Posted on 09/22/2011 7:36:30 AM PDT by Abathar
(CNN) -- That is the reality for the more than 40 million Americans who rely on food stamps. According to the Food Research and Action Center the average food stamp allotment is just $30 per week.
I began thinking about taking a food stamp challenge earlier this month when I met several women who we profiled on hunger for two CNN stories airing this week. These women had to make tough choices between paying bills and buying food. Often they skipped meals so their children could eat. Often the amount of food stamps they received was not enough.
Living on a food stamp budget for just one week won't begin to put me in these women's shoes or come close to the struggles that millions of low-income families face every day; week in and week out, month after month. But I do expect to gain a new perspective and a better understanding.
(Excerpt) Read more at theindychannel.com ...
Good idea! My grandmother taught me to use a few dish towels soaked in water, and set in a small pan in the oven. They release the moisture at a slow rate as the towel slowly dries out... Tossing in a few ice cubes when the towel dries out sounds a LOT easier than pulling the towels, re-wetting, and putting back in!
When my husband was laid off, we bought almost everything from Aldi’s. I’ve always made food from scratch & we bought very little “snack” food. Some nilla wafers and maybe a bag of tortilla chips
Even now, it’s stuff from our garden (fresh or that which I’ve frozen), soups from the veggies, beans, homemade broth from the chicken bones & scraps. pasta with fresh sauces, meats on sale. Breakfast is cereal or toast, lunch is left overs.
Raised my kids on home cooking. None of them like processed s%$t. Bought the youngest one a frozen TV dinner one time last year, just because he want to see what one was like. Haven’t bought one since:-)
I live alone. I can do as I damned well please. Make smaltz, bootleg a piglet, put up antennas, and no-one is here to complain. ;)
But thanks for the tip.
/johnny
“Perhaps we will all be giving cooking lessons too!”
Piffle! We will be revered as Goddesses...as well we should! :)
Lord knows I won't eat canned peas or mushy cooked carrots. But that's just me. I ain't gonna eat 'em. Period, paragraph, turn the page, say Amen!
But lets us not denigrate what other folks find great foods.
All the best in your perfect world. Try not to splash over into mine.
/johnny
Yeah, it’s really simple, almost foolproof, and with the yeast doing the work over the hours it is easy, too.
Some flour, rice, bulk meats and you’re set!
Another tip - never, EVER throw out drippings from meat. Add some water, and either reduce down as a gravy/sauce OR pour into ice cube trays and freeze - you have instant gravy-starter in the future! Pull out a few cubes or pork or beef drippings, boil the water out, add to some ground beef and your hamburgers will taste a lot better and be even juicier!
We’ll keep an eye out! :) His brothers are all married. Dang!
But you do have to have those skill-sets yourself to teach them.
And a few books and manuals won't hurt.
Thomas Jefferson was a great book collector. I have 3 times the books he collected, just because I live in a later era. My kids know where those books are, and how to read them.
Merck Manuals (human and vet), local plants and how to identify, local geology, and how to identify. Other books to show how to use what is found.
And enough semi-precious metals (lead, copper, brass, mercury) to keep everything safe.
/johnny
Wow, I’m not sure I could buy all the wood for a spinning wheel for $20. You got a great deal on it.
My world is a constant prayer to the Almighty for the deliverance from evil of my loved ones.
Glad your world is perfect.
They do ok.
And I'll add your loved ones to my prayer list. Maybe God will bless them with someone practical.
/johnny
I certainly do believe that the people on FR have a very high skill set. I have always found everyone to be very helpful and always eager to share their knowledge and skills with others.
I an subscribed to the weekly cooking thread because I love cooking and while I am a very good cook I have always believed that there is always more you can learn on any subject. I have really learned lots of helpful hints, found some wonderful recipes and had a great time sharing my own recipe collection and tricks with others on the thread.
I also recently subscribed to the weekly gardening thread because I have always said I have a black thumb, because my limited gardening experience has not always produced the most sucessful crops over the years. I have never lived anywhere that I was able to have much of a garden, but I have had small gardens. I stil remember my first attempt at growing corn. I bought only 6 small plants and put them all in one row. While I did get several ears of corn, they were only about 3 inches long! LOL! I have found that I can grow zucchini, and just about any kind of squash I try to grow quite well, I can grow most of the herbs I like to use, and have even grown potatoes in a garbage cans and had great sucess with them. Most years I also do well with tomatoes, berries and beans as well. I have had only limited sucess with peppers and some of the other vegetables I have tried to grow through the years, so I figured I still have a lot to learn on that thread and nothing much really to offer thus far. For the last few years, my gardening has been limited to things I can grow in pots, but I am hoping that we will find a place to move that will allow my fmily to have a garden and hopefully some fruit trees in the yard as well. I am sure I will have lots of questions to ask the FR expert gardeners then.
As things get tougher, I am sure as long as we have FR to come to so we can exchange ideas and knowledge we will all have many experts to help us and many more threads similar to the ones I mentioned will start popping up all over FR to share knowledge and expertise with those who don’t have the benefit of the knowledge themselves.
Check the "Coin Star" machines too. You might be surprised by what you find. And if it is a odd looking coin and someone offers you a dollar for it... don't take it. Libraries have coin books. It turned out to be a silver German 5 mark coin and was worth a bit more then a dollar.
Here is the link to the cooking thread from last Saturday.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2779806/posts
If you go there and ask to be added to the list, you will be added to the ping list. A new Weekly Cooking thread starts every Saturday morning. The person in charge of the thread starts it up each week and has links to all the other weeks’ threads listed on her home page. At the end of each thread she recaps all the recipes from that week, and then posts that same recap to the new thread as well.
It is a fun thread, and I usually find lots of good new recipes to try each week.
Great point!
I especially like to save all the fat that comes from cooking bacon, sausage, etc. when it is cooled enough to handle I put it in small jars and keep them in my refrigerator, putting the newest jar in back and using the oldest one in front first. It is great for sauteeing vegetables, making gravies, etc. My family especially likes me to use it when I cook green beans. I saute some onions or shallot in the bacon grease and throw in the beans just long enough to cook them through. They are absolutely delicious and a quick and easy side dish to any meal.
Many many long years ago I could get beef bones or ham bones free or cheap. Not for many years now.
On the rare occasion they are even available (smoked ham hock only) or ox tails they are as expensive as many other cuts of meat. Rarely are they available.
There was a link on the Weekly cooking thread this last week for a Dutch Oven Bread that was similar to yours but a bit more complicated than your recipe. I was actually going to pull out my cast Iron Dutch oven and try cooking the one on the link from the thread, but yours is so simple and looks so good, I am going to do yours instead. I like no fuss cooking best these days and your recipe fits my current style of cooking best.
I have been trying to find a good easy every day bread recipe for a long time, but the ones I have tried so far were either more far more expensive to make than store bought bread, too complicated to make easily, or it didn’t taste all that good.
I have a hereditary disease called Charcot Marie Tooth and I have difficulty standing for long periods of time and using my hands, so kneading bread is very difficult for me. Your recipe will be perfect for me to be able to make on a regular basis even with my physical limitations. Since it is cooked in a cast Iron Dutch Oven, it could probably also be cooked easily in a fireplace during a power outage, or outside on a BBQ or even over a campfire, so it might be a really handy recipe to have if things really get tough. I have cooked other more complicated bread recipes in a dutch oven on camping trips over the campfire or during power outages in my fireplace or on the BBQ, but my disease has progressed so much that I can’t make the complicated bread recipes any more that require lots of kneading.
I still remember my grandparents telling me that one summer shortly after they were married in the middle of the Great Depression they were so broke that they camped out all summer and lived in a makeshift tent on the banks of the Willamette River. They lived almost completely off the land and cooked meals over a campfire. They got their fresh water from a public drinking fountain, since the water in the river was not good for drinking. While I hope it won’t come to this, we all realize that it is best to be prepared for any economic downturn and any natural disaster that could cause power outages.
I still want to find really good and easy recipes for regular Rye Bread, Dark Rye Bread, Pumpernickle Bread, Sour Dough Bread, Whole Wheat Bread, a multigrain or Seed Bread, Bread. I am thinking that once I get the hang of your bread I might be able to adapt your recipe to make the other types of bread as well. I might also try this cooking method for Beer Bread and Irish Soda Bread.
At least
Thank you!
* Before Obama took offie you could*
A stunning reply. Thanks.
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