When I told him I had made his birthday cake like they did in Roman times, he looked puzzled and then said, "Did you put columns on it?" which amused me. He appreciated my "artistic" efforts.
It was a good weekend and a good day all around.
A friend of mine sent me this link, with the message - "Wait! Did you know these were 'Poverty Meals'" and my first reaction was to laugh, but then it got me to thinking. I know I have mentioned before that we were very poor growing up, but to some extent, we didn't know it unless others pointed it out. We were lucky to have something to eat every day, and clothes to wear (even if they weren't necessarily nice clothes) and occasionally we were farmed out to live with relatives for a while, but that was always presented as an adventure rather than something that was a problem.
But I remember being shocked years ago, when a discussion about foods we ate as kids but would never eat today was going on. I mentioned that one of my favorite things as a kid was fried bologna sandwiches, but I would never eat one today, because a) I am a vegetarian, and b) I knew there was no way I could successfully duplicate the ones my father used to make that tasted SO yummy. At which point, a co-worker said, "Fried bologna sandwiches???? That's what poor people eat!"
I have to be honest, that never occurred to me. Just like most of the things mentioned in the linked article never seemed like things we ate because we were poor. Of those things mentioned on the list, we regularly had all of them except chicken livers and fruit in condensed milk (I feel pretty certain that my parents must not have liked them). They were just part of the regular rotation of meals. There are some I still happily eat today, that until I read this article, had no idea were originally around because of their low costs. And for better or worse, I think of some of them as treats (cinnamon and sugar toast, for instance).
A black woman I worked with once told me that "no one who was self-respecting" in her community would eat boxed macaroni and cheese. I was an adult before I realized that people made it completely from scratch - I thought "homemade" mac and cheese meant that they used the boxed stuff and jazzed it up, or that they used the "fancy" boxed stuff!
(regular - we never had it with these 'fancy' veggies!)
(fancy - fortunately for my parents, we didn't like this version as well, 'cause I know it cost more ...)
I did find a recipe for truly homemade mac and cheese years ago that I make pretty regularly now - using whatever cheeses we happen to have - and we enjoy that. But I've also been known to fix the boxed stuff on occasion ...
So - what about you? Did you eat "Poverty Meals" and if so, did you know that's what they were?
Now I'm thinking of some other things that likely fall into that category - in any case, this has all been quite illuminating to me. :-)
11 comments:
No fried bologna sandwiches in my childhood, must be a regional thing. We ate a lot of what my mother called "goulash" (which has nothing to do with the amazing Hungarian dish) but rather it was like a cheaper version of Hamburger Helper (or a pre-Hamburger Helper version) We got milk and cheese from the government.
You made me laugh out loud with that box of macaroni and cheese thing. That was our poverty meal. We had it with cream of mushroom soup and tuna fish. When I was taking care of Daddio I made it for him all the time. It was the only thing I could get him to eat other than Little Debbie snacks. I don't think I ever had a fresh vegetable in my life until I moved out and my now ex husband showed me how to cook them. We ate canned veggies all the time with lots of meat. My grandfather was a butcher so we had a freezer full. I'm a vegetarian now too but I have to say I miss my Mom's creamed chipped beef on toast.
We were poor also but did not realize it since everyone in our community was poor also. I remember bologna sandwiches as well as vienna sausages and some canned meat product called Span and Treat. I loved vienna sausages but cannot imagine eating one today. We had a garden and also a cow for milk and raised our pork. (It sounds awful today but that was just normal then.) I do remember eating scrambled eggs and pork brains until I realized what I was eating. (Aren't you sorry you asked.) Also, I am a vegetarian now.
Cinnamon toast - still a treat!
Polly
Yep. I ate pretty much every thing on the list except for split-pea soup (mom hated pea soup) and fruit with condensed milk (though my grandpa used to do that - he also put condensed milk in his tea, and used every tea bag twice.)
We didn't call them poverty meals, but my parents never hid the fact that there wasn't a lot of money to go around and these were cheap ways to feed the four of us.
Other standards were:
Bread, butter and molasses. Like cinnamon sugar toast, this was a cheap bit of sweet (I still eat it occasionally)
Cold cut night: Mock chicken loaf, macaroni loaf, and bologna and cooked ham, spread out on a platter with cheese slices, lettuce and tomatoes so we could make our own sandwiches.
Shit and Gravy: Fried ground beef in gravy, served with mashed potatoes and canned peas (basically, deconstructed shepherd’s pie). Dave’s grandma is Scottish, so he had it too, but they called it Mince and Tatties. My Grandpa called it shit and gravy once, and it just stuck.
Poor man’s soup: Also called corn chowder. Basically, a thin soup made from milk, a can of creamed corn, a can of peas, some onions and potatoes.
Dad’s salmon cakes: When we were kids, my Dad rarely cooked (except Christmas/Thanksgiving turkey), but when he did, it was usually salmon cakes… a can of salmon (bones removed) smashed into patties with egg, bread crumbs and minced onion. Fried up. I hated them then. I still hate them now.
Skettie sammiches: This was only served on night’s Dad wasn’t home. There were some depths he wouldn’t sink to. But basically, Mom would heat a can of Alpha Ghetti, Zoodles, or the like, and we’d spoon it between pieces of buttered bread.
Soup and sandwich night: This was always Campbell’s tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches (cheap cheese slices). It was a great winter dinner.
Sloppy Joes: Though I knew rich kids who delighted in this too, because who didn’t?
We had fried spam, as well as fried bologna sandwiches. We weren't well off but idk about living in poverty. Weren't people just more frugal then? Lol on the macaroni and cheese. The first time I had actual homemade mac and cheese I thought it was disgusting. Now i love it but i never eat it. My son has never met a mac and cheese he won't eat, boxed, frozen, homemade; it's all good to him.
My family wasn't exactly poor, but we didn't have a whole lot of "extra" anything, either. We did eat "poverty meals" on the regular -- including boxed mac & cheese, lots of "goulash" (including the boxed Hamburger Helper variety), canned corned beef hash, and Dinty Moore stew. And cinnamon toast? Still one of my favorite comfort foods! XO
OMG, was I poor or what? Fried bologna sandwiches (gotta put those little cuts in so the bologna doesn't curl) not uncommmon. Taking it further, though, we would fry bologna without the cuts so that the slices rolled up into a cup-like shape, filled the "cup" with mashed potatoes, then laid American cheese (oh --- I've eaten government cheese, too) on top and broiled them for melting and crispness.
We also went through a stretch where we drank powdered milk.
Baloney sandwiches - It was just what was available back then; baloney, hot dogs, peanut butter, white bread, jello, kool-aid, spaghetti-o’s and american cheese. All these were quick + easy for lunch. Supper was home-made from scratch because the boxed version was too expensive, and besides - mom had to make do with what was available without going to the grocery store. (And dad had the car anyway because he was the main provider then.) Although when the box mix for a quick pizza came available, that was a treat.
I guess we ate “poverty meals” but felt we were good enough off to buy ice cream, though mom made plenty of cookies, no boxed ones for us except Oreos - once in a great while.
Plus, we knew that there were poorer, and less advantaged kids in the community but the church communities took care of them in dire times. The general small community I grew up in, rural+town, helped each other and definitely “it took a community to raise the children”.
yes I ate poverty meals but thought they were great! We ate bologna sandwiches (NOTHING on it). My gram had the good stuff like candy or sugar cereal. Our house was bare bones.
Oh yeah, we did. My mom had. Great talent for pulling it off as a special dinner though, so we didn’t know that the grocery budget had run out. Creamed peas on toast was one, and pancakes was another one. She could make tons of pancakes for pennies and fill us all up. We all thought pancakes for supper was great.
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