My eighty-five-year-old grandma has lived on a farm in Idaho for all of her life, and since she was sixteen years old, has cooked a homemade breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. She had a husband, nine children and plenty of extra farm hands, grand kids, friends and whoever happened by to cook for and she did it all splendidly. She knows a thing or two about cooking and running a kitchen.
So I scoop up any wisdom from her that I can. The main thing I’ve learned is that there is nothing better than fresh foods, and eating according to what’s seasonal is the way to go for frugality, health and taste. She has an enormous garden with peas, carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes and other vegetables. She also has many kinds of fruit trees and berry bushes. I could eat nothing but fresh raspberries in season. But I digress. Here are a few tried and true tips from Grandma’s kitchen.
1. Start a batch of bread dough first thing in the morning, even if you don’t have meals planned for the day. Then it’s ready for a pizza, rolls, breadsticks, or whatever else you need it for. If you don’t end up using it, you can freeze it for later.
2. Keep an extra freezer in the garage. Then you can freeze vegetables and fruit in season and buy lots of extra meat when it’s cheap at the store. The extra savings and convenience more than make up for extra energy costs.
3. Don’t waste anything. Most meats and vegetables can be used in soup the next day.
4. Canning is not a lost art. One afternoon of canning cherries or peaches or green beans will keep you in heaven all through the winter.
5. Raspberry freezer jam is the tastiest and simplest jam to make. Make one batch a little thin on purpose to use as syrup for pancakes or over ice cream.
6. Always, always, have homemade cookies on hand for grand kids. Nothing else you cook will really matter!
7. When everyone is sitting around watching TV or out on the back porch, give them a bucket of peas and a bowl for shelling them. No sense having all those idle hands around when peas are in season.
8. Share your bounty with the neighbors, and it will come back to you in kind and in goodwill.
9. Substitute gumdrops for candied fruit in the fruitcake at Christmastime and everyone will actually look forward to it.
10. A little butter never hurt anyone, and everything tastes better when it’s cooked with love!