Meals Grandmother Made

Food, both my grandmothers taught me how to cook; how to prepare food and to enjoy doing so. They, both, experienced the Great Depression and during that period had learned much about getting good meals while spending very little. Their lessons were taken to heart and I still cook many of the meals they introduced me to as I was growing up.

Now, I love to cook and all that goes with it, shopping, and food preparation; the parts that come after, the cleaning up and dish washing are essential but not as much fun.

I still prepare the basic meals my garndmothers taught me, however, thee have been many dishes added to the menu.

For example, birthdays, anniversaries and other special days will see me preparing something elaborate. My wife is particularly fond of my tofu lasagna and I often make this during the Christmas season.

I always like making chili, in fact, there is chili in the slow cooker right now; it is a cool and windy day and this is a perfect meal for such weather.

However, the stews, root vegetable pies and soups I was raised on are still made and served around her on a regular basis. Some of the dishes I have modified according to my and my wife’s tastes.

I also enjoy experimenting with a dish. Once I have it down pat, that is, I do not need to refer to the recipe to make it, I start giving some thought to what else I can add or what I can substitute. This is an enjoyable mental exercise and has produced some great meals and a few no so great; but, we learn by doing so I continue to experiment and make note.

One change I made is using a slow cooker which was not available when the grandmothers were teaching me.

Both grandmothers relied on the root vegetables, potatoes, carrots, beets, turnip and even parsnips, for example as dietary mainstays. I do as well, for one reason these are inexpensive items that are available all year round and from a local source which means I can make dishes from vegetables grown within 100 miles of my home, gotta love that.

Shepherd’s pie was another favourite and one my wife truly enjoys. Today I make a number of variations on this dish, including one without meat.

I admit that unlike grandma I use frozen pie shells, but I am learning to make my own bread and pie shells, so one day soon I will be doing just what grandma did, back when I was very young.

Thanks to my grandmothers I developed a joy for cooking, and was shown ways to prepare great meals for a very low price. Thanks grandmas.