Little Old Lady Recipes: Classic Frugal Cooking

Meg Favreau — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 09:36:18 +0000

Today I'm thrilled to announce release of my new book — Little Old Lady Recipes: Comfort Food and Kitchen Table Wisdom, published by Quirk Books. It's a collection of simple comfort-food recipes; sassy advice; and photos (by the excellent Michael Reali) of wonderful women in their kitchens.

The recipes in the book came from several different sources, including my own grandmother, the women whose photographs are featured in the book, and bygone cookbooks like the 1921 Atlanta Women's Club Cook Book. But no matter what their source, one thing that I love about all of these these recipes (well, besides the fact that a lot them call for real butter) is that classic "little old lady" cooking is more than simple and tasty, it's also darn frugal. Recipes like chicken and dumplings aren't just aiming to pair delicious chicken soup with bready dumpling goodness, they're using those dumplings to stretch a little bit of meat into an inexpensive, filling meal. Vegetable scraps and leftover meat bones aren't trash, they're what you make fragrant soup stocks out of. And a good weekend pot roast, well — that will serve you convenient leftovers all week long. (See also: Stretch Your Food at Every Meal)

One of my favorite recipes that I had the pleasure of including in the book is my family's baked bean recipe, one of my personal favorite comfort foods. The beans can be made in a crock pot, or they can slowly cook over several hours in the oven (if you use your oven, make this recipe in the fall or winter and turn your house heat down accordingly while cooking so you're not wasting energy). In the evening, you're rewarded with rich, not-too-sweet beans that are great served with another money-saving powerhouse — coleslaw made from that super-cheap vegetable, the cabbage.

The beans are also fantastic served with Boston Brown Bread. I've included both recipes from the book below, and I very much hope you enjoy them.

Baked Beans Deluxe

1 qt navy beans

1/2 lb salt pork

1/2 tbsp dry mustard

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp molasses

3 tbsp sugar

1 onion, chopped

Baked beans are best served with brown bread; save your empty coffee cans to steam it in. Although thrift is always a virtue, do not skimp on the salt pork. It's what adds the majority of flavor.

Cover beans with cold water and soak overnight. Drain. Pour into a pot or casserole dish with the rest of the ingredients. Add enough water to cover the beans. Cover and bake in a 250°F oven [or crock pot] for 8 hours. Serves 4 to 6, and tastes great with coleslaw.

Boston Brown Bread

1 egg

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 cup sour milk

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 3/4 cups graham flour

Between baked beans and this moist, molassesy bread, they're doing something right up in Boston.

Beat eggs, add sugar and molasses, and then the rest of the ingredients. Mix and place in 3 greased 1-pound cans. Cover tightly. Steam 1 to 2 hours by placing on a steamer over boiling water, letting the water go about halfway up the can. Basically, you just don't want the can touching the bottom of the pot you're boiling in. (You can also steam the bread in a deep oven-safe pan in the oven itself. Just make sure to replenish the water if needed.) Bread is done when a toothpick comes out clean. Makes enough to sop up a lot of delicious bean juice.

What are your favorite frugal "little old lady" recipes? Share in the comments!

This article is from Meg Favreau of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread:

Eat Well, Save Big Cookbook (Review and Giveaway!)

Linsey Knerl — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 06:30:01 +0000

*** Congrats to our winners: Comments #7, 14, 37, 47, 55, 59, 63, 77 and two winners from our recent Tweet Chat!

If you’re like me, you’re a bit weary of cookbooks promising fabulous meals for under $2-3 bucks per person. They seem to be a remix of the same thing (ground beef, perhaps?) and make dining on a budget seem like a sacrifice. The latest cookbook from All You magazine, however, was a bit more refreshing than most. >Read all about it, and enter to win a copy of your own at the end of the article!

The newest cookbook from All You magazine is one that I’ll come back to often. Why? First of all, there is a picture of every single recipe in full-color within the cookbook. I don’t know about you, but this is a big deal for me. (I rarely try new recipes if I can’t see what they’ll look like when prepared.) In addition to featuring fabulous photos, the book itself is broken down into categories that make sense: Chicken and Turkey, Beef and Lamb, Pork, Fish, and Vegetables. You may think that this means the book leaves out other items like bread and breakfast foods, but they cleverly center these items around your most expensive main ingredient — meat.

Following the theme of saving money, each main dish has a calculated cost per serving, with a total of 248 dishes under $2.50. (Note: The wording may be a bit misleading, as it calls each of the recipes “meals.” I would consider them “dishes,” as you still need to add your sides — at an additional cost, of course.) Families who need to feed a family of 6 on just $.50 a person will find the dishes to be a bit out of their budget, if taken at face value — however, these same families are probably very savvy in their shopping, and could easily find ways to buy things on sale or make simple substitutions to cut costs even further.

Those who read All You magazine regularly (which is currently only available in Walmart stores or by subscription) will recognize many of the dishes as being reprints from the magazine. I personally have clipped several for inclusion in my recipe collection. Even after subscribing for over a year, however, I find most of the dishes to be new. (Plus the benefits of having it all in one book, organized, is well worth the $15 list price.)

All in all, this cookbook has more dishes that I would actually make than some others I’ve looked through. Foodies with both a flavor for diverse dishes and traditional comfort foods, alike, should find something to please their family on a budget. (The book also comes with six high-value grocery coupons, valid until the end of 2010.)

***Editor's Note: Several commenters have asked about whether nutritional info is provided. For each recipe, there is information for calories, fat (sat), cholesterol, fiber, protein, carb, and sodium. Thanks for bringing up this question!***

Here’s a sample dish from the book (You can also preview 9 other dishes on the website, or print out a $1.00 coupon on your purchase of the cookbook):

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Sage

Prep: 1 hr.; Cook: 10 min. (Cost per serving: $1.13) Yield: Serves 8

1 1-lb. butternut squash
Salt and pepper
9 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup finely chopped shallot
1 teaspoon finely chopped sage plus 2 Tbsp. thinly sliced leaves and 8 whole leaves
1/4 cup ricotta
1/4 cup plus 4 Tbsp. Parmesan
Pinch of nutmeg
48 wonton skins
4 slices pancetta, chopped

1. Preheat oven to 450°F. Halve squash and remove seeds. Season with salt and pepper and place, flesh side down, on a baking sheet. Bake until tender and a knife comes out easily, about 40 minutes. Use a spoon to scoop out flesh; puree in a food processor or blender until smooth.

2. Melt 1 Tbsp. butter in a skillet. Add shallot and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add chopped sage, squash puree, ricotta and 1/4 cup Parmesan. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg, and cook for 1 minute. Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.

3. Place one wonton wrapper on work surface, keeping the rest covered with a damp cloth. Brush wrapper with water and place 1 tsp. squash mixture in center. Place another wrapper on top and seal together with fingers, taking care to push out air bubbles. Use a 3-inch round cookie cutter to cut filled ravioli into circles. Keep finished ravioli covered while you work.

4. In a skillet over medium heat, fry pancetta until crispy, about 5 1/2 minutes. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels. Wipe skillet out.

5. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Melt remaining butter in skillet over very low heat, then add sliced sage. Cook butter and sage until butter turns light golden brown, about 5 minutes; remove from heat. While butter is browning, add ravioli to boiling water, stirring gently so they don't stick together. Cook 4 minutes, then carefully drain.

6. Place 3 ravioli on each plate, top each with 1 Tbsp. browned butter and garnish with 1/2 Tbsp. Parmesan, some crumbled pancetta and one sage leaf. Serve hot.

********We are giving 10 copies of the All You: Eat Well, Save Big cookbook to our readers! To be entered to win, follow one of these 2 methods:

How to Enter:

Post your thoughts on the cookbook below in the comments (what you might like, the recipe you find most interesting or another food-related comment). You have until January 21st at 11:59pm CST to get your entries in, or
Tweet your answer during our live Tweet event today (Thursday, January 14, 2010 at 4:00 pm CST). Include both "@wisebread" and "#WBChat" in your tweet so we'll see it and count it. More details about our weekly chat here.

Good luck!

This article is from Linsey Knerl of Wise Bread, an award-winning personal finance and credit card comparison website. Read more great articles from Wise Bread: