eggs, and some spices I was out of. I bought some potato flakes, too. This will stretch the mashed potatoes next time I make them. I will just make mashed potatoes with the raw cooked potaotes that I have, then add the dried potatoes to them to stetch them out. I always make a lot of mashed potatoes when I make them, as I use them either to make potato bread or to put on the top of casseroles and bake to brown in the oven.

At the end of a meal, if I have like about a cup or less of mashed potatoes in the pan, I just add a couple cups of warm water and stir it up. Then I add some shortening, or maybe some meat fat from the meal I had just cooked. (I melt the fat if I need to.) Then when my mixture is cooled down to the temperature of spit, I add a couple tablespoons of yeast and some sugar and salt. If I have time and the flour is handy, I add a couple cups of that. I stir that up and it is the consistancy of pancake batter. And then I let all of this work and rise and bubble. I put a loose lid on the top, or just a dinner plate or a cloth. You want to keep it all tucked in and warm so the yeast can stay happy and warm, so it can bubble up. And if it doesn’t foam up in about 25 minutes, your yeast is old and your mixture is pretty worthless. I guess you would have to throw that out.

Then when I get around to it, I make bread with this. I just add some eggs and, well, whatever else out there in my kitchen that ain’t tied down. I add flour, of course, and maybe some oatmeal … maybe a cup. And, well, you just keep adding flour and kneading it until you come up with a a ball of bread that isn’t sticky. Then ya let it rise again in a nice warm place and neatly tucked away in a greased bowl. After it rises to double, put it in some greased loaf pans, let them rise and then bake it into bread.

Well, that is how a lot of the old time Mothers did it. One meal’s leftovers was the next meal’s ingredients.

If I have a lot of mashed potatoes left over I would maybe make potato soup. Just add milk and butter and add some parsley and salt and coarsely ground pepper.

Or if ya have alot of potatoes left over, just put them in a casserole bowl and bake them with butter on the top and maybe some parmesan cheese. Or you could add sour cream to them and mix it all up for a potato dish. Papa ain’t into sour cream, so I wouldn’t maybe do that.

Also, I have given Papa and the kids enough potato pancakes to make them want to strangle me … sooooo I won’t even mention them. Well, maybe just this once. You just add eggs to your mashed potatoes and stir them up with salt and pepper, then fry them in a greased frying pan. Make sure your skillet is hot before you add the potatoes. I have made a million of them in my day and Papa will tell you that for sure.

And, well, I just couldn’t live without my cast iron skillets. Oh, I just love them. When I make bread, I make mine in a round loaf and I bake it on my flat round cast iron griddle. I made cornbread last night for supper and I used my square black iron skillet for that.

When the children were all home, I would use my water bath canner to boil potatoes in. I would put in my pan about 5 pounds of raw spuds with the peelings on, cover them with water, and boil them until they were done. I did this early in the morning while I was doing my dishes and cleaning up the kitchen. None of this is a lot of work … you just have to be around home to do it. Well, after they were cooked, I would just leave them on the stove to cool. Then, when I needed them for a meal, I would just peel them and use them. Usually, I made fried potatoes with these. Or they were used for soup or breads. Or just cut up in quarters and put in a pan with butter over the top and parsley salt and pepper.

I didn’t use these potatoes for mashed potatoes, as they didn’t turn out for me. Maybe they would for you. But any time your mashed potatoes are watery or won’t mash up fluffy, just add the instant potatoes to them to thicken them. And, if they are chunky, just reboil them. My family would croak if I used only instant potatoes, but I use the instant to either repair my mashed potatoes or to stretch them. I hide the sack in the cupboard so Papa can’t see it, and I just bring them out for emergency first aid.

In my potato bin this morning, I have a lot of little potatoes. I think today I will just fry them with the skins on in some shortening mixed with margarine, in my big black skillet. This is the hint to get your potatoes to brown nicely. Use half oil or shortening and half margarine. You need the oil or shortening to keep your potatoes from sticking to the pan, but the margarine will brown them. The oil will lay at the bottom of the skillet and the margarine will float on the top. Also, the spuds that I will fry today will be chunky, as the potatoes I have are about the size of eggs. So I will brown them in my skillet and then I will put them in the oven and bake them until they are done. I will sprinkle them with onion powder, salt and pepper.

Another quick potato meal I would make in the old days was the following. I would take the big baking potatoes and scrub the skins. Then I would slice them in half length wise. Then I would lay the cut side down in my skillet and brown it in margarine and oil or shortening. Then I would put my skillet in the oven and bake the potatoes until they were done. We would eat these as a finger food with ketchup, like french fries. But, believe me, I made a million of them, too, and the family grew weary of them. But one dish they never grow weary of is the mashed potatoes. Mary will make mashed potatoes in the evening as a snack and, of course, Papa will beg for some, too.

I remember one time when we were low on groceries and I had all the kids to feed. Papa and I just went to the store and bought a big package of hamburger and a big sack of potatoes, and we were set for the week. Of course, I had baking supplies and milk and canned vegetables and fruits already at home. But the potatoes and hamburger can go a very looong ways in keeping a family fed.

My older children were hardy breakfast eaters, as they went to public school back in the 70s, so I would often feed them sliced fried potatoes and pancakes before they left for school. I never bought pancake mix. I just made mine myself. Johnny, who is now 26, and Christiane Joy, now 28, would eat an easy 10 pancakes for breakfast before they went to school.

I made pancakes in a big plastic salad bowl. Sometimes I would add brown sugar and cut up apples and cinnamon. Sometimes I ran out of pancake syrup and I would make my own. Usually, I would get up early and just boil brown sugar and water together until it thickened on the stove. Sometimes, at the end, after it was getting thick, I would add a small package of jello, like cherry or strawberry. The kids liked that. And sometimes if I had apple cider, I would save some back to make my syrup with just the cider and brown sugar and cinnamon and vanilla at the end. We were always running out of syrup and salad dressing.

I often made home made mayonnaise. I would mix it with store bought to always keep the family happy and in sandwiches. And, oh, the water I have prayed over and added to meals to keep the food flowing. Well, not now so much, but when the kids were all home.

The other night, Lynetta came to visit. We had coffee. I have an old time perculator. Well, Lynetta says “Connie, why do you keep adding water to that coffee?” We both admitted that it stayed as strong as it was and tasted the same. I think it is the Lord that keeps making coffee as I pour in the water. But I knew Mary would come in and want some coffee, and Jim, so I just kept adding water as we drank our coffee. I probably get at least 2 pots of coffee out of one pot of coffee. Like this morning, I have had about 3 cups of coffee. Pretty soon, the family will be up and I will add more water until I have a full pot. Then later on, Mary will add water again. Then Jim will need some for his supper thermos to take to work. If it gets too low, I start over. If it gets to the bottom of the pot and no one added any water, I give up and start over.

But I remember My friend Jill. She would buy soda pop for a treat on the weekend. She never allowed her children to have pop without water in it. Her daughter was way past a teenager before she ever had straight soda pop without water. She couldn’t drink it straight. It was too strong.

But …oh, I dont know … I guess as a homemaker, if you can keep a straight face, you can get away with just about anything. I have served many a humble meal around here by candle light and a prayer. The kids never went hungry. Papa always made sure of that.

I told Lynetta, as we drank our coffee, “Are you cold? I will turn on the kerosene burner. I dont have any kerosene, but it will be ok.” I turned it on and it stayed on for about two hours. I didn’t put any water in it. We have electricity, but sometimes I use the old kerosene lamps. And, if my lamp oil gets low, I add water. The water will settle at the bottom and the oil will float to the top and the wick will rest in it. It works until you can get more lamp oil.

Now you know why Lynetta says I make her laugh when she comes for a visit. Whoever heard of turning on a burner without any fuel and serving everlasting coffee in a pot that never quits making coffee. And the cream for her coffee is about 3 months old, but it’s still good. Right, Lynette?

When I was a young mother first married, I didn’t know anything about canning or cooking. Papa looked in my kitchen and asked me where my spatula was. I didn’t even know what one was. I was 19 and did my best at setting my kitchen up. My mother was so efficient as a cook and house keeper and really didn’t need my help. So I really never learned to cook at home.

After our second child was born I finally learned to cook. I used to go to the library in our town and get cook books and I learned how to cook, just from reading cook books. I especially loved some of the old cook books I later found at garage sales. But always, I surrounded myself with homemaking books. I love reading my Bible and often you would find a pile of books next to my chair … cook books and my Bibles all stacked together.

As a young mother, I wanted to can and store things for the winter. Jesus would just say “Connie, just learn to make jams and jellies and pickles first.” And so I did. He taught me to make yeast breads from scratch. I threw a lot of bread away to the birds before I really learned to make a decent loaf of bread. Papa had to smile and eat a lot of hard flat baking powder biscuits in the beginning. But some of the old garage sale cook books showed me what I was doing wrong when I made biscuits. The old cook books have a lot of diagrams to show you why things don’t turn out. I am meaning the OLD old cook books, like the ones written in the early 1940s. Back then, if Mama didn’t make it, then you weren’t gonna get any.

I remember reading a story about a husband buying store bought bread and it was sliced. The mother replied, “Sliced bread … what will they think of next?” It used to be that Mama made the bread and sliced it herself. But as a young Mama, the Lord had me to just start out and to learn how to bake cookies and breads, both quick breads and yeast breads. So for a long time I was learning the basics. I learned to make good meals and the breads. And in the summertime, I learned to make jams and pickles. I didn’t try to can beans or use a pressure canner until later on.

See, I was the first child of young parents. Mother was a modern Millie. We were the first to own a tv on our block. My parents were living the American dream after the Depression. I was a typical baby boomer born right after Dad got home form the war. Dad had a motor boat and always the newest cars. We lived in the ranch style house. Mother was the typical housewife of the 1950s. Most women at that time didn’t have a garden as their mothers had. They were too modern to do such things. So when I got married, I had never held a seed for planting in my hands. I didn’t have the slightest idea how to put a seed in the ground out in your yard and have it grow.

Papa, on the other hand, was the 12th child of a big old fashioned family of 13. He grew up topping onions for the neighbors and picking bushels of apples for his family. Mama Hultquist made everything from scratch. And, of course, they had a huge garden. They had chickens and raised a couple hogs each year for meat for the family. The boys fished and hunted for wild game for the table. I was lost in that family. I couldn’t figure any of that out. But I learned as I went … just as you can.

It’s not hard to learn to run a house and make everything from scratch.

So. I had a lot of learning to do in the kitchen. One of the best cook books I used in order to keep up with Papa was a Better Homes and Gardens cook book. Papa was always wanting some bread pudding and I had never had it before. A lot of the things he would ask me about, I had never heard of. But that book sure helped me along.

In the evenings, when Papa would watch TV, I would read cook books. I had a little notebook and I would write things down. I didn’t know it at the time but the Lord was preparing me to have a large family and to cook a lot of big meals from scratch. Had I not learned how to cook when I had the time to with just two children, I don’t think I could have learned it later on. I wouldn’t have had the time.

Carla Emery’s Old Fashioned Recipe Book took me miles ahead. She really inspired me to learn to cook by inspiration.

Later on, as my family grew, I made pancakes every morning from scratch. With the left over pancake mix, I would start my yeast bread for the day. I learned to cook from what I had. One meal led to another meal … led to another meal. Had I not learned to cook on a shoe string, I couldn’t have homeschooled four children. I couldn’t have afforded to feed them.

I finally did learn to cook from scratch. I would take a small piece of ham and fry it. Then I would fry potatoes in the same pan and put the ham over the top, sort of shred it. Then I would put the fried potatoes in a bowl for the table and make gravy from the left over scrapings in the pan. Then I would make biscuits, then a canned vegetable.

I got a lot of my ideas, too, from reading about the Depression and the things the mothers fixed back then. And when I cook, I make plenty of it, even if it is just cheap food. Often we had guests at our table, and I fed a lot of folks biscuits and gravy. They loved it, and we enjoyed the hospitality. But we couldn’t have had guests if I hadn’t known how to cook.

My kids never went hungry. None of us did. If the kids brought a friend home, I would just add more water and flavorings to the soup. A hot bowl of soup and homemade bread with jelly. A cup of coffee or tea and homemade cookies for dessert. Homemade bread and butter pickles were always on my table in the old days. It was cheap food but fed many happily.

I never turned anyone away from my table. Never had to. Now days, since Papa has known the Lord for the past 21 yrs, he prays for everyone who sits at our table. But no matter who is here, he always starts out his prayer, “Lord, bless my darling wife Connie” And then he prays for the children, and then our guests and their families.

Well, even though I didn’t start out well, and didn’t even know what a spatula was, I did end up to be a decent wife and cook for Papa. He loves to brag on me at work as he gets out his homemade lunch and eats it in front of the guys. Lately, I made homemade summer sausage. I slice it up and Papa takes it to work for his supper hour. I put extra slices in, as I know he will want to brag about it.

My bread still turns out hard sometimes, but Papa eats it anyway. If it isn’t perfect, I give it away or throw it to the birds. Papa will say “Where is that bread you made?” I gave it to the birds. “Well, why did you do that … it was good.” Well, it was hard, Honey, I didn’t think you liked it.

Oh, being Papa’s helper has been an adventure. Having his babies and learning to be a mother and housewife. Learning to keep company with Papa. Learning to watch old cowboy shows. Just to be his helpmate. Just to be in the room to keep him company. Papa has taken his children through many of the old movies, such as Meet Me In St. Louis, Holiday Inn, The Sound of Music, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life. Well, all the old, good classical family movies. Mary grew up watching the Shirley Temple movies. Now, at 16, she thinks everyone knows who Judy Garland is or Shirley Temple. But being a helper to Papa meant watching old movies and, of course, reading old cookbooks while I sat beside him.

This morning, as I lit the kerosene burner that Papa had filled last night before he went to bed, I thought to myself “Oh, Papa. You were worth all the prayers and heartache. I am so glad I never gave up on you.” And I am glad Papa never gave up on me, either.

Hopefully, I have learned to be Papa’s comfort and help mate. We have loved each other through many things. I still love Papa as I ever did. Plus I love him more as we get older.

I see how he tries to please me, and how I test his patience at times. Like when I throw his bread to the birds right when he has the butter out and ready to eat some. Or he tries to smile when I am dilly dallying around when he is trying to get me out to the car to go to the store. I say, “Honey, when you hurry me I cant think.” I always run out the door and leave the oven on. Then I have to call from the grocery store and tell Mary to shut the oven off.

“I will call her,” Papa will tell me as I get the grocery cart at the store. He knows that he hurried me again.

Papa turned out to be a class act, and now I wouldn’t trade him for anything. He is my Million Dollar Baby.