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.