what I do in the kitchen

at one time or another I will hear about some comment my kids and grandkids will say about me....good, bad and the ugly.

the kitchen ones usually make me laugh...

best dinner meals they had as kids...beef and veggie soup with home made bread.Beef and noodles over mashed potatoes and home made bread.Chicken( sometimes it was turkey) and noodles over mashed potatoes and home made bread.Home made chicken( sometimes turkey) noodle soup and home made bread.Pancakes or waffles for dinner. Let me tell you I wished I had a camara to take the picture of their faces when I told them these were the meals where I was scrapping the barrel to feed them and any of the half of dozen kids that was their friends that sat down to the table. I was a widow, worked for myself doing odd jobs so I could be home when the kids went to school and got home.I didn't get any kind of assistance.If I could get a turkey for the price of two whole chickens or less.I got the turkey. Beef for noodles and soup was from the beef roast I tried to have once every 4-6 wks when it would come on sale( still will do this if you watch the prices of it) Flour...noodles, home made bread,pancakes and waffles. Biggest lecture the kids will get is not keeping basic food in the house for this reason.If you have to chose between soda pop and flour and eggs, the flour and eggs had better win.

I don't throw veggie or fruit peelings away( wash all fruits and veggies first including the skin of your onions) I put them in a gal. freezer bag and freeze them until I have a full bag and make broth with them.

I home can my broths or freeze them, mostly can them since it keeps me from having to think about thawing it to begin with.

I keep around 1 cup of potato water from boiling potatoes in the frig ( sometimes 2 if I know I am making gravy a couple times that week) for gravies.Helps thicken it.Bread and gravy will keep hunger away

I don't throw away bones of any kind until they have been simmered to remove any last bit of meat falls off and I have a decent broth. I've even had my kids ( including my son in law that tried to snatch his mother's turkey carcuss at Tday) give me poultry carcusses to make broth with. I usually give back half of what ever I get off it.Easy enough for me to deal with, throw it in the roaster, cover it with cold water and bring to a simmer.Let simmer until the meat falls off bone.Cool, remove bones, separate meat and then strain broth.Rumor is I'll have a heart attack if I see you throw your carcuss away... I usually stop that from happening before it gets to the trash can.

I throw odds and ends of bread in freezer to make bread crumbs.I gather cracker curmbs,chip crumbs, cereal crumbs and stale tortilla chips also. We don't eat enough cookies but when the kids were little I kept those also to sprinkle over yogurt for snacks

Odds and ends of pasta, rice etc goes into casseroles or soups.

I'll make soup from anything, hobo soup( different cans of food), crisper drawer soup, leftover soup, there is nothing left in the house to eat soup LOL.

I get meat marked down, cut it into the size I am going to use, trim it( trimmings go into broth making) and I try to get enough to pieces for stir fries since it doesn't take much meat for that.

if the cupboards are bare, call mom is the motto I think my kids have.I've even had one ex son in law's girlfriend call me and ask what to fix with what was left in the cupboards that she thought was bare.He gave her my number. Funny how they seem to think the cupboard is bare when it's isn't yet there. No , they might not want to eat what is there but let's get with reality.Think Great Depression or pioneer days where what ever they had had to make it until the garden came on or they were able to get enough money to go to town that was 5 days away one way.

Even with all this there are still times food will get away from me and I have to pitch it. I lecture myself worse than I lecture the kids.They think this is funny...that's okay, the grandkids will be up there in a couple years and start having their own families and I'll hear the very same words out of MY kids' mouths.

Nothing like hearing your mother come out of your mouth SMILE

Blessed be