What was your “pay-day” meal?
Our new staff member, Cindy Pirtle, sent this recently and I’d love to hear your feedback. (by the way…my apologies for the delays in responses to the last post. I just got to it and answered the question about the dill dip recipe!)
When I was growing up, we didn’t have a lot of money (of course, I didn’t know that at the time). I learned when it was getting close to pay day because of certain meals that I came to expect. Beans and rice, Salmon Croquettes (they were patties, I don’t know why Mom called them croquettes), Fried Spam and Potatoes. The memories make me shudder. I knew that if we had roast on Sunday, that we were having Hash on Monday. If Mom made meatloaf, the pound of ground round was stretched with bread crumbs, cracker crumbs and even oatmeal. A chicken dish one night was a chicken pot pie the next. Yet, Mom’s ingenuity with pinching pennies is what taught me how to C.O.S.T. cook years ago.
All of this came to mind this week when I was experimenting with a new recipe for Cornish game hens. My daughters stared at me and said, “It has bones.” You do realize that chicken nuggets and chicken strips and chicken patties have no bones. The first time my youngest had fried chicken, she actually called it “chicken with a bone.” HA! When I grew up, there were no other choices. Mom would boil a chicken and subdivide the meat for 4 meals. Is there a point to all this? Well, yes, I’m getting there. C.O.S.T. cooking and meal trails really do save you time and money. So let’s share so we can all save . . . tell me your favorite C.O.S.T. cooking meal or favorite meal trail. And don’t worry, I’m not trying to create a new recipe using spam! - Cindy
