Cooking with nothing: 1950's style

Cooking for eight children was a challenge for my parents in the fifties and sixties. Dad got paid every two weeks and they got lots of groceries. That night we would have a very wonderful supper. My favorite (we had it often on payday) was wieners and pork and beans. For dessert we had ice cream. I don’t remember any trips to the store in between for extras that they might run out of. There was no boxed mac n’ cheese, or McDonalds, or Papa Murphy’s pizza. As a matter of fact once my dad bought something new that we had never heard of. It was an Italian food, pizza. It came in a box like the mac n’ cheese boxes. Inside was a packet of floury stuff which we mixed with two tablespoons of water to make the crust. By really stretching it thin we almost made it reach to the edge of a cake pan. Then we poured a tiny can of something like tomato sauce over it. Last we sprinkled on the cheese packet, which was a lot like the parmesan cheese. After we baked it for the required time, we all tasted it. I remembered thinking it tasted like barf. The crust was so thin it burned in some spots. So much for pizza. So with very little money and stretching the food as far as possible, they had to make do for two weeks with what they bought on payday.


Breakfast

Usually nothing. Oh we had cornflakes and rice krispies or even egss! We also had a toaster which you had to watch because it didn’t pop up on it’s own. That hadn’t been invented yet. On each side was a little hinged door which opened down. You laid the toast in it and clicked it closed. Then you had to keep checking to see if it was done. Sometimes we would forget and the kitchen would be filled with smoke. On Saturdays or Sundays we might have pancakes with syrup. No sausage or bacon that I remember, but the pancakes were wonderful. But usually we didn’t eat breakfast on school mornings. We had no optional way of getting to school if we missed the bus, and we could never find a pair of matching socks. Or someone had stolen our best shirt, or we remembered a project that had to be done which required finding a butterfly, or cutting up construction paper and gluing it to something else. Which reminds me of another recipe which doesn’t fit into any other category . . .

Paste

Flour
Water
Mix with your fingers or a spoon until desired consistency to spread on paper. Then forget it in your room or under the couch for about a year. In the meantime, if you need paste again, just mix up some more.

Lunch

Not all schools then had hot lunches, so my mom had to pack lunches every night. They often consisted of two peanut butter sandwiches, maybe an apple. We got milk at school. I rarely got even a cookie in my lunch. I still tease mom about the time when I saw the lunches all lined up the night before and, miracle of miracles, each one had a hostess twinkie in it. I could hardly wait for lunch the next day. But when I opened my lunch box all I had was a sandwich and an apple. Perhaps she wasn’t the one who ate my twinkie, but I always suspected her. For a while I got on a kick where I wanted lettuce salad sandwiches. Mom was willing to make that for me. But I really hated it when she ran out of miracle whip and used margarine (oleo) instead. :( Not the same!

Snack

Cocoa (not hot chocolate mix, cocoa !)
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cocoa
pinch of salt
mix together with as hot a water as you can get. This is a problem if you don’t have a hot water heater in your house, but not insurmountable if you NEED something sweet. Stir mixture up until the lumps of cocoa dissolve. Add hot milk. Cold milk works too. If you forget about the milk it will boil over and burn on the bottom and it will be a LONG time before it is cool enough to drink, and it will be funny tasting, but still sweet, which is the goal.
(Payday extra special addition: marshmallows)

Marshmallows

Toast on stick over fire until outside is burned. Eat off the outside, then toast again.
If it is winter or early in the morning, you can toast it on a fork over a burner on the stove. Don’t burn your lips. Can also be eaten right out of the bag of course.

Fudge (I could make this by the time I was 11)

1/2 cup cocoa
2 cups sugar
pinch of salt
lump of oleo
1 cup of water
Cook and stir over stove until it boils. And boils. And boils. It still isn’t done. What you have to do is keep testing it by dropping a small spoonful into a jar of cold water. When you can mold it into a soft ball with your fingers it is ready to cool. (eat the soft ball of course.) Set the pan into a dishpan full of cold water and stir the fudge until it is cool enough that you can slick the side of the pan and not get burned. Pour onto a buttered plate. After about an eon it will harden. If it doesn’t it’s because you didn’t cook it long enough. Eat it anyway. If your fingers (or tongue, or lips) get burned, stick them into the cold pan of water.

Coffee sugar bread

Coffee, (hot)
Sugar
Bread
Spoon
Dip a spoonful of sugar into a cup of coffee without spilling it into the coffee. Spread it on bread. Eat the part of the bread that the sugar is on. Repeat.

Saltine crackers with oleo on them.

Also sometimes Dad would come home with a box of bakery day old stuff. That was heaven. But it didn’t last a long time. We all loved sweets.

Supper (no not dinner, SUPPER!)

Night before payday Hot dish

Macaroni
Tomato soup

Cook macaroni until it boils all over the stove. Drain well and add one can tomato soup. Serve to eight children, who will fight over it.
Payday extra special addition: hamburger
Variation:
Substitute cream of mushroom soup for the tomato.
Payday extra special addition: tuna
Serve with canned peas or canned corn. Most other vegetables have not been invented yet.
When company comes or sometimes on payday we would have

Salad

Lettuce
Miracle whip
Mix together and serve.

You might be a Lindholm!

We recently gathered for our annual Lindholm campout. I remember getting together every summer for most of my life (60 years and counting). We used to just have a picnic on a Sunday afternoon, until the time about 25 years ago we had so much fun some of the aunties just didn't go home! About Wednesday I got a call from my cousin Becky telling me that Muriel and Katy were still out at the lake. John and I packed up the kids and took our camper out to the lake and joined them. Becky came too with her kids (or maybe she just had Ryan, I don't remember for sure.) Late that night John and Jim were going to go home so they could work in the morning (poor guys) but it was really looking stormy. I didn't say anything, but I was really not wanting to be in a camper alone if we had wind. They ended up staying overnight at the lake with us (there was a storm and we didn't blow away) and going to work from there in the morning. We had a wonderful time, and after that we had the family picnic somewhere that people could also camp.
I seem to remember as a child that the lunch (a pot luck affair) was something that magically appeared interrupting our play. Then after we had totally stuffed ourselves and wandered off, it magically got all cleaned up. How did that happen? It never happens anymore! We as a group are pretty laid back (read disorganized but fun!) however we have tried to import through marriage the "organization" gene. This has met with some success, but I suspect that often WE are the influencers instead of the reverse. (Apologies to my sons and daughters in law!)
Cousin Tim this year hosted a fun (not talent) show. He managed to cajole a few family members to present entertainment. We are an easy crowd and we were entertained! We had lots of music, lots of jokes and even a ventriloquist (she was good, it was her dummy that kept falling apart!) Between acts, he regaled us with "You might be a Lindhom if . . ." lines. I am sure I know even more that he never heard of. However, my memory being what it is, I thought I had better put some down before they got covered up with "where did I put that birthday card I bought and why is there lettuce in the freezer?"

You might be a Lindholm if you think of the family reunion and start humming "The Lion Sleeps Tonight!" (I hear you--weemawoppaweemawoppa--ooo-ooo-OOO-ooEEumumawayyyy!)
You might be a Lindholm if you all go to church, but in separate vehicles.
You might be a Lindholm if you have more jobs than actual people in your family, but you are always borrowing money for gas from each other.
You might be a Lindholm if you know all the words to remote obscure songs that are out of print but have to be prompted to name all your children.
You might be a Lindholm if you don't know what a marshmallow tastes like without mosquito repellant on it.
You might be a Lindholm if you have been caught picking at yesterday's lunch remains which are still on the picnic table because it was brought by a relative who didn't camp and forgot it. We are not responsible for leftovers--they can stay there until next year!
You might be a Lindholm if a car breakdown is a social event and a competition!
You might be a Lindholm if your son was pulled over by the highway patrol, and when the car was searched for contraband, they spent more time trying to stuff the Jenga blocks back into the box than figuring out what WAS in that Coolwhip container? (bait!)
You might be a Lindholm if you know which relative to ask for plumbing, carpentry, auto or spiritual concerns--and which relative NOT to ask!
You might be a Lindholm if you know enough healthcare workers to start your own M*A*S*H unit--but when someone actually needs healthcare at the family reunion, they will be helped most by the one who faints at the sight of blood! (We're off duty and we've seen worse--leave us alone!)
You might be a Lindholm if your kid is in trouble, your mother died, or your wife left you, and you most of all need to go to the family reunion--where people will completely smother you with corny sayings, hugs and marshmallows covered with mosquito repellent. And you'll feel lots better!